In most cases, though, when discussing bokeh, we’re talking about pleasingness of the blur in the background of an image. Of course, it isn’t just the background that can be out of focus foreground elements can be rendered out of focus, too, so bokeh also describes the blurriness of the foreground. There are other kinds defined by distinct characteristics – such as ‘onion ring bokeh’, ‘soap bubble bokeh’ and ‘cat’s eye bokeh’ – that may or may not be desirable based on personal preference. Something like ‘noisy bokeh’ is bad, because the background is harsh and distracting and takes the focus away from your subject. So something like ‘creamy bokeh’ is good, because the background is creamy and dreamy and velvety smooth. However, even if you have an extremely blurred background shot at f/1.2, if the out-of-focus areas are distracting or there are harsh edges around the nice round balls, then the bokeh will likely be considered unpleasant. This photograph, with a wide depth of field, exhibits 'noisy bokeh', considered displeasing (Image credit: James Artaius) So how is bokeh measured? It is a subjective term, but generally the smoother and softer the background – and the more indistinctly that any sharpness, harsh edges or details are rendered – the more pleasing the bokeh is considered to be. Therefore everything from the focal length of your lens to the crop factor of your sensor to the distance of your subject from the background will also contribute to the resulting effect. In short, the shallower your depth of field the greater the bokeh will be. However, it’s depth of field as a whole that really controls the bokeh of an image. Since aperture directly controls depth of field, in some respects it also controls bokeh – you get more, and more pleasing, bokeh at f/1.8 than you do at f/8 for example.

So bokeh isn’t really a consideration in landscape images! This photograph, with a shallow depth of field, exhibits 'creamy bokeh', considered pleasing (Image credit: James Artaius)īecause it relates to the blurred areas of an image, bokeh tends to apply to things like portraits and macro photographs, where you shoot with a wider aperture (which means a lower f/ number) to create subject separation.

Bokeh photo meaning