The biggest challenge in achieving creamy bokeh in your shot is finding the balance between what is sharp and what is out of focus. There’s little or no separation between the foreground and background, and the lack of “layers” can make an image either uninteresting or overwhelming. Without bokeh, an image becomes flat or 2-dimensional. In order to see things as three dimensional, the human eye compares the foreground to the background of the subject, or what is in front and behind the subject. The easiest way to understand the aesthetic value of bokeh is to think about how a human eye naturally sees things: in the three dimensions of length, width and height. Bokeh is great for strengthening an image’s mood, creating a particular aesthetic using colours and flashes of light in the background or to “hide” unpleasing or crowded backgrounds. ![]() ![]() The background blur should appear soft and “creamy” with smooth round circles of light and no hard edges. A sharp subject contrasting against a soft, out-of-focus background gives the image depth by creating layers. It is the sweet girl in the dreamy forest, that slice of cake popping out from a table filled with sweets, or that wide-eyed kitten staring at you from a cosy lap. The beauty of bokeh is how it draws the viewer’s eyes to the subject. ![]() Technically speaking it is the out-of-focus, “blurry” parts of the image rendered by a camera lens – not the blur itself, or the amount of blur in the foreground or the background of a subject. It’s a Japanese word that literally translates to “blur” or “out of focus”. Pronounced “bo-kay”, the word propelled into use in the photography world in a 1997 issue of Photo Techniques magazine. Whether it’s online, in magazines or on YouTube, professionals and hobbyists alike have been sharing their thoughts on the subject since the first photos were taken, probably. Bokeh is one of the most popular topics in photography.
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