I just joined a Virb group called BOKEH. What the heck is bokeh? Read on.



Boke (pronounced and spelled alternately as "bokeh") refers to the characteristics of the out-of-focus portion of an image. It refers to the entire blurry area (both foreground and background), not just the round highlights.

John Kennerdell, the author of one of three articles in PHOTO Techniques (PT) that introduced boke to the West, had the following to say on Mike Johnston's blog: "In retrospect, in those articles in PT we should have introduced one more Japanese word: 'pinto' (prononunced 'peen-toe,' not like the beans). It means in-focus. Anything in a photo that isn't pinto is boke. It really is that simple."

It is apparently difficult to design lenses which do a good job handling the in-focus/sharp areas of a photo (pinto) while also nicely rendering the out-of-focus regions (boke). The quality with which a lens draws out-of-focus areas cannot be objectively measured as we do lens characteristics pertaining to in-focus regions (resolution, contrast, etc). Rather, appreciation for boke is inherently subjective. Yet the way a lens renders boke can be just as important as the way it handles pinto. Many people only worry about whether a lens is critically sharp. Differences in sharpness are generally apparent only in large prints. Poorly-drawn boke can ruin a 4x6" or web-sized photo!

Here are some links for further reading about boke:

PA van Walree on "Bokeh"

"Understanding Boke" by Harold M. Merklinger

Rick Denney's "Bokeh Test"

"Bokeh in Pictures" by Mike Johnston

More about boke from Mike Johnston

If you want to eek a little more knowledge about boke from some really long threads, here are three for your perusal:

DPR thread started by joe mama
POTN thread started by booggerg
DPR thread started by TheronFamily