The art of a perfectly blurred background…

I have always been drawn to photographs where the subject is in focus but the background is a blur of colours and circles of light. I love the dreamy and slightly surreal atmosphere created by the blurred surroundings and the contrast between the subject and the background.

I recently learned that there is actually a name for this blurry appearance – Bokeh. The word bokeh comes from the Japanese word boke meaning blur. The pronunciation of this word seems to be debatable but from my studies of Japanese language I would go with bo-keh (bo as in bow-tie and keh as in kettle). But I’m sure if your photos are good enough no one will care how you say it anyway!

I took the below photos using a 14mm-42mm lens but seemed to get the best results when zoomed in close to the subject. You can get different results depending on the lens you use, how close you are to the subject and how far away the background is.

These are just my first attempts at trying to create bokeh. If you look up the term on google images you will find some much more stunning examples, but this is a beginner’s photography blog after-all 🙂

On the left are the original photos I took and on the right are enlargements of the areas that show the best bokeh:

CNL

Katie x