Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/12/28

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Bokeh controversy
From: "Steve LeHuray" <icommag@toad.net>
Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2000 10:28:27 -0500

> Martin Howard wrote:
> 
>>>>>>Yeah, but what if a smooth background enhances the appearance of focal
plane
> sharpness?  Or 'three-dimensionaltiy'?  All of a sudden it becomes quite
> interesting, n'est pas?<<<<<<

Ted replied:
>
> Oui mon ami!   However! :-)
>
> Only to people who may know the difference and 99.999999% of the people in the
> world don't know a good, bad or ugly photograph when they see them! :-) And a
> photo editors or certainly a great number I've worked with who thought the
were
> photo editors were visually challenged and wouldn't know a bokeh from a pokeh
in
> the eye! ;-)

> ted

Ted. Yes I agree that 99.9999999% of the people would not know a bokeh from
a pokeh if it jumped up and hit them on the head. But I think that the word,
Bokeh, for out-of-focus portion of a picture, was developed by Japanese
photographers. Many people seem to be thrown by the word itself, but, I
think we can all agree that out-of-focus areas of a picture can create a
beautiful and interesting effect. Out-of-focus is used widely in feature
films, television commercials, still photos for advertising and even some
humble LUGers. Bokeh is merely a word to describe the quality of the
out-of-focus area.

There are several photographers on the LUG whose holy grail is the perfect
Bokeh and one of the best is Stephen Holloway. Take a look at
http://www.deepturtle.com/steve/photos/london/24.html You will see his
wonderful control of focus to generate a most arresting picture where you on
first looking at it your eyes zero in on the smiling face of the pretty
young woman. The man she is talking to is out of focus as is everything
behind her. Also in the background are blurred, way-out-of-focus lights that
give off a pleasing look, (Bokeh?).

The whole point to Bokeh is to focus the viewers eyes on a portion of a
photograph and to create a pleasing effect. Bokeh is a wide spread effect in
many photo mediums even though most of do not recognize it for what it is.

IMHO.

Steve
Annapolis