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The Bokeh thread.

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I personally like the bokeh in the OP. Each to their own.
A lot of the bokeh in here I wouldn't consider real "bokeh". It's just macro bokeh.
 
Originally posted by: IeraseU
Personally I tend to favor the bokeh produced by telephoto lenses. Here is one sample at 150mm. The EXIF should be intact.



Sample
Click to expand...

Well it's obviously a lot easier for lenses to have good bokeh if they are telephoto...there isn't as much stuff in the viewing angle
 
Looks like this has become the 'share your bokeh shots' thread 😛 so here's my contribution:

1
2
3

Some people find light halos like the one in #2 distracting, but it seems like I've met an equal amount of people who actually like them. Just goes to show how subjective of a topic bokeh is.
 
Thanks, DrPizza. I love the praying mantis pic. I tried shooting some bug photos the other day (granddaddy long-legs) and couldn't get any to come out sharp enough, the darn things just wouldn't cooperate. 🙁
 
I spent a good hour with that praying mantis, I was only really satisfied with 2 of the pictures. Not that I got a lot, like you said, they don't hold still. And, he seemed to realize that his color contrasted a bit with the rose - he didn't want to be there.
 
One of my jobs is to take mug shots of Vestry members for the "Rogue's Gallery" at church. This is a case where bokeh is very much desired so that the background is fuzzy but the face is clear. This was with a EOS 5D, and the24-102mm lens wide open at f/4 and ISO 100 - open shade.

Mug
 
There are some good, and bad examples here... Bokeh is pretty subjective, but.... It's really not just showing off a limited depth of field, or creating a substantial out of focus area around the subject. Bokeh is how that out of focus area is managed and display. It's a quality to it, not just it's existence. Good bokeh keeps the background highlights from distracting from the subject.. More often than not, it mutes or softens the background to form very even, low contrast flows or blends of colors and objects... Often soft, or silky background appearances... Even a lens with potentially good bokeh can give a shot with bad bokeh if the photographer does manage the background or foreground properly. This is where previewing with the DOF button, or at least understanding your lens and depth of field performance helps...

However, all that said, what I like, you may not like, and the other way around... That old beauty is in the eye of the beholder...

I'll be the first to say I'm not that great of a photographer, and quite often struggle with the patience required to make a good photograph, instead of a "pretty picture"... So, I don't have any especially good examples to share... But, it would be unfair to say there are good an bad without showing my feeble attempts up to this point...

Bokeh that I like.... The photo is beyond noisy and can use some serious help in that area, but it was an ISO 1600 shot indoors handheld with a 100mm lens... But it's an example of smooth transitions from focus to out of focus, no highlights, etc...
http://i206.photobucket.com/al...flowers/drip3_crop.jpg

No bokeh... 🙂 Which in of itself can be good... Any wider aperture lens, especially macro types that can give good subject isolation... The absence of bad bokeh can be a good thing...
http://i206.photobucket.com/al...so/Misc/white_crop.jpg

I don't seem to have many good examples of good bokeh in my shots posted online yet.. Guess I'll take this as a personal challenge to come up with some.. 😉

Anyway, liked a lot of the photo's previously shared... Even if not always good examples of bokeh... 😉

 
my favorite bokeh shot i took - canon 70-300IS w/30d

i purposely put the green tree foliage far behind her as i kept shooting at 5fps while she blew dandelions,

i not only got lucky and caught a solitary seed flying off, but i got lucky with the way her breath came out of lighter parts of the tree foliage. no manips here - just curves, cropping, NR and slight green saturation.

http://athos.smugmug.com/photos/73406964_nWgNL-L.jpg




 
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