What Is Bokeh
In photography, bokeh is the blur, in out-of-focus areas of an image, or “the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light.” Differences in lens aberrations and aperture shape cause some lens designs to blur the image in a way that is pleasing to the eye, while others produce blurring that is unpleasant or distracting— “good” or “bad” bokeh, respectively. Bokeh occurs for parts of the scene that lie outside the depth of field. Photographers sometimes deliberately use a shallow focus technique to create images with prominent out-of-focus regions.
Bokeh is often most visible around small background highlights, such as specular reflections and light sources, which is why it often associated with such areas. However, bokeh is not limited to highlights, as blur occurs in all out-of-focus regions of the image.[Source: Wikipedia]
How to use the Bokeh photography technique
Although difficult to quantify, some lenses enhance overall image quality by producing more subjectively pleasing out-of-focus areas. Good bokeh is especially important for large-aperture lenses, macro lenses, and long telephoto lenses because they are typically used with a shallow depth of field. Bokeh is also important for medium telephoto “portrait lenses” (typically 85–150 mm on 35-mm format) because in portraiture photography, the photographer typically seeks to obtain a shallow depth of field to achieve an out-of-focus background and make the subject stand out.
Instruction to take a Bokeh photo:
1. Bokeh usually works best when taking an up close picture of your subject, try finding a subject with nice clear lighting that you are able to get a good close up of.
2. Slightly unfocus your lens so that the image is now softly blurred. The image background will be significantly blurred, but try keeping the foreground image, your subject, recognizable.
3. Set your exposure time according to the amount of light present.
4. Now set your aperture to a lower f-stop number so that the aperture is opened wider. Having the aperture on a wide setting will help keep the picture in soft focus.
5. Look into your viewfinder and inspect the frame for any sharp lines or clear details in the background, this is not wanted in a Bokeh picture.
6. Now take your pictures. [source: Ehow]
