What is it?

Named after the Japanese word for “blur” or “haze”, bokeh is an optical phenomenon that stamps the character of the lens on each photo in the way that bright out-of-focus elements are rendered. When out of focus, bright pinpoints become attractive, ghostly circles of light. Or at least they are circles with the right lens.Out-of-focus elements can be just as important to finishing the composition and can dramatically change the viewer’s perception of the piece. The key to using bokeh in a shot is to use a wide aperture on a close focused subject so that elements in front and behind the point of focus blur readily. If the lens has curved aperture blades, these will be reflected in the shape of the bokeh.

By tradition, bokeh hunters prize these circular shapes more. But straight aperture blades can create different shapes, such as hexagons if the lens has six blades and is used at a larger f-stop, such as f/8. These can be just as effective creatively. A more obvious way in which lens construction has influenced photographic trends comes with the zoom lens. The zoom-burst effect provides a way to guide the eye to the centre of the shot by turning the surrounding field into a blur of movement. The effect is easy to create although mastery takes a little longer.

The key is to focus on the centre of the image and during the shot quickly turn the zoom ring. It helps to have the camera on a tripod as this will minimise shake during the relatively long exposures needed to give you enough time to turn the zoom ring. Similar to creative use of bokeh, zoom bursts often work best with bright, colourful elements in the out-of-focus area. Although it needs a steady hand to pull off well, you can bring swirls into zoom-burst shots by holding the zoom ring and turning the camera instead. Here are some examples:

To ensure a clear image in the centre, photographers often combine the zoom burst with flash, using slow sync flash to fire extra light at the beginning or end of the exposure to freeze the subject. This can work extremely well in night-time city shots when you have streetlights to help emphasise the zoom effect. At the other end of the scale, zooming can be used to create extreme focus effects, particularly for macro shots. Even at high f-stops, it is difficult to capture a depth of field of more than a few centimetres of in close-up images. Here I wanted to explore a few ways in which I could experiment with the way I could take future shoots and so found walking around town at night was one of the best ways to do so. These were my outcomes:

Once I’d experimented a little with the technique I decided to have a go at photographing the lights in tunnels and on car as they seemed to produce the best outcomes regarding variety of composition and brightness. When taking the images I really enjoyed taking into consideration a new style of composition not previously used where block lights could be overlapped or on their own. Here are three of my favourite outcomes from the experimental shoot:

What I liked about this image was the use of the mainly blue lighting fading out as it progressed through the photo. For me this effect created a great sense of aestheticism as it highlighted the dirt of the window it was taken from, this for me added extra texture to the image whilst also making use of the negative space so that it would not be predominantly black and leave the product as a bit of an eye sore. The shades of blue present within I found to cast an ambient light throughout, with the primary light source becoming the main focal point for viewers due to the sequence of other lights deriving from it.

Here I particularly liked the variety of different colours present which make use of the black backdrop which separates each light so that they become a sort of structured shape. Looking at the blues, whites and greys they all compliment each other so that they do not become overpowering, with the occasional different colour such as red or orange breaking up the pattern and adding more depth to the overall outcome. For me the blackness of the top right corner brings together the whole image due to how it adds a space and stops the continuous lights from overpowering the entire piece.

Finally what drew me to this image was the appearance of murky greens, reds and yellows which add a sense of eeriness to the photograph. These darker colours are complimented by the surrounding black which envelops each light merging them into the next whilst the sequence snakes off image. I particularly found the implementation of the reds and oranges to be of great effect due to how the prevent the mainly greens and yellows from taking over and making the image overall quite dull.

Overall for me this experimentation was useful as it broadened my stance regarding photography and the styles and techniques that could be used to take new and original perspectives of my surrounding environment. For a future reference I could combine certain bokeh images together to form a more abstract result combining patterns from both so that they merge and create something almost alien like.