Revisiting Soft Focus in Photography
Sometimes, especially nowadays, the future seems out of focus, undefined and uncertain for many reasons ranging from natural disasters to upcoming elections and their consequences, and the more mundane worries we live with, day in and day out.
In photography, there’s a name for the out-of-focus or soft-focus areas of an image. It’s called “bokeh,” a Japanese term pronounced BOH-kay.
The Bokeh effect depends on the lenses that we use.
A bokeh effect can be achieved in camera, or in post production, when the camera is a DSLR, mirrorless, or a smartphone camera (especially with the latest versions of iPhones and the like).
While bokeh refers to the out-of-focus areas of the image (as mentioned above)–mostly the background and/or the foreground–sometimes, bokeh can also become the subject.
For example, here are two pictures of a building: in one of the image, the building is in focus, in the other, the building is out of focus, a bokeh-as-subject defined by its lights:
To find out more, please visit a few links to a few #tbt posts:
- Bokeh 105 (Sigma ART 105mm lens, aka “the Bokehmaster”)
While, in photography, bokeh can create quite some fascinating effects, in life…maybe not so much.
Is life’s bokeh a metaphor or real…or both? How do we see the out-of-focus, blurry “areas” of our life?
Food for thought for another post, perhaps.
What do you think?
As always, thanks for stopping by,
Alina Oswald 
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