what does "bokeh" mean?

Ok, I have seen this alot lately. Forgive me, but I have no idea on

this one.

 

 

Andy

google bokeh and click on the first item

background blur.

 

<P>

 

some lenses are said to produce nicer bokeh than others. Usually it's

the faster lenses. This is the context bokeh is usually discussed in.

HMM, I thought it was some sort of abbrivation.

Thanks!

Historically, English speakers love to "borrow" words from other languages. Someday

bokeh will be on the tip of every American's tongue, proudly spoken along side other

adopted words such as karaoke, tomato and resumé! Until then, my American Hertitage

Dictionary will suffer a great void.

FYI: The American Heritage Dictionary may be the best looking dictionary ever, but if you want function you need to investigate the Oxford New American Dictionary 2nd Ed. Look up a few words like fyord, Bokeh (yes it is there), and a few others that are dear to you. I think you will like the definitions and the wording used in them much more than AHD. If you do this I would be interested in what you think.

Vote for Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary. Bob Atkins' site has a blurb explaining bokeh.

I only like the The American Heritage Dictionary because it installs on my Mac. I rarely

open the actual book. I had the Random House Unabridged but they didn't update the app

so it died with OS 9. But one can ever own too many dictionaries...

Japanese derivative. Boke-teru refers to being blurry or out of focus.

dictionary.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokeh

 

FWIW: I like www.onelook.com - It searches more than 5 million words in more than 900 online dictionaries.

 

--

I use the Oxford English Dictionary. I do not recommend the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary. My old copy was not even closed under cross referencing; you could look up a word and it would refer you to one which didn't appear in the Collegiate version. Terrible!

 

Jake, what is a fyord ?

<i>Jake, what is a fyord ?</i>

<p>

Perhaps it is a kind of cyar? ;-)

In Scandinavia "fyord" is used for fun to mean a word that is improper to use in a given situation. For example "Nikon" would be a fyord in the EOS-forum, and "human rights" would be a fyord in the Bush-administration.

<p> <i> </i> </p>

<p> <a href="http://photonotes.org/articles/beginner-faq/lenses.html#bokeh">http://photonotes.org/articles/beginner-faq/lenses.html#bokeh</a> <b></b> </p>

<p> <i> </i> </p>

<p> <a href="http://www.vanwalree.com/optics/bokeh.html">http://www.vanwalree.com/optics/bokeh.html</a> <b></b> </p>

<p> <i> </i> </p>

<p> <a href="http://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/sm-04-04-04.shtml">http://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/sm-04-04-04.shtml</a> <b></b> </p>

 

 

<p>Happy shooting, <br>

Yakim.</p>

Big Oops! "fyord" -> I meant "fjord".

<a href="http://members.aol.com/dcolucci/bokeh.htm">Bokeh Central</a>

Eh.........what did bokeh mean again? ;-)

unfocused..like this thread...

I think a photographer could go his/her whole life and not know what bokeh is. I have

never heard a photographer of any consequence actually discuss it and most don't know

what it is. Like an old tennis ball the dog's been chewiing on it's batted around the Leica

forum about once a week. Usually, somebody posts a picture and asks if it has bad bokeh?

The answer (they don't want to hear) is that no, it's just a bad picture. Stop blaming the

lens. Sorry--I'll try to relax and find my meds. :->)

It means "the quality of the out of focus image".

 

Some people are much more sensitive to this than others.

 

The first lens where I heard anyone discuss this (10-15 years ago) was the original Voigtlander Apo Lanthar, but in those days we used the term "quality of the out of focus image".

 

Lenses with REALLY LOUSY bokeh (wiry double images) do look nasty to me, but I have to confess that I've never looked at an image and said, "Wow! Nice bokeh!"

 

Cheers,

 

Roger (www.rogerandfrances.com -- recently revised!)

It's something to talk about when a photograph isn't interesting enough to generate any other discussion.

Yes, but for every photo with out-of-focus areas, you can almost always find someone who likes the <i>bokeh</i>... and also someone who does not. It is best IMO to decide yourself if you like it or not, and forget about asking others what they think!

I love Bokeh.

Basically it's the rendition of out-of-focus point of light (generally in the background). It comes from the japanese 'bo-ke' which mean 'fuzziness'. <p>He are some illustrations coming from Ken Rockwell's website.