How to Obtain Maximum Bokeh
In photography, the term bokeh represents the magical out-of-focus blur that makes it look like the subject is isolated from the background. It is visually appealing for us to see a photograph with a soft, creamy and beautiful background. It helps concentrate our eyes on a single area and creates a sense of depth and dimension on an otherwise flat-looking image.
Let me share a few tips on how you could obtain maximum bokeh from your camera setup.
1) Use a large aperture
Bokeh is not created by the camera - it is your lens and its optics that are responsible for rendering the out-of-focus areas. Therefore, the first thing you should do is set your lens aperture to its lowest value, also known as "maximum aperture". You can do this by changing your camera mode to "Aperture Priority" and setting the "f" number to the lowest value your camera will permit. On Nikon DSLR cameras, this is typically done by rotating the front dial towards the left (counter-clockwise).
How to photograph children
Photographing children can sometimes be a challenging task, since children typically do not like posing for the camera (especially when they are too busy doing something they like). Everything happens way too fast, making it extremely difficult for the photographer to capture the moment. Because of that, many of us end up with blurry and out-of-focus photographs and wonder how we can improve our photography skills to get better results. After learning much about child photography, taking pictures of my two boys and doing some work on the field, I decided to write an article and provide tips and pointers on how you can successfully photograph children.
Powerful child portraits are much different than "look at the camera and smile" pictures. A true portrait will reflect a child's personality, energy and uniqueness that every one of the bundle of joys have.
What is Bokeh?
Bokeh, also known as "Boke" is one of the most popular subjects in photography. The reason why it is so popular, is because Bokeh adds depth and dimension to a photograph, making it visually appealing and forcing us to focus our attention on a particular area of the image. The word comes from Japanese, which literally translates as "blur".
1) What is Bokeh?
Basically, bokeh is the rendering of out-of-focus areas by a camera lens. It is the background blur that we are so used to seeing in photography, that separates a subject in the foreground from the often busy background. This subject isolation adds depth to an otherwise plain, two-dimensional photograph, pleasing our eyes and our perception of the image. Bokeh has infiltrated not only photography, but also motion picture. You might not have noticed, but next time you watch a Hollywood movie, pay attention to how they intentionally separate the main character and blur the background, so that we know where to look and focus our eyes on.
Bokeh
Nikon Lens Bokeh Performance
If you don't know what Bokeh is, I suggest reading an article here. Basically, bokeh is the rendering of out-of-focus areas by a camera lens. The tests on this page illustrate how bokeh is rendered by different Nikon lenses.
