Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/07/11

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Subject: RE: [Leica] Bokeh'm somebody
From: "Rodgers, David" <david.rodgers@xo.com>
Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2001 21:02:02 -0500

j,   

>>But bokeh is not used exactly as "blur". Bokeh is _how a specific lens
renders the out of focus areas_. You cannot talk about the "blur of a
lens", can you?<<

Last time I tried to read the dof markings or serial number without my
reading glasses, Yes. 

>>A few months ago I introduced the concept of bokeh to one of my
friends, who is one of the architects of the rendering program we use
here at PDI (we rendered _Shrek_ with it), and suggested he simulated
realistic bokeh in his renderer. Take a look here:

http://www.flarg.com/bokeh.html<<

It's a very nice photograph. Interesting, too. 

I shouldn't make light of bokeh. There's probably something to it. It's just
not important to me. I don't want to be concerned with things like out of
focus rendering when I look at an image. I didn't notice it when I didn't
know a word for it. Now that I know the word, I still don't notice it. 

It's bad enough right now that when I look at a b/w print I wonder first
about things like, "the DMAX could be better", or "The highlights are a
little washed out", or "it's a little soft". Who knows, maybe that's what
the photographer wanted in the first place. I want to get back to viewing a
photograph from an emotional level. I don't see how subtle changes in out of
focus areas will affect me viscerally. 

Dave