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Archive 2019 · The Bane of Bokeh or How NOT to Stand out from the Herd

benjikan
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · The Bane of Bokeh or How NOT to Stand out from the Herd

I wrote this in response to a YouTube subject regarding Bokeh, link after my comments:
In my business Photographer...shallow depth of field is out of fashion... wide angle all in focus and raw is what is happening now. Of course, you can mix in the few blown out shots as part of the whole 8-12 page story but...bye Bye Bokeh! https://benjaminkanarek.com/album/paris-tres-chic

Systematic blurred background is way out of fashion in fashion photography today. When used, it is often done to balance the story, i.e. 8-14 pages with wide angle raw in your face all in focus composition oriented images and your classic herd mentality blurred background images. However, one of the major reasons many of us would use that "300mm f/2.8" look was quite banal. It was so people could see the fashion well and it would look like shooting in a soft daylight studio, with a wash of colour that the photographer could control just by moving rotating their lens by one degree. Often you would know the clothing colours beforehand and chose complimentary coloured backgrounds that would enhance the overall image. That IS a style and done for a reason, as I have done here for ELLE magazine. But the systematic use of bokeh for the sake of bokeh doesn't make you stand out from the rest, it makes you as common as margarine on dry toast. It is the contrast that makes an image stand out in a story. That is why I will often do some B&W images mixed in with colour to just make the whole story more interesting and varied. SYSTEMATIC use of totally blown out backgrounds is old and mind-numbing. That's not me speaking, that is the overwhelming majority of magazine editors speaking and I know, because I work for them.

Bokeh used without understanding the reason why is flagrant herd mentality. So make your images interesting and think about what you wish to accomplish to stand out from the crowd.

Nikon 300mm f/2.8

https://thebkmag.com/2018/05/28/alexis-kapaun-athleisure-elle-benjamin-kanarek/

Mixed Bag from 24 to 85mm all Nikon.
https://thebkmag.com/2018/04/14/blonde-bombshell-sorbet-magazine-benjamin-kanarek/

YouTube link:

Feb 06, 2019 at 06:45 AM

Sauseschritt
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · The Bane of Bokeh or How NOT to Stand out from the Herd

But isnt Bokeh basically unavoidable with telephoto lenses, since you would have to resort to focus stacking, which is not trivial to do with a moving subject[1], to really avoid it ?

And likewise hard to archieve with wide angle lenses, since aside from techniques like Benzier that arent really available for moving subjects, one is stuck with the only remaining option to focus really close ?

So you're basically just saying "why dont you use those wide angle lenses for portraiture, too", right ?

[1]: Might be easy in the typical useage for fashion that one catches a person at 15m distance with a 300mm, since then the whole person will be in focus, so for the rest of the focus stacking one just would have to take the other images without the person in the picture.

Feb 11, 2019 at 08:02 AM

Sauseschritt
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · The Bane of Bokeh or How NOT to Stand out from the Herd

Oooh now I get it.

You talk about not always shooting wide open.

Feb 14, 2019 at 02:53 AM

KristinSmall
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · The Bane of Bokeh or How NOT to Stand out from the Herd

I'm not sure if this is really a telling study. 1.2 is EXTREMELY shallow and not a very common representation of "wide open." Very few photos will benefit from that shallow of an aperture (certainly hardly anything that close to the camera, especially people and animals. Maybe insects and some flowers.) A better comparison, IMO, is 2.8 vs. 8.0.

Of course, any photographer has to understand WHY they are using an aperture. There are many settings where you want extreme separation (esp. if the background is busy and/or has elements that you don't want seen,) and there are times when you really, really need to stop down, taking a head-shot, for example. I can think of no good reason to ever go below 2.8 on those (I prefer 4.0 or higher.) I have made that mistake in the past and it's not good. ALL of the face (esp. both eyes) should be in focus most of the time. I also am amazed when people take a portrait (even at a greater distance) of a subject against a brick wall. Why go shallow on that?

I just think that, like most things, BALANCE is the issue. I admit that I love to open my lenses, but try to balance with wide-angled and other closed down shots. All-in-all, it's always a good reminder to keep these things in mind and for all of us to continue to improve, so thanks for posting!

Feb 15, 2019 at 03:17 PM

docsmiles17
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · The Bane of Bokeh or How NOT to Stand out from the Herd

Your experiment is an interesting one but your results are speculative, which I am sure you are aware.

Regardless of the above, bokeh is a personal preference, just like any art form. However, bokeh can inhibit or enhance a photograph depending upon what you are trying to accomplish.

Feb 17, 2019 at 12:16 AM

crteach
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · The Bane of Bokeh or How NOT to Stand out from the Herd

I think the big consideration is your subject relative to the background. How well do you want your subject to stand out from the background? How much context do you want to include? That should be the primary reason you choose your f-stop .... to help create and tell the story you want to tell. When I'm shooting sports, I tend to go with lower f-stops to isolate the player on the court; with landscapes, higher f-stops to show the area near and far.

Feb 17, 2019 at 06:22 PM

JohnSil
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · The Bane of Bokeh or How NOT to Stand out from the Herd

benjikan wrote:
I wrote this in response to a YouTube subject regarding Bokeh, link after my comments:
In my business Photographer...shallow depth of field is out of fashion... wide angle all in focus and raw is what is happening now. Of course, you can mix in the few blown out shots as part of the whole 8-12 page story but...bye Bye Bokeh!

