Photography is beautiful and a lot of people love it. However, not many of them know the key to clicking good pictures. Keeping in mind the aesthetics of photography is important when you click a picture. This, on a large scale, can include bokeh and many other aspects revolving around an image.
Thus, this means that bokeh is an important part of clicking pictures. The photeeq bokeh and everything in association with it must be given a lot of importance. On top of that, the bokeh background and the image background are also important. Plus, the lens in association with it is interesting, too.
Why is a Better Camera Important?
Many people ask if buying more expensive gear improves their photography. To this, one can say that better gear does help take better pictures. However, what does “better pictures” mean? Is it about quality, color, or composition?
Having a better camera can lead to better photo quality. However, it is extremely essential to prioritize the story your photo tells over technical aspects. Therefore, before investing in an expensive camera, consider developing your photography skills. This is to be done for a more impactful result.
What is Photography?
Photography is defined to be a personal expression. This is mainly centered around capturing a moment and crafting a distinctive piece of art that narrates a story. This is good for leaving lasting memories. However, is that all there is to it? One cannot believe so.
This is because you can still create art with your smartphone. You can also create it with an entry-level camera or a pricier one. The choice extensively depends on your goals. The approach differs, whether it is a hobby or a path towards professionalism and earning money.
About Bokeh
The Bokeh effect is defined as a common technique used in photography. This is where one element of the image is intentionally blurred. The emphasis is placed on certain points of light in the background, with the bokeh appearing as a backdrop to the focal area.
The subject remains clear and in focus while the background is blurred. That too, with brilliant points of light helping achieve ‘good bokeh.’ If someone were to say: “that image has good bokeh,” then it would mean that they would generally be referring to the aesthetic quality of an image’s background blur.
What is the Origin of The Word ‘Bokeh’?
The word “Bokeh” comes from the Japanese word boke (暈け or ボケ). This means ‘haze’ or ‘blur’. The ‘h’ was introduced to help English speakers pronounce the word correctly which is BO – KEH. The official definition translates as: “the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light.”
Why Use Bokeh Effect?
In photography, the use of bokeh backgrounds is highly effective. Especially in drawing the viewers’ eyes to the focal point of the image. The soft and smooth blur creates pleasing out-of-focus areas with no distractions. This is effectively good in conveying an image’s beauty. It’s commonly used in portraits and wildlife photography.
The bokeh can be achieved by using a shallow depth of field. It can also be achieved with shooting with a wide-open aperture. However, creating bokeh effect photos that convey your artistic message requires excessive practice and study. With time, the bokeh effect, whether it is created when shooting or afterward in your editing software, will have a significant impact on your images.
How to Select A Lens With Bokeh In Mind?
Before you go out and buy lenses, it is important for you to know which ones are recommended for taking the types of images you want to capture. For example, a shallow depth of field allows you to make a single object your point of focus while everything distant from that focal point becomes blurred. Most lenses that allow for this have a low f-stop.
This is known to be a number that refers to how wide open or closed the aperture of your camera lens is. One must think of the aperture as the pupil of your eye. The wider open it is, the more light it allows in. This is done at the cost of depth of field. The more narrow the aperture, the more depth of field you’ll have on display, with far less bokeh.
What Should One Do To Create Beautiful Images With High-Quality Bokeh?
To create many beautiful images with high-quality bokeh, you will want lenses that have low f-stops. For the maximum bokeh, you would want lenses that have the ability to stop to 1.2 or 1.4. Longer focal lengths, whether they are in the zoom or prime lenses, can help you to maximize bokeh. If more bokeh is your aim, consider a lens focal length of 70 mm and higher.
What is the Difference Between Bokeh and Portrait Mode?
Portrait mode is usually known to be built into your phone or camera. It is known to be a setting that captures someone in a portrait-style image. This is where the subject is in focus and the background is blurred. However, just blurring the background does not achieve bokeh. This is known as an artificial bokeh effect.
To achieve the bokeh effect in the background, the photographers set their lens aperture/opening to its maximum f-stop. They will also go ahead and leave it wide open and in selective focus mode. The lens will then only focus on the immediate subject in front of it. This will, therefore, blur the background. This helps create the bokeh effect when taking a portrait photo.
What Tools to Use For Achieving The Bokeh Effect?
Adobe Lightroom is known to be a photo editing tool that makes the creation of beautiful bokeh effects in post-production easy. One can use it on their desktop to professionally edit images. One could also download the Bokeh effect app to amend on the move. This is to be done thoroughly, whether shooting with your mobile or a DSLR camera.
The Field Blur filter allows you to set a focal point in the image. They also help to create varying levels of blur and focus in other parts of the photo. Therefore, play around with it and see what kinds of blurred bokeh backgrounds you can create. If you did not capture bokeh on your phone the first time, then you must amend your images with ease afterward.
Can One Control Bokeh Directly?
You can also control the bokeh directly. The Field Blur filter has a bokeh color slider. You can use this to modify and thus alter the color and intensity of the bokeh in your image. Go ahead with experimentation, as it is known to be the path to success.
Therefore, as you go on experimenting with bokeh, you will discover plenty of different options and arrangements. Thus, make sure you are out there and thoroughly explore, after which you can start developing your own unique photographic style.
How Does Shutter Speed, Aperture and Positioning Affect Bokeh?
For your experimentation with regard to the world of photography, you can start with a well-lit, static object. This can include the likes of a bowl of fruit, after which you can take trial shots, which will help you to figure out how to create the bookeh you want to see:
Shutter Speed
The shutter speed determines how long the shutter on your camera remains open to allow light to hit the film in your camera or its digital sensor. It is measured in seconds. Thus, a fast shutter speed might be 1/1,000 of a second versus a slow speed of a second.
Therefore, as you open up the aperture of your camera, you can increase the shutter speed to get crisper images. You can also experiment with f-stops in relation to shutter speed to see how your bookeh shifts and changes.
Aperture
The main mover and shaker for bokeh will be the depth of field you create with your aperture settings. Therefore, you must experiment thoroughly with those f-stops and see what you come up with.
Positioning
The proximity of the camera to the subject and to the designated subject’s background will all affect the bokeh. Therefore, you must try taking shots of the subject from different distances and with the subject at varying distances from their surroundings. This should be done to see how it changes the bokeh your lens produces.
Focus
What you choose as your focal point will alter the focal plane. Thus, you must try focusing on different parts of the subject. You must also try snapping pictures and seeing how everything comes out.
Also, you need to turn off the autofocus point selection. “You want to determine what to focus on in the frame yourself instead of letting the camera choose,” says photographer Khara Plicanic. “It can make a huge difference.”
Conclusion
Thus, this is all you need to know about bokeh. Photography is very beautiful. If you can do it in the right way, then it can get more pretty and for everyone, especially the viewers. Thus, get along with it properly.
FAQs
Is the maintenance of bokeh while clicking a picture important?
Ans: Yes.
Is a good camera important for photography?
Ans: Yes.
Is focus important for maintaining a good picture?
Ans: Yes.
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