Bokeh: A Beautiful Art Used in Photography

The origin of word Bokeh came out from the Japanese word boke which means “blur” or “haze”. The other word from where it is derived is boke-aji which means “blur quality”. Bokeh which is widely used in photography and cinematography is defined as “the effect of a soft out-of-focus background that you get when shooting a subject, using a fast lens, at the widest aperture, such as f/2.8 or wider.”

The lens used while capturing a photograph decides the shape and size of visible bokeh. Rounder and softer out-of-focus highlights are produced by a lens with circular shaped blades. A lens with hexagonal shaped blades will reflect that particular shape in highlights.

One has to use a fast lens to achieve bokeh in an image. A lens with an aperture of at least f/2.8 aperture works. Fast prime lenses are used by many photographers these days to produce bokeh.

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