eclecticbuzzard Posted March 29, 2011 Share Posted March 29, 2011 <p>Bokeh. Is it boke-ee, or boke-ay, or boke-eh?</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomscott Posted March 29, 2011 Share Posted March 29, 2011 <p>AFAIC it's out of focus area. :-)</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jay_de_fehr Posted March 29, 2011 Share Posted March 29, 2011 <p>Bow-Kay.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
photo5 Posted March 29, 2011 Share Posted March 29, 2011 <p><strong><em>Bucket</em></strong></p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigd Posted March 29, 2011 Share Posted March 29, 2011 <p>I say boh'-keh. It's a borrowing from Japanese; who knows how <em>they</em> pronounce it. Then again, I understand that they pronounce Nikon "knee'-cone", so obviously we in the USA are unconcerned with accurately pronouncing words from other cultures. Durn furriners ought'a just learn to speak English like normal people, after all.</p> <p>Maybe this should have been posted to Casual Photo Conversations?</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_barts2 Posted March 29, 2011 Share Posted March 29, 2011 <blockquote> <p><strong><em>Bucket</em></strong></p> </blockquote> <p>It's French, don't you know?</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Laur Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 <p>Beau-keh.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minhnguyen9113 Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 <p> Bo-care!!! :-)))</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve m smith Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 <blockquote> <p>we in the USA are unconcerned with accurately pronouncing words from other cultures. Durn furriners ought'a just learn to speak English like normal people</p> </blockquote> <p><br /><br />We think Americans should learn to speak English like English people!</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james_kennedy9 Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 <p>The Bok part rhymes with oak and the eh part rhymes with the first syllable of leather.</p> <p>or</p> <p>you can say "the degree to which the background out of focus regions are pleasing to the eye."</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gnashings Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 <p>English peepole? They don't even speak 'merkan proper ;) And apparently up ere we say aboot instead of about... even though in over two decades in Canada I have only heard that pronunciation on South Park... As far as bokeh goes, I find the majority of people who talk about it boring and pretentious so I generally tune them, and the myriad of ways they pronounce it, out. </p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_littleboy__tokyo__ja Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 <p>What James K. said*. Except for the minor detail that "bokeh" by itself just means out of focus. You have to add the kanji (Chinese character) that means flavor to the end to get "the degree to which it's pleasing" bit. And that character has (at least) two pronounciations (in Japanese): "mi" and "aji". And I've heard both "bokemi" and "bokeaji" in spoken Japanese. I think they're intentionally trying to make life hard for us furriners.</p> <p>*: Since the syllables in Japanese are "bo" and "ke", I'd never have thought to break it up that way, but it's a good description of the sounds.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve m smith Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 <blockquote> <p>And that character has (at least) two <strong>pronounciations</strong></p> </blockquote> <p><strong> </strong><br> That's not a word. Try <em>pronunciation</em> instead. Definitely not a good idea to mis-pronounce pronunciation!</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_littleboy__tokyo__ja Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 <p>Hmm. Spelling mistakes in a post about language. Almost a case of Muphry's Law. Almost.<br> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muphry's_law">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muphry's_law</a></p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomscott Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 <blockquote> <p>As far as bokeh goes, I find the majority of people who talk about it boring and pretentious so I generally tune them, and the myriad of ways they pronounce it, out.</p> </blockquote> <p>See first response.</p> <p>I pronounce Nikon the same way that Nikon pronounces it on their TV commercials, Nye-Kahn. If it works for them it works for me.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skygzr Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 <p>bo - ka' <em>n</em>. - A fuzzy definition of a blurry topic. Often used to convince people that buying new lenses will make their pictures better (see: <strong>magic bullet</strong>).</p> <p>All fun (mostly) aside, my 85mm Jupiter 9 gives up the blur in a major way. Can't wait till they start giving away full frame DSLRs in cereal boxes so I can really see what that baby will do. </p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gnashings Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 <p>I think Nikon, like many companies, is quite happy to have their name pronounced any 'ole way the people who pay them want to pronounce it:) In Poland, where the phonetic pronunciation of Nikon coincides with the (supposed) Japanese, the name is pronounced Knee-con. I am sure that if a buying market of several hundred million people existed that pronounced it Flibbity-floo, Nikon would be quite happy to do the same in their commercials aimed at that cash source:)<br> I just find "bokeh" to be like trying to make the infinitely repeatable machine output of a glorified ink-jet more palatable by calling it something fancy in, lets say, French... oh wait - they do that too:)</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luke_kaven Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 <p>It's pronounced like "broken" after you de-voice the "r" and "n".</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ridinhome Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 <p>Pronounced similarly to "bouquet" as in "This '94 Lafite has a wonderful bouquet...not quite as aesthetically pleasing as the bokeh on my '51 collapsible Summicron but acceptable..."</p> <p>Of course you have to be a bit of d****e bag to pull that off. If you can't you're better of refering to the bokeh as "the fuzzy bits."</p> <p> </p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael_chuang1 Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 <p>Like the bouquet of wine, eh ? Guess this explains the "Aroma" filters I found in the dollar bin at my favorite camera store.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
astral Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 <p>I just say <em>bouquet </em>- it's is particularly noticeable in close-up photos of flowers. However, I am wondering if <em>"oofa"</em> has any unintended meaning in any language . . . (<em>out of focus appearance</em>)?</p> <p>Sadly <em>oomph </em>doesn't easily lend itself to being a suitable acronym: I like lenses (and photos) that have <em>oomph!</em></p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaydesi Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 <p>Bokeh describes the character of out of focus <em>highlights</em>, not the entire out of focus area of an image. Out of focus non-highlights are just out of focus...ie, blurry. Highlights can be rendered as sharp circles, rings, or soft blur, thus allowing a comparison of quality from one lens to another.</p> <p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokeh">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokeh</a></p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stp Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 <p>Just remember to always shoot at f/22 and with nothing longer than 135mm and your problem with pronunciation should go away.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomscott Posted March 31, 2011 Share Posted March 31, 2011 <blockquote> <p>Bokeh describes the character of out of focus <em>highlights</em>, not the entire out of focus area of an image. </p> </blockquote> <p>I guess it depends on who you ask. According to www.dictionary.com:<br> bokeh: noun, a <strong>Japanese</strong> term for the subjective aesthetic quality of the out of focus area of a photographic image.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob_miller4 Posted March 31, 2011 Share Posted March 31, 2011 <p>The ambiguity in pronunciation and meaning is part of this word's charm. Since it relates somehow to out of focus stuff, it should be ambiguous!</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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