I will agree with one thing, we are seeing less and less Bokeh posted to all kinds of sites, especially social media!!
And as always, every guy with a blog is an expert.
BUT the real experts in the field of photography are the pro-level shooters themselves. I use the term, "pro-level" to differentiate between those that get paid but their work sucks and is of low quality, and those that don't get paid but are at the level of the best professionals.
I believe(and no, I don't have a BLOG!!!), that social medias are in large part driving many of the trends we keep hearing about.
I can cite my own social media experiences. On my Instagram feed I use a criteria to, "like" the pics that come down my feed.
One of the MAIN criteria I use(among several) is, "how much is in focus", in other words, the DoF used? Why, because I know that 90% of what I see is taken with a CELL PHONE, and it shows little to no professionalism, and cell phones rarely exhibit DoF!!!
Are cell phones driving what people will pay for?? When 99.99% of all photos seen on the internet are taken by a cell phone, there's a very real chance that cell phones and the look of cell phone pics are driving what a majority see as acceptable.
As was said by someone else previously, photographers are artist, thus the artist will pick and choose the art they create. "WE", the viewers, will decide if the work is any good, or at least is WE like it.
I shoot a lot of Sports and Fashion, sometimes I shoot with extremely shallow DoF, and sometimes shoot with a very wide angle with everything in focus. I'm PICKING the look I want for a particular shot!!!
BOKEH is VERY alive and well!!!
John

Feb 20, 2019 at 01:44 PM

Sauseschritt
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · The Bane of Bokeh or How NOT to Stand out from the Herd

The newest gen of the iPhone have artificial DoF, actually.

It looks very bad to me. Its a constant effect over the area which is considered out of focus, with no variation in respect to how much it is out of focus. Also, the bokeh is superneutral and superboring, probably its a perfect Gaus distribution. Nothing like, say, the amazing Bokeh out of a Pentax Takumar 50mm f1.4 or a Mandler Leica Noctilux-M 50mm f1.0.

Still, at web resolutions it may very easily fool you, especially on a phone. And thats all people look at nowadays with most images, dont they.

Feb 28, 2019 at 10:28 AM

visualpauses
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · The Bane of Bokeh or How NOT to Stand out from the Herd

If I were a painter's patron before the advent of the camera, and if I were painting a scene, would I want to see the background clearly, would I want to see the background a little blurred, or would I want to see a "creamy" background"?
In my case, I would want to see some details, but not all. I.e. some middle ground rather than either extreme.

That being said, I have found myself taking photos in pairs: 1 using the phone's computationally generated bokeh and another normal photo. One to focus on the person and their expression, the second to provide context.

Mar 01, 2019 at 08:05 AM

ejenner
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · The Bane of Bokeh or How NOT to Stand out from the Herd

I am surprised at some of the results and not others. Some, like you mentioned I thought looked better with some context, but the dog one? Why would anyone want to be looking at the bush?

Definitely agree with the overall message though. Just because you can shoot at f-whatever doesn't mean you should. And if you are doing it because you 'paid for that aperture and don't want to waste your money', then yes, that is just GAS for the sake of it and perhaps keeping up with the Jones'.

Mar 04, 2019 at 11:55 PM

pasblues
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · The Bane of Bokeh or How NOT to Stand out from the Herd

Can you hear me clapping out in the audience?

Absolutely, bokeh is a mere tool but it is lazy to resort to using that tool in the same way applied with a broad brush.

Also, bokeh doesn't just apply to background blur - it also applies to foreground objects.

Choosing DOF is a creative choice just as focal length choice.

One of my favorite wedding photographers actually does something that is a much more difficult technique for a lot of images he does of people at his wedding - wide angle with larger DOF. It's a lot harder to control composition when there's so much going on simultaneously in the frame - but he pulls this off repeatedly.

Anyway, I think sometimes what photographs come down to is *content* - clients and people in general are struck by the content of the images more than anything else. Content may be a much more important thing to consider than technique or even chasing the ever elusive tack-sharpness that is also a huge part of photography discussions these days.

I am reminded of the incredible images of yore that were, in fact, blurry and not just by today's standards. But the content of the images was so compelling that - seriously, nobody cared then or now.

Mar 26, 2019 at 10:04 AM

chez
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · The Bane of Bokeh or How NOT to Stand out from the Herd

pasblues wrote:
Can you hear me clapping out in the audience?

Absolutely, bokeh is a mere tool but it is lazy to resort to using that tool in the same way applied with a broad brush.

Also, bokeh doesn't just apply to background blur - it also applies to foreground objects.

Choosing DOF is a creative choice just as focal length choice.

One of my favorite wedding photographers actually does something that is a much more difficult technique for a lot of images he does of people at his wedding - wide angle with larger DOF. It's a lot harder to control composition...Show more →

So true. If only people would spend half as much time on their vision or compositions as they do talking about the sharpest lens or the one with the best non onionized bokeh balls...I'm sure the images would be much further ahead. This fascination of pixel peeping into the far corners or intensely reading charts has gone from photography to some other type of hobby.

Mar 26, 2019 at 11:11 AM

pasblues
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · The Bane of Bokeh or How NOT to Stand out from the Herd

chez wrote:
So true. If only people would spend half as much time on their vision or compositions as they do talking about the sharpest lens or the one with the best non onionized bokeh balls...I'm sure the images would be much further ahead. This fascination of pixel peeping into the far corners or intensely reading charts has gone from photography to some other type of hobby.

I will say that if I want to know some detailed nuance of information - I can come to FM and there will be someone on here who knows the incredible explanations of how something actually works. I love those people - they definitely serve a purpose.

But when it comes down to judging a lens on some obscure visual nuance VS content - powerful original content will win me over every time.

Mar 26, 2019 at 03:15 PM

That_Hack
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · The Bane of Bokeh or How NOT to Stand out from the Herd

I bought a full set of Zeiss lenses for their awesome sharpness and bokeh. Yet I'm only doing product photography right now. With a vintage Canon 50mm macro. At f/16...

It's okay to love that razor thin DOF. But it's probably not what pays the bills.

Mar 31, 2019 at 05:57 PM


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