Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/07/11

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Subject: RE: [Leica] Bokeh'm somebody
From: "Juan J. Buhler" <jbuhler@pdi.com>
Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2001 20:44:46 -0700 (PDT)

On Wed, 11 Jul 2001, Rodgers, David wrote:

> > http://www.flarg.com/bokeh.html<<
> 
> It's a very nice photograph. Interesting, too. 

:-)

[just in case someone is not paying attention, that's not a photograph
but a rendering of a bunch of geometric primitives]


> I shouldn't make light of bokeh. There's probably something to it. It's just
> not important to me. I don't want to be concerned with things like out of
> focus rendering when I look at an image. I didn't notice it when I didn't
> know a word for it. Now that I know the word, I still don't notice it. 
> 
> It's bad enough right now that when I look at a b/w print I wonder first
> about things like, "the DMAX could be better", or "The highlights are a
> little washed out", or "it's a little soft". Who knows, maybe that's what
> the photographer wanted in the first place. I want to get back to viewing a
> photograph from an emotional level. I don't see how subtle changes in out of
> focus areas will affect me viscerally. 

I kind of agree with that. Bokeh is just another technical concept
that is interesting to talk about. It can be bad and distracting yes,
but cannot make for a good picture alone, just as focus or dmax or
printing alone cannot either (doh.) When I look at *my* pictures I
usually don't think about focus or dmax or bokeh, but say things like
"I should have gotten closer" or "what the hell was I thinking" or
even "I think Americans should play more soccer."

j

- --
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 Juan J. Buhler | Sr. FX Animator @ PDI | Photos at http://www.jbuhler.com
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