Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/08/23

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Subject: [Leica] Re: Bokeh
From: Bill Laidley <laidley@direct.ca>
Date: Sun, 23 Aug 1998 09:21:33 -0700

In reading a recent digest of posting, I noted that questions about
Bokeh
had been posted, with the usual response of 'locate a copy of Photo
Technique'.
Out of curiosity I did a search on 'bokeh', and got five pages of
results.
On the last page of results I found this link -
'http://fox.nstn.ca/~hmmerk/'. 
The next paragraph is a quote from this page...

>The May/June 1997 issue of PHOTO Techniques covered the subject of "bokeh." 
>Bokeh is simply a transliteration of a Japanese word that means "out-of-focus 
>blur. There are three articles in the issue: "What is Bokeh?" By John Kennerdell,
>"Notes on the Terminology of Bokeh," by Oren Grad and "A Technical View of Bokeh," 
>by Harold Merklinger. The... issue can be acquired as a back issue by calling 
>1-847/647-2900 ext. 322, 323, or 324, and asking for the Preston Publications
>Circulation Department. You can download a PDF version of "A Technical View of 
>Bokeh," from the All PDF and MOV files page.

Harold Merklinger has put his article on the web in PDF format. You will
need
a copy of Adobe Reader to read it.

The article is interesting. Harold did his testing using a view camera,
so his
major technique is not available to a Leica user (he inserted alternate
apertures
into the lenses tested). The results are interesting in that they point
out two
aspects of bokeh. The first aspect is optical, and deals with the degree
of
spherical aberration and focus planes. The second aspect which he
proposes is
physiological - visual illusions due to our perception of contrasting
colours.

- -- 
Bill Laidley 
EDI and Electronic Commerce Consulting

Voice: (604) 434-8576
E-mail: laidley@direct.ca