Forgot Password
Pentax Camera Forums Home
 

Reply
Show Printable Version Search this Thread
  #1
52-7-28- Perpestive - Bokeh or Beautiful Blur
Posted By: scomatic, 07-22-2015, 07:27 PM

Welcome to PROJECT 52-7 for the year 2015.

PROJECT 52-7-28- Perpestive - Bokeh or Beautiful Blur

Images for Project 52-7-28 are to be taken between the 21July 2015 Tuesday and 28 July 2015.

Rules
1. Anyone and everyone interested in the challenge is eligible. The goal continues to be have fun and share comments, concepts, insights, and techniques
with fellow Pentaxians.
2. Each week will feature a Theme and Sub-concept for you to explore.
3. Post your single picture in Project 52-7 thread for the week. Explain what motivated you to take the picture and/or how you feel it represents the weekly
theme.
4. Some post-processing is OK (adjusting white balance, exposure, color saturation), but let's try to stay away from heavily PP'ed images here. Try to
keep the creativity to photographic techniques and the captures themselves.
5. Since this project is about technique, and not camera, shots taken by non Pentax cameras are allowed.Cameras may be SLRs, DSLRs, Point & Shoot,
Medium Format, et cetera.
6. There is one “Theme Concept” labeled “black and white,” but feel free to post black and white, sepia, monotone, etc., for any of the other themes.
7. The picture you post should be taken during the week in which the theme is active to be eligible for judging.
8. Any picture taken from thread start date to listed closing date is acceptable. You may request to submit a photo outside of the time frame, but its
acceptance is dependent on the judge of the week. Please try and keep to within a day or two (either way) of the week. This is to make allowances for
those that would like to participate, but for one or other reason, are not able to do so during the time given for the challenge, such as illness, weather,
travelling etc.
9. The WINNER of each weekly challenge is the JUDGE of the next week's Project 52-7
10. JUDGE may participate the challenge, but the picture of JUDGE will be comment by 2nd and 3rd WINNER, and there is no podium place for JUDGE's picture. *** New Rules ***
11. The Facilitator (in this case scomatic) may participate in the challenge, provided he/she is not the judge.
12. Closing date for the challenge is Monday at midnight in your time zone, this will encourage people to snap the picture during weekend and post it up on next days. Late entries are accepted but subject to the acceptance by the current weeks JUDGE. ** Amendment **

JUDGE need to provide either with Option A or Option B or Both AB options criteria when during JUDGEMENT *** New Rules ***:

OPTION A (Just provide 1-10 point on each criteria and average out is the overall point)
Technical criteria
- Exposure Focus/sharpness
- Colour and/or tonal rendition
- Contrast
- Lighting

Visual and aesthetic criteria
- Framing and choice of viewpoint
- Background
- Design elements and principles
- Visual impact

Content
- Emotion / Mood /Feeling
- Relevance

Viewer’s response
- Excitement
- Interest

OPTION B (Good / Bad comment)
Example:
the good: Composition is perfect, I like your lighting. blah blah blah
the bad: I think leveling the horizon would be better, the blown out highlights on top left are distracting to me. blah blah blah.


Introduction:
Bokeh comes from the Japanese word boke (ボケ), which means "blur" or "haze", or boke-aji, the "blur quality." Bokeh is pronounced BOH-Kə or BOH-kay.
Visit any photography website or forum and you’ll find plenty of folks debating the pleasing bokeh that their favorite fast lenses allow. Adjectives that describe bokeh include: smooth, incredible, superb, good, beautiful, sweet, silky, and excellent… but what exactly is it?
Bokeh is defined as “the effect of a soft out-of-focus background that you get when shooting a subject, using a fast lens, at the widest aperture, such as f/2.8 or wider.” Simply put, bokeh is the pleasing or aesthetic quality of out-of-focus blur in a photograph.
Although bokeh is actually a characteristic of a photograph, the lens used determines the shape and size of the visible bokeh. Usually seen more in highlights, bokeh is affected by the shape of the diaphragm blades (the aperture) of the lens. A lens with more circular shaped blades will have rounder, softer orbs of out-of-focus highlights, whereas a lens with an aperture that is more hexagonal in shape will reflect that shape in the highlights.

