Bokeh

[rpcrowe]

The bokeh produced by the Meyer Optik Oreston 50mm f/1.8 M-42 mount lens is certainly not everyone's cup of tea. However, I find it, occasionally refreshing compared with today's modern lenses with perfect imagery. However, like with the oil paint filter, a little of it goes a long way...







I like the character, accentuated by the optical flaws of some of these old lenses. While I do own and will most often use today's modern top-line lenses, I do also enjoy playing with this old glass.

[Shadowman]

The same complaint is placed on the catadioptric lenses but with the right lighting you can get some interesting shots. Nice shots.

[Digital]

Richard, nice photos.



Bruce

[rpcrowe]

I want to use my collection of vintage glass to shoot Christmas lights his coming holiday season...

[Shadowman]

Is it just me or does bokeh come after the shot has been taken, what I mean is when I'm trying to capture it its harder to do then when I aim for it? Shooting through foliage with the sun behind the leaves is easy enough to do, I've even accidentally captured it when my keyboard letters were out of focus.

[rpcrowe]

John...

Bokeh depends upon many factors all of which influence the final outcome to one degree or anther, sometimes adding and sometimes subtracting from the appearance of the out of focus areas.

Of course, the DOF has a great influence on the bokeh because if you don't have OOF areas, you don't have bokeh because bokeh is the subjective appearance of the out of focus areas of the image.

Additionally, the look of the bokeh is a very subject topic. Some folks like smooth backgrounds while others like busy bokeh. I tend to like them both, depending on the image content.

The inherent characteristics of the lens have a great influence on the Bokeh as does the image format. I had never thought about that aspect until I started shooting with a Russian made 58mm Helios f/2.0 lens which has a particular swirly bokeh that is more present in an image shot with a full frame camera than with an image shot with an APSC crop camera.

Naturally what is present in the background also has an important impact on the look of any OOF area.

As an example... Here is a shot done with a 70-200mm lens at 150mm with an aperture of f/4.5 focused at 3.82 meters...
The bokeh is creamy smooth and there is difficulty recognizing exactly what the greenery is - it is ice plant on a bank.
The 70-200mm f/4L IS lens produces a different bokeh than the non-IS version because the iris blades are rounded on the IS version so the aperture circle is smoother.


Here is a shot done with a 300mm lens at f/5.6 giving a DOF of from 7.59-7.72 meters
The focus falls off smoothly with no strange looking bokeh


Now, here is an image from a Russian 58mm Helios lens. I specifically purchased this lens to get swirly Bokeh which you can see behind the man. If this had been done with a full frame camera you would see more of the BG and the swirly bokeh would be more apparent.


This was done with the same lens as above but, shows very little, if any, of the swirly bokeh. The subject's distance from the BG is the difference...


I shot this with the Helios lens wide open and you can definitely see the swirly bokeh, even though the BG is not far from the subject...


I have a very old Canon EF 135mm Soft Focus lens. The bokeh that this lens produces is dependent on many variables such as DOF, f/stop (not just in the fact that the DOF is different) and the amount of sharpening you dial into the lens: 0, 1, 2, or 3...

There are so many variables involved that shooting for bokeh is sort of like choosing your shutter speed when panning a runner or a bike rider. Kind of more of an art than a science. You can understand the basics but the rest is kind of up to luck...

The great thing about digital photography is that we can afford to shoot multiple images hoping for a good capture...

[george013]

I know bokeh is said to be related to the lens structure. BUt what if you compare two lenses of 50mm with each other? How much will the bokeh be different when using exact equal settings and framing?

George

[Shadowman]

Richard,

Thanks for the response, yes bokeh can be seen by some as a distraction from the main subject or as an aesthetic abstract additional element of the composition. Whenever I spot it in my composition I don't necessarily try to diminish it but might recompose depending on where the bokeh lies in relation to the subject.

[tbob]

Interesting and informative thread Richard I had no idea that glass quality could be such a big contributer

[shreds]

With all this talk of bokeh, I am surprised that no one in the Nikon camp has mentioned the Nikon 105mm and 135mm f2 DC lenses. DC standing for ‘Distortion Control’ which allows fairly precise control of where the “out of focus” area occurs (can be placed in front as well as behind the subject), although the latter is more usual.

Such lenses often found in many Pro portrait or wedding photographers armoury.

Onviously glass quality but also the shutter blade configuration is critical.