Photo Challenge: Bokeh OR Shallow DOF shots (1 Viewer)

[La La]

it's bokeh time!!!! man, flickr has opened my eyes up to this awesome technique. have never mastered it (though i'm hoping to try this weekend with the camera moose kindly lent me).

here's an example from one of my flickr favourites.

go!

 

[billygannon]

Re: Photo Challenge: Bokeh

I took this a few years ago. Posted it up before too.

I think it's bokeh... isn't it?

 

[magicbastarder]

Re: Photo Challenge: Bokeh

flickr has opened my eyes up to this awesome technique

do you mean shallow depth of field?

 

[La La]

Re: Photo Challenge: Bokeh

I took this a few years ago. Posted it up before too.

I think it's bokeh... isn't it?

yes. and it's deadly.

do you mean shallow depth of field?

i guess so. i never understood what any of ye were harping on about - apertures here and ISOs there - until recently enough. it has been a long learning process for me. trawling through flickr and starting this course have kinda helped though.

 

[Space]

Re: Photo Challenge: Bokeh

Bokeh and shallow depth of field are two different things, although bokeh does incorporate a shallow depth of field. What Billy put up there isn't bokeh at least from what I understand of it anyhow or maybe it is and you just can't see teh background shapes. Bokeh involves using a card with a shape cut in it. Such as a circle like in this one:

or a star in this one by melekalikimaka(maybe uses a different username) off of here.

Bokeh is an adaptation from a a Japanese word meaning blur. In photography this term is used to describe the quality of the areas in the picture which are not in focus.

When referring to Bokeh, we can distinguish some of it characteristics:

- Is the light/dark gradient smooth or sharp?

- What shape will a small dot of light take what it is in the Bokeh area? (mirror lenses for example, create a bagel like Bokeh)

We can play with those two variant to create a special Bokeh.

You will need :

* One large aperture lens (a Canon 50mm F1.8 is used here)
* One sheet of black paperboard

1. Cut and shape the sheet to make a fake lens hood. The Diameter is made so that it snugly fits on the lens.
2. In the middle of the filter the wanted bokeh shape is cut out - in out example a heart is used. I’m not sure how big a hole the shape can be. But you can check it right away by just looking through the viewfinder. On the 50mm lens @ F1.8 a 15mm heart gives a metering value equal to F3.2, so it can probably be a little bigger.

3. Set your camera to its lowest aperture value (completely open).

from their page:

Dublin City Lights with Custom Bokeh on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

 

[La La]

Re: Photo Challenge: Bokeh

oooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

the bokeh reults on flickr (if you search for it) bring up a whole range of different things from pics that look like the one i posted to 'clearer' out of focus backgrounds like the one billy posted.

are you saying the pic with the bottle of wine was obtained by having a piece of cardboard with bits cut out of it in front of the lens? cos i find that hard to imagine...

but what do i know

 

[magicbastarder]

Re: Photo Challenge: Bokeh

some mirror lens bokeh:

that mirror lens was a bargain find; 350mm f5.6 tamron SP (i.e. semi-pro) lens, never used, for €75.

 

[billygannon]

Re: Photo Challenge: Bokeh

oooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

the bokeh reults on flickr (if you search for it) bring up a whole range of different things from pics that look like the one i posted to 'clearer' out of focus backgrounds like the one billy posted.

are you saying the pic with the bottle of wine was obtained by having a piece of cardboard with bits cut out of it in front of the lens? cos i find that hard to imagine...

but what do i know

I just used the Macro filter on my digital camera.

 

[magicbastarder]

Re: Photo Challenge: Bokeh

macro shots always have vanishingly small depth of field.

 

[billygannon]

Re: Photo Challenge: Bokeh

macro shots always have vanishingly small depth of field.

I have no idea what you are talking about. Totally out of my depth here.

 

[magicbastarder]

Re: Photo Challenge: Bokeh

depth of field = how much of what is in the frame in front of and behind the point of focus, is in focus itself. obviously, the closer it is to the point of focus, the sharper it is.

 

[La La]

ok, have slightly altered the thread title to broaden it out a bit seeing as bokeh appears to require a bit more ingenuity than I thought.

 

[Goff]

Depth of Field defines how much of an image is sharp. Shallow DOF would have a small amount in focus, with the rest blurred (think of a portrait and only the face being in focus). A landscape, however, will have more in focus (usually) indicating a higher DOF. You control it by setting your aperture. An aperture of f1.2 will have your nose in focus and very little else, whereas an aperture of f32 will have the whole image in focus.

How close you are to the subject will also affect this.

Bokeh is the quality of the blur, more or less. You don't need a piece of card cut-out. Just a better lens. Faking it like that is not really what a purist would think of as bokeh. But what would they know. It's all a bit wanky anyway. It's just a nice effect. Sometimes.

 

[pete]

Re: Photo Challenge: Bokeh

Bokeh and shallow depth of field are two different things, although bokeh does incorporate a shallow depth of field. What Billy put up there isn't bokeh at least from what I understand of it anyhow or maybe it is and you just can't see teh background shapes. Bokeh involves using a card with a shape cut in it. Such as a circle like in this one:

or a star in this one by melekalikimaka(maybe uses a different username) off of here.

from their page:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/melekalikimaka/2259247838/

don't think you need the card to do it. at least not according to my in depth research on the subject (wikipedia)

 

[magicbastarder]

 

[taubstumm]

 

[Goff]

Not sure I can explain this right, but I'll give it a blast.

If you have a "cheaper" lens, there's only be a few blades that open up and close down when you change the aperture. That's the little circle that allows the light in (right, I know most of you know that....). But if there are only a few blades, then that circle won't be a circle. It will be closer to a hexagon. So if you take a shallow depth of field pic, anything that might be circular, will have rougher edges.

But if you have a nicer lens, then the circle will be more perfect. Resulting in a cleaner image.

The mirror lens pic that Magic showed is good bokeh, as they say. Billy's ain't. But it's a lovely pic with a shallow depth of field that looks really well.

Whereas Bokeh is alright, it's not really necessary to understand it. BUT DOF is fairly important, if you want to control the image. And it's easy.

I usually use Aperture Priority on my camera. That means I only have to worry about how much I want in focus in my image. The camera can work out the rest. Most photographers (unless in the studio and using a medium format camera) will use AP.

TBH, I think it can all get a bit wanky and is a bit, "My dog's bigger than your dog". There's no doubt it can work really well. But it's not something I'd be mad on.

But that's me.

Hope this helps but I've probably confused myself as well....

 

[La La]

so if you want to try and get a more bokeh image, should you choose the AP/AV function and use a manual focus? or will that just give you a shallow dof image? sorry for all teh questions, but this subject piques my interest

 

[Goff]

There's no need for manual focus. The Aperture will sort it. And Auto-focus. But if the lens is cheap, then the bokeh won't be good. Manual focus is usually better though.

It's the quality of the blur. Like, you'll always have bokeh especially, with shallow depth of field. But there's good and there's bad bokeh.

Thing is, I think both are good. I think it's all about the image. Put another way, bad bokeh won't ruin a good shot. Just worry about the depth of field to control how much you want in focus. That's what makes an image.

 

[magicbastarder]

you should choose a large aperture/small aperture value - the smaller the aperture number, the larger the aperture (the value is the ratio of the length of the lens to the width of the aperture - e.g. an 80mm lens at f4 means the aperture opens to 20mm).

usually you would choose aperture in aperture priority or manual mode, and select the largest aperture available.