Achieving Bokeh in Your Images
To achieve bokeh in an image, you need to use a fast lens—the faster the better. You’ll want to use a lens with at least an f/2.8 aperture, with faster apertures of f/2, f/1.8 or f/1.4 being ideal. Many photographers like to use fast prime lenses when shooting photographs that they want visible bokeh in.
You’ll want to shoot with the lens wide open, so you’ll want to use a shooting mode of Aperture Priority or Manual. Manual gives you the ability to choose both your aperture and shutter speed, whereas Aperture Priority allows you to choose the f/stop while the camera chooses the appropriate shutter speed for the exposure. You could also use the Flexible Program mode, choosing the widest possible aperture/shutter speed combination.
Don't worry if you don't own a very fast lens. By increasing the distance between the background and your subject, you can see bokeh in images that are shot at smaller apertures like f/8.
To increase the likelihood of visible bokeh in your photographs, increase the distance between your subject and the background. You can do this by decreasing the distance between the camera and subject. The more shallow the depth-of-field, or further the background is, the more out-of-focus it will be. Highlights hitting the background will show more visible bokeh too, so if you’re using a backlight, side light or a hair light, the bokeh may be more pleasing to the eye.
The most photographed subjects showing nice examples of bokeh are portraits. Close-up portraits show bokeh very well. Close-up and macro images of flowers and other objects in nature are also popular subjects to photograph that shows off bokeh in the image. An often-photographed subject that is an extreme example of bokeh is photographing a grouping of holiday lights or other highly reflective objects. When purposely photographed out-of-focus, these normally harsh or bright objects become soft, pastel, diffused orbs of glowing light.
Bokeh can add softness to an otherwise brightly lit photograph. Using this technique to separate your subject from the background can also allow you to utilize a not-so-photogenic background in your image—but because of its diffused blur, it helps to “highlight” the subject, not detract from it.


Good and Bad Bokeh

So, what is a good or beautiful bokeh? A good bokeh pleases our eyes and our perception of the image and therefore, the background blur should appear soft and “creamy”, with smooth round circles of light and no hard edges. Here is an example of beautiful bokeh rendered by the Nikon 85mm f/1.4D lens:
Pay attention to the smooth background behind the child’s face. The out-of-focus areas look creamy and the circles are round and soft with beautiful transitions between the blurry areas. That’s exactly what you would call good bokeh!




How about bad or ugly bokeh? Although a lot of people argue that there is no such thing as a bad bokeh, I still call whatever distracts my eyes “bad”:
Open up the larger version of the above image and see for yourself – the quality of the blur is not pleasant to the eye, with sharp edges of the circles and double lines.



4 simple tips to achieving better bokeh:
How to Achieve Better Bokeh - 4 Simple Tips - Digital Photography School


Example of outstanding bokeh photo:






















Enjoy your photograph of this week ya
Views: 5,091
07-23-2015, 02:15 PM - 1 Like   #2
Forum Member
GrimWolf's Avatar

Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: Hertfordshire
Photos: Albums
Posts: 87
Here's a shot from the Cambridge University botanical garden, best luck i have had with bokeh so far, will change if I can get better :-)
Attached Images
View Picture EXIF
PENTAX K20D  Photo 
07-24-2015, 12:11 PM   #3
New Member




Join Date: May 2015
Posts: 14
DQ'd myself for not reading the rules..

Last edited by marcus.grove85; 07-24-2015 at 04:16 PM.
07-25-2015, 08:53 AM   #4
Senior Member




Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 211
QuoteOriginally posted by marcus.grove85 Quote
DQ'd myself for not reading the rules..
Tsk tsk, how could you...

