Using bokeh actively in photographic composition

Many photographers are hooked up on focus, getting razor sharp rendering of their main subject. And many know the effectiveness of rendering the other parts of the photo out of focus to emphasize and draw even more attention to the main subject. But with just a little extra thought and awareness, these “other parts” can greatly enhance a photo. In this article, I will show you how.

What is bokeh?

Bokeh, derived from the japanese word boke, meaning blur or haze, has become an increasingly popular effect in the photographic world. The technique is not new, of course, although the term is relatively new.

When talking about bokeh, people often mean the circular shapes created by out-of-focus light-sources, as in the photo above. Indeed, for many, this is the most important aspect of bokeh. This is close to my personal preference as well, but it is important to point out that there is much more to bokeh. In fact, everything out-of-focus might be called bokeh, but in common use we usually don’t use the term for “almost-in-focus” areas.

Short DOF for bokeh

Using a short depth-of-field (DOF) is a common technique if you can’t control your background. If your subject is placed in front of a messy background, using a large aperture will then effectively remove so much detail in the background that it doesn’t compete with your subject for attention.

But using the same technique when you can control your background is a great way of getting the background to work with you rather than just not being a disturbance. Why? Because you can then “paint” a beautiful soft background for your subject.

Painting with bokeh

In this photo, I wanted a colorful background since the subject in itself takes up so little space in the photo. The background I had to work with was the rest of the bush this twig belonged to. But I found it to be too dark and monotone. What I did was bend some branches and twigs away and then I crouched down to get a lower point of view so that I got a glimpse of the sky through the bush, and also some green leaves from another bush. This enabled me to “paint” more colors into my background, resulting in a photo with more life.

Bokeh as your main attraction

Above, I used bokeh to achieve a more pleasing background for my subject, but the background was still subordinate to my real subject. But sometimes, bokeh in itself can be the main attraction. You can do this by not including a main subject, or you can choose a main subject that in itself is less interesting than the bokeh.

Not including a main subject can be risky. This probably means that your photo is lacking something that the viewer’s eyes may rest upon. Our brains like sharp focus. This is a result of the fact that our eyes focus on subjects to “rest” on them. If they cannot find focus, they will keep on searching until we get dizzy and close our eyes. (If you’ve ever tried on a pair of glasses that are not adjusted to your eyes, you will know the feeling.)

For this reason, it is generally wise to include something in your photo that the eyes may rest upon. This does not have to be large, and preferably not very interesting. The mere presence of something in-focus creates a more harmonious sensation.

Different bokeh with different lenses

How different lenses render bokeh vary greatly. You should try out all your lenses and see which of them creates the most pleasing bokeh. This is especially obvious when dealing with the kind of bokeh created by light-sources. Some lenses will create perfectly round bokeh circles, while others create octagons (this also depends on how large the aperture is).

Whether one is more beautiful than the other is of course a matter of taste, but it seems most people prefer round shapes. Learn the specifics of your lenses.

How to achieve bokeh

It has been mentioned already, but bokeh is most easily achieved using large apertures, combined with focusing on something relatively close. The larger the aperture, the more of the background is out of focus, and the more bokeh you will achieve. The aperture size will probably also affect the appearance of your bokeh circles.

If you focus on something that is far away, you will not get much bokeh. At least not in the background. But with a little creativity, you can create foreground bokeh instead!

There’s no trick to achieving bokeh, as you can see. The trick is planning and using it right, resulting in bokehlishious photos!

In an upcoming article, I will take a more hands-on approach to bokeh, doing a case-study. So stay tuned!

If you have bokeh-tips you want to share with us, we would love to hear them! Also, if you have Flickr-photos etc where you’ve accomplished wonderful bokeh, please include a link in the comments.