Anyone that frequents photography forums, or Flickr, will have heard of bokeh. People talk of photos with creamy bokeh. They ask what lens to buy based on the bokeh it produces. Dear lord, Flickr even has HBW, Happy Bokeh Wednesday! My question is this, is it really that important? I would have thought having the main component of the image in focus was more important than the shape or creamyness of the out of focus area.
So what is bokeh? Well, different things to different people it seems.
Bokeh (derived from Japanese boke , a noun form of bokeru, “become blurred or fuzzy”) is a photographic term referring to the appearance of out-of-focus areas in an image produced by a camera lens using a shallow depth of field. Different lens bokeh produces different aesthetic qualities in out-of-focus backgrounds, which are often used to reduce distractions and emphasize the primary subject.
Right, clear as mud. If you happen to be a Poindexter, there is an even more in depth article here. Be aware, its heavy going, but if you love chatting about circles of confusion and aperture shapes, your blood pressure will rise with every passing paragraph.
So it seems bokeh is all about the look of the out of focus part of an image. Right.
So when did bokeh become popular? Again, Wikipedia say “The term bokeh has appeared in photography books at least since 2000.” That may be the case, but it seems to be tossed around with gay abandon in plenty of photography forums, and it seems to be happening more and more. It has even gotten to a point where I saw a question asked today on Flickr wanting a point and shoot recommendationbased on the bokeh the tiny tiny lens will produce.
Creamy???
I did a 30 second survey just now on Flickr. Two simple searches. Here are the results.
We found 32,076 results matching “sydney opera house“.
We found 405,609 results matching bokeh.
Who would have thought Bokeh would be more common than an Australia icon? Not me, thats for sure.
So, can someone explain the appeal in this bokeh trend? Is the backgraound more important than the foreground in a photo? Help me understand! Please. 
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But there is only one Sydney Opera House, and I can’t get to it. Bokeh is everywhere. Indoors and out. I’m not at all surprised one rare landmark is outnumbered by a common everyday worldwide phenomenon.
People like the bokeh effect because “shallow depth of field” is a key milestone in the coming-of-age process of all amateur photographers. The first picture you take that has streetlights, or rain drops, or candles in the background represented by dreamy impressionist discs makes you feel like an artiste.
For many people, that feeling never gets old.
Im not a big fan of ‘bokeh for the sake of it’, which is what I see more often than not on flickr. I find its almost akin to over-saturated HDR in the novelty department; in that it doesnt take a good photo or a clever composition to pique flickr’s interestingness funny bone. Any one can do it, and the market has become flooded with it.
There are times when it works, portraits for instance. But when the entire frame is out of focus to have the signature “bokeh balls” that tends to get old fast. Composition is so much more complicated, and the rewards are much more fulfilling, at f/8.
+H
I have to agree with Harry. I am not a big fan of bokeh for the sake of it.
Hmm.. I tend to chafe at the bokeh adoration too.. but on the other hand, I do like shallow depth of field. I guess in music terms bokeh is kind of like really sweet added 13th chords or something, nice, but not something you want to hear just by itself all the time really.
Background is just as important as any other part of the image.. A photo isnt just the feature item, its every pixel.
Every photo (well almost every photo) has a background.. not many have the bridge!
Good discussion topic tho
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HBW!