NoEnzLefttoSplit wrote:
According to the Wiki definition at the bottom, they seem to be pretty much the same thing - it's kind of a neat word though   The term "bokeh" apparently wasn't  used (in the Western world at least) until the late 1990s, and seems to only be used in relation to digital cameras - especially when the background has those circles and/or hexagons of light - like in fractalv's first photo in this thread.  I've seldom heard it used in reference to 35mm photography, though it could be.  When I took photography courses in the '80s that sort of thing usually fell under controlling "depth of field" by manipulating the f-stop.

This photo was shot around 1985-86, with a Minolta SRT-100 - I guess the background could (now) be called "bokeh-effect"....?

 Beez wrote:


Nah.  I need to take that lens out for a spin again soon - it's a beast.

tbh.. i don't really understand the distinction between bokeh and dof for effect.. or is it the same thing?

 ptooey wrote:


  You make me not want to post. 

I'm hoping this serves as a good example:

Thanks to Proclivities for the February theme of Odd Perspectives. He kindly nominated me for March and this is what I chose:

Bokeh

From Wikipedia —
"In photography, bokeh (/ˈboʊkə/ BOH-kə or /ˈboʊkeɪ/ BOH-kay; Japanese: ) is the aesthetic quality of the blur produced in out-of-focus parts of an image.  Bokeh has also been defined as "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light". Differences in lens aberrations and aperture shape cause very different bokeh effects.

Photographers may deliberately use a shallow focus technique to create images with prominent out-of-focus regions, accentuating their lens's bokeh.

Bokeh is often most visible around small background highlights, such as specular reflections and light sources, which is why it is often associated with such areas. However, bokeh is not limited to highlights; blur occurs in all regions of an image which are outside the depth of field."