Tips for getting a killer Bokeh

Jason Hermann

Bokeh describes the rendition of out-of-focus points of light. Bokeh is different from sharpness in that sharpness is what happens at the point of best focus. Bokeh is what happens away from the point of best focus.

Bokeh describes the appearance, or “look,” of the out of focus areas in the image and is not how far something is out-of-focus, but simple the character of whatever blur is there. The Characteristics of the bokeh vary from lens to lens depending on a number of factors. Optical Quality etc.. More info Here on lenses etc....


Now for some tips to get get some Killer Bokeh:

1. A nice large aperture lens such as f/1.8 will make the job easier. The "Thrifty Fifty" is a affordable 50mm f/1.8 lens. More info on Aperture in this tutorial: Understanding Aperture >>
2. Set your camera wide open ( ex. f/1.8 on the canon 50mm f/1.8 lens)
3. A Full Frame camera like the Canon 5D mark II or the Nikon D700 have bigger sensors and make it easier to get a Bokeh than a Crop Factor camera like the Canon 7D or Nikon D90 for ex. More on Crop factors and what they mean in this tutorial: Crop Factor Explained >>>
4. Get close to your subject.
5. Have your background as far from your subject as necessary to achieve your desired Bokeh. Sometimes it can be to far!!
6. If you’re using a zoom lens, take advantage of that focal length and zoom in close to your subject to get maximum bokeh.
7. Backgrounds matter!! Chose several different backgrounds to experiment with. Once you get a feel for your lens, stuff will jump out at you as a "cool bokeh subject". Lights, Candles, and Fall foliage are some of my favorite background elements for a killer Bokeh.
8. To test out your lenses bokeh on any given scene, just simple switch to manual focus and go out of focus.
9. A few lenses worth checking out that can produce outstanding bokeh:
   • 50mm f/1.8 lens
   • Nikon 50mm f/1.2
   • Nikon AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G Lens
   • Nikkor 85mm f/1.8D Lens
   • Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM Lens
   • Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM Lens
   • Canon EF 135mm f/2L Lens
   • Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II Lens
   • Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM Lens
   • Sony SAL-70200G Zoom AF 70-200mm f/2.8 APO G(D) SSM Autofocus Lens

Here's 2 images below. The 1st is shot at f/1.4 and has a very nice smooth creamy Bokeh. The second image however was shot at f/10. Large Aperture (f/1.4) vs Small Aperture (f/10). Both images where taken with the Sony a55 and the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC Lens.

With a decent Bokeh - Sony a55 with the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC @ f/1.4


Bad Bokeh - Sony a55 with the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC @ f/10

Below are few examples using the tips from above Please feel free to share yours if you want!

Sony a55 with the Sony 70-200mm f/2.8 lens @ f/2.8, 180mm, 1/100sec, ISO 1600, Hand Held


Chubs Christmas Time - Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 135mm f/2 L - 1/125sec @ f/2, ISO 1600


Sadie Christmas Time - Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 135mm f/2 L @ f/3.2, 1/125sec, ISO 2000 - Really Dark Hand Held


My Niece - Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 135mm f/2 L @ f/2, 1/640sec , ISO 640


Glasses at the bar - Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 135mm f/2 L @ f/2, 1/60sec , ISO 1250


Sony a55 with the Sony 70-200mm f/2.8 lens @ f/4, 180mm, 1/640sec, ISO 100, Hand Held

Original Article:

Best Tips for Creating Bokeh with your Camera and Lens | JHPVideoTutorials.com

Best,

Jay

Sam

Jason,

I just wanted to thank you for your continued tutorial efforts. Well done and simple to understand. I am sure many are learning a lot from your work.

OH...I love the shot of the two dogs with the rope! clap

Sam

catspaw

lovely! wish I'd found as thorough and excellent explanation when I first got back into photography a bunch of years ago. I had to use wikipedia to explain it to me :P

Jason Hermann

Thanks Guys I figured some that are new to photography might benefit from this in some way shape or form

Best,
Jay

redleash

Great tutorial, Jason! It is especially useful to give us a list of good lenses for the bokeh effect. Sample images with their settings are the most help of all--thanks!

Lauren

FlyNavy

Well done!

Peace

Zeiss 50mm f 1.4 ze planar t
Well done indeed. Good information you have here sir!!

I do think the Carl Zeiss 50mm f 1.4 ze planar t is another good lens to work with as well. I have bought one and Love it on my Canon T3i. Here is just a sample of one. I like the way it produces Bokeh - its a little different and unique.

Just wanted to share...
1/1600 at f1.4 ISO 100

Redfax

Uh... I feel i'm going against the grain here, but given my understanding of what Bokeh is, those look like a mixture of bad-to-mildly good bokeh. Note how the circles of confusion are sharply defined (neutral bokeh) or even have brighter rings around them (bad bokeh). This is typical of modern lens designs which have very little uncorrected spherical aberration. Aspherical elements also tend to worsen things in this particular regard (but this was not determined scientifically).

The one exception is the Zeiss pic Peace posted, which has actually good Bokeh. Oh and the toned B&W of the cute kid, but it could also be that the photo was smooth to begin with. The 135 in general is probably on the good side of neutral.
This one is also very good http://www.pbase.com/lance_b/image/86368196.jpg

Lenses that have good bokeh behind the focus plane usually have good bokeh in front, and vice versa. This is why Nikon came out with the DC lenses to move the good bokeh area around depending on what's needed.
Neutral lenses on the other hand tend to stay neutral.

From an engineering perspective, the design goal is neutral bokeh, while artistically it depends. The pictures of the dog would probably be less interesting without the sparkling circles.

Qarik

Also notice the shape of the bokeh..the more aperture blades you have, or the more rounded your aperture blades are, the more spherical your bokeh will be..which tends to be desirable aesthetically. Look at the pictures of the dog in front of the 2 different christmas tree light patterns, the red lights show a smooth round bokeh vs the yellow light which are octagons. The octagons clearly show the aperture shape due to the blades..this may smooth out if the aperture were wider.

bobmielke

I loved controlled depth of field where you want to separate the subject in the foreground from the distracting background. There is more than one way to achieve this. The obvious way is in camera with fast glass. Sometimes circumstances don't put us in a perfect scenario. We may not have the right lens or background to accomplish what we want.

Post processing will allow an alternative method to make what might be considered a snapshot into something more interesting. He's my example, replacing the background with a Gaussian blurred stack of hay bales for the window outside a McDonald's restaurant.

D90, 80mm, F/10, 1/400", ISO 200

Jason Hermann

Thanks for all the comments

Jay