No, seriously, welcome to the forum. And feel free to try again

07-25-2015, 11:54 AM   #5
Site Supporter
Site Supporter




Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: South Africa-Johannesburg
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 46,011
I happily echo those sentiments Marcus.grove85. Welcome to the Forum and Project 52 in particular.
07-26-2015, 06:02 PM - 1 Like   #6
Veteran Member




Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 472
Original Poster
my oldest camera in my cabinet... it's Soviet-built Smena (CMEHA) 35 mm camera

07-27-2015, 07:10 AM - 1 Like   #7
Forum Member




Join Date: May 2014
Location: Cincinnati
Posts: 65
A male Ruby-throated Hummingbird posturing. K-3 DFA 100mm WR.

Attached Images
 
07-27-2015, 10:43 AM   #8
Pentaxian
ChristianRock's Avatar

Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: People's Republic of America
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 9,897
I had to try out my new (to me) F50 1.7 to see what the bokeh looks like, and see if I can get some beautiful blur out of it It seems like it's up to the challenge, at least wide open.

07-27-2015, 01:39 PM - 2 Likes   #9
Site Supporter
Site Supporter




Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: South Africa-Johannesburg
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 46,011
Not much by way of bokeh for this week, so I'll go with this one.
07-27-2015, 03:26 PM - 2 Likes   #10
Senior Member




Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 211
Framed in Bokeh...
Attached Images
View Picture EXIF
PENTAX K-3  Photo 
07-27-2015, 06:48 PM   #11
New Member




Join Date: Jul 2015
Posts: 18
Playing with a new lens and some basil flowers before I pinched them off.

Last edited by photolady95; 07-28-2015 at 07:28 PM. Reason: Links not allowed. You need to copy the bbcode and paste in.
07-28-2015, 12:44 AM - 2 Likes   #12
Veteran Member
mtux's Avatar

Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: the Netherlands
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 2,444
I'm back!
Hopefully.

07-28-2015, 02:23 AM   #13
Veteran Member




Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 472
Original Poster
mtux...another super shot of insect photo..
07-28-2015, 10:47 AM - 1 Like   #14
Veteran Member




Join Date: Dec 2011
Photos: Albums
Posts: 579
Here's a try:




Taken with my newest lens acquisition, SMC Pentax M 50mm f4 macro at f8, 1/80 sec, ISO 200 on Pentax K-x.

Last edited by Bill2849; 07-28-2015 at 10:57 AM.
07-28-2015, 06:46 PM - 2 Likes   #15
Senior Member




Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Vancouver Island, BC
Photos: Albums
Posts: 238
Thought I would grab a picture from my garden - using K-5 and K50mm f1.2
Reason for this lens? Considering it for the single in challenge for August - it's one of my new aquisitions
Attached Images
View Picture EXIF
PENTAX K-5  Photo 
Reply

Bookmarks
  • Submit Thread to Facebook Facebook
  • Submit Thread to Twitter Twitter
  • Submit Thread to Digg Digg
Tags - Make this thread easier to find by adding keywords to it!
aperture, background, blah, bokeh, christmas, jpeg, judge, lens, out-of-focus, picture, post, project, subject
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Weekly Challenge WINNERS - Project 52 52-7-26-Natural - Street photography Dieterson Weekly Photo Challenges 4 07-21-2015 03:44 AM
Project 52 Winners Project 52 52-7-07-Ideas-Love Story patrick9 Weekly Photo Challenges 13 02-27-2015 07:01 PM
Winner: Challenge #133 - Beautiful Blur woof Weekly Photo Challenges 11 05-21-2010 02:10 PM
Challenge #133 - Beautiful Blur woof Weekly Photo Challenges 20 05-19-2010 04:51 AM
Bokeh Blur Measurement smcook99 Pentax SLR Lens Discussion 3 04-08-2010 02:50 PM



All times are GMT -7. The time now is 09:58 PM. | See also: NikonForums.com, CanonForums.com part of our network of photo forums!
  • Red (Default)
  • Green
  • Gray
  • Dark
  • Dark Yellow
  • Dark Blue
  • Old Red
  • Old Green
  • Old Gray
  • Dial-Up Style
Hello! It's great to see you back on the forum! Have you considered joining the community?
register
Creating a FREE ACCOUNT takes under a minute, removes ads, and lets you post! [Dismiss]
Top