100photos2

When I looked out onto the patio a couple of days ago I noticed that the rose I bought earlier in the year had unexpectedly produced some more buds.  I thought it had finished flowering for the year some time ago so it was a pleasant surprise and it gave the ideal opportunity for experimenting with my camera.  I managed a little bit of Bokeh, which is always a challenge with a compact camera:

In photography, bokeh[pronunciation?] is the blur,[1][2] or the aesthetic quality of the blur,[3][4][5] in out-of-focus areas of an image, or “the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light.”[6] Differences in lens aberrations and aperture shape cause some lens designs to blur the image in a way that is pleasing to the eye, while others produce blurring that is unpleasant or distracting— “good” or “bad” bokeh, respectively.[1] Bokeh occurs for parts of the scene that lie outside the depth of field. Photographers sometimes deliberately use a shallow focus technique to create images with prominent out-of-focus regions.

Bokeh is often most visible around small background highlights, such as specular reflections and light sources, which is why it is often associated with such areas.[1] However, bokeh is not limited to highlights, as blur occurs in all out-of-focus regions of the image.

A Touch of Autumn

12 Comments CherryPie on Sep 18th 2010

12 Responses to “100 Photos 39 :: Bokeh”

  1. Bernard says:

    Beautiful Cherie…..and amazing!
    Five minutes ago I was out in the garden looking at the only remaining rose.
    I thought of the “Last Rose of Summer” and went back in for my camera.
    Now unlike you you, I don’t understand all the in’s and out’s, bells, whistles and strange symbols on the back, so I just pointed and snapped.
    What I was after was just what you have done – almost as I thought about it.
    Very strange?
    I need lessons. :)

    • CherryPie says:

      It is quite amazing that you would be trying to take that picture just as I posted mine!

      I don’t know what options your camera has, but to get that effect I chose the Av option on the dial which then shows an F number at the bottom of the screen which I set to the lowest number and then I clicked the macro option.

      That is just very brief without getting technical about it. Feel free to ask more questions :-)

      • Bernard says:

        Thanks Cherie,
        I knew a bit about ‘depth of field’ from my days with the manual Pentax, but I didn’t know that I have control of the F number on my digital. The problem is, this camera didn’t come with a manual – just a CD/DVD. I think it is 82 pages long and lurks somewhere on my hard-drive. I can’t bare the thought of printing it all out, but I suppose I shall have to read up on it one day. All my pics are done using ‘auto’. :(
        Thanks for your offer of help. :)

  2. Claudia says:

    Whatever you do with your camera certainly works. This is such an inspiring, uplifting sight. Thank you!

    • CherryPie says:

      Thank You Claudia :-)

      I keep looking at it and although I like the levels of light I just want to do something with the top left hand corner. But if I do that it changes some of the other elements in the picture which would make the picture unbalanced…

      I think there is a lesson for me to learn in there somewhere. I am enjoying the challenge ;-)

  3. It be bein Talk Like A Pirate Day, aaar! Shiver ye timbers, swab, an be meetin me on the poop dek! Aaar!

  4. Marcie says:

    Y’know – I’ve never really read what the definition of bokeh is. Thanks for the education..and for sharing. And – I love the soft colors in this image. Beautiful garden!!!

  5. Minnie says:

    Ah, so that’s what ‘bokeh’ means: thank you, Cherie! Love the pic focusing on the (?miniature) Masquerade. Great series of photos – as ever!