Bokeh

Photopedia

23 September 2008 17:09

Bokeh is a photographic term that’s been used for around 10 years and is derived from the Japanese word for ‘fuzzy’. It refers to out of focus areas in an image and in particular the way that pinpoints of light are rendered by the lens’s optics.

It’s generally considered that the more circular and fuzzier the image, the better the Bokeh, and that more straight-sided, hard-edged the image, the poorer the bokeh. Many high-end prime lenses have curved aperture blades, so the effect remains fairly circular throughout the lower f/numbers.