Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/12/28
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]> Martin Howard wrote: > >>>>>>Yeah, but what if a smooth background enhances the appearance of focal plane > sharpness? Or 'three-dimensionaltiy'? All of a sudden it becomes quite > interesting, n'est pas?<<<<<< Ted replied: > > Oui mon ami! However! :-) > > Only to people who may know the difference and 99.999999% of the people in the > world don't know a good, bad or ugly photograph when they see them! :-) And a > photo editors or certainly a great number I've worked with who thought the were > photo editors were visually challenged and wouldn't know a bokeh from a pokeh in > the eye! ;-) > ted Ted. Yes I agree that 99.9999999% of the people would not know a bokeh from a pokeh if it jumped up and hit them on the head. But I think that the word, Bokeh, for out-of-focus portion of a picture, was developed by Japanese photographers. Many people seem to be thrown by the word itself, but, I think we can all agree that out-of-focus areas of a picture can create a beautiful and interesting effect. Out-of-focus is used widely in feature films, television commercials, still photos for advertising and even some humble LUGers. Bokeh is merely a word to describe the quality of the out-of-focus area. There are several photographers on the LUG whose holy grail is the perfect Bokeh and one of the best is Stephen Holloway. Take a look at http://www.deepturtle.com/steve/photos/london/24.html You will see his wonderful control of focus to generate a most arresting picture where you on first looking at it your eyes zero in on the smiling face of the pretty young woman. The man she is talking to is out of focus as is everything behind her. Also in the background are blurred, way-out-of-focus lights that give off a pleasing look, (Bokeh?). The whole point to Bokeh is to focus the viewers eyes on a portion of a photograph and to create a pleasing effect. Bokeh is a wide spread effect in many photo mediums even though most of do not recognize it for what it is. IMHO. Steve Annapolis