A Thing Called Bokeh

Bokeh. It’s a Japanese word for the blurred out of focus areas in a photograph. Good bokeh has certain characteristics such as definable round shapes.  It is mostly found around highlight areas and places where specular highlights appear. Specular highlights are  pure white areas that usually appear when light is reflected off of a very shiny surface like chrome or a mirror. Controlling it important.  Certain lenses produce more or less bokeh. You usually see it with short or medium length telephoto lenses. Sometimes in macro lenses. Always with mirror telephoto lens that produce bokeh that looks like donuts.

It is an over used word today. Many photographers make pictures that are nothing but bokeh.  Just like I did. They think it’s something new. I don’t. I learned that an image should have a definable subject to make it interesting. But, every now and then a picture that has nothing but highlights and out of focus areas makes some kind of statement. But, it’s one of those things that really is depends on the eye of the beholder. I happen to like this picture. I like the circular shapes and very defined colored sections of the image.

You’ve seen this scene before. Remember the carriage, taxi and car? That’s it. Same scene. Same street. The red circles and shapes are tail lights. I’m not so sure about the bluish-white or gold colors. Different region of focus. More definition in the circle of confusion. To me, it makes a sort of artistic statement about light and night. If I were one of those photographers who blend multiple images, this picture would be a good background. But, I’m not that clever, Thankfully.

Oh. I forgot to mention. I was voted as one of Hub Pages rising stars. Thank you for voting.