bokeh

Definitions

A subjective aesthetic quality of out-of-focus areas of an image projected by a camera lens.

uncountable, usually

Equivalents

Examples

“The quality of the out-of-focus area in a wide-aperture image is called bokeh, originally from the Japanese word boke, pronounced bo-keh, which means fuzzy. In photography, bokeh reflects the shape⟳ and number⟳ of diaphragm blades in the lens, and that determines, in part, the way that out-of-focus points of light⟳ are rendered in the image. Bokeh is also a result⟳ of spherical aberration that affects how the light⟳ is collected. Although subject to controversy, photographers often judge⟳ bokeh as being either good or bad. Good bokeh renders the out-of-focus areas as smooth, uniform, and generally circular shapes with nicely blurred edges. Bad bokeh, on the other hand, renders out-of-focus areas with polygonal shapes, hard edges, and with illumination that creates a brighter area at the outside of the disk shape⟳.”

“Shooting with natural light⟳, I used a long lens (200mm) to compress the space and slightly blur the background by photographing at a large open⟳ aperture (f/2.5). This resulted in gorgeous bokeh, putting the city into a blur while keeping the couple razor sharp.”

“More expensive lenses usually go down to f/2.8, letting you shoot⟳ at faster shutter speeds and get⟳ great, creamy bokeh in your background.”

CEFR level