When you start out with photography, a blurred background is a popular stylistic device in a picture. And even as a professional, it doesn't stop perfecting this technique.
And for good reason: As soon as the shutter button is pressed, we capture a three-dimensional scene on a two-dimensional sensor. The blur or bokeh is the only thing that still suggests the original depth of the room in the photo.
A shallow depth of field ensures the background is blurred. In this way, the original spatial depth is made clear and the model is lifted from the background.
In addition, it helps the photographer to be able to direct the viewer's gaze more easily later. In this way, stories can be told better or disturbing objects can simply be hidden.
But how do you get really great bokeh?
Many only think of taking photos with an open aperture. But in addition to the quantity, it is also about the bokeh quality.
In this post, we'll look at how to take the photo with a perfectly blurred background. I see it as an extension of my post on the use of depth of field by touching on a few things. In the following I want to elaborate on the topic and especially focus on the bokeh quality.
1. EXCURSUS: BASICS OF PHOTOGRAPHY AND CAMERA SETTING
A brief summary for all beginners: In every photo there is a level on which the sharpness lies. All areas in front of and behind this focal plane only appear blurred. There is only perfect sharpness on this, often wafer-thin layer.
As described in my photography basics article , there are three parameters in photography: shutter speed, ISO and aperture. The latter controls how extreme the blur falls outside the focal plane. Or just how blurred the background is.
The smaller the aperture value, the more the background blur becomes. Many premium lenses therefore have an aperture value of F1.4
Thrown in first, you have to open the aperture as far as possible for a blurry background and use a small f-number. We'll get to that in a moment.
So pretty simple in theory, but much more extensive in practice. In the following, I describe how the bokeh (this word describes the general design of the blurred area in the photo) is also of high quality in addition to the pure quantity.
2. THE BASIC REQUIREMENT FOR GOOD BOKEH - THE RIGHT LENS
Okay, as just indicated, optics with a correspondingly high aperture are required for the effect of the blurred background. A lens with an aperture of F1.8, F1.4 or even F1.2 open aperture initially helps to achieve a high degree of depth of field and makes the effect very clearly visible.
However, you can't just compare the lenses based on this number. Each lens has its own shape, as represented by the out of focus area in the photo. The bokeh quantity due to the open aperture is not always an indication of how beautiful the bokeh is ultimately rendered.
In addition to the blurring factor, quantity, quality is also very important. We don't just want a “fuzzy wall” behind the model. Rather, within this area, the eye should pay attention to the details. I keep training my eye for this myself.
THE QUALITY OF THE BOKEH EFFECT
Bokeh comparison - before: Sony 28mm F2 / after: Sony 24mm 1.4 GM both @ F2.0 (cropped focal length difference in Lightroom)
An unfair comparison (approx. 1000 € price difference), which hopefully illustrates how blatant quality differences can be with the blurring. Just compare how gently the GM lens depicts the blurred area. Here the bokeh circles are soft, round and have no hard edges with green color fringes. To the right of the chain of lights on the railing you can sometimes see how the bokeh changes from the cheap 28mm to cat's eyes, while the GM is still circular.
Pay attention to the light spaces between the leaves of the plant on the left. On the cable directly behind the test chart and the neck of the watering can. All of this seems much more pleasant with the GM.
It is therefore clear that the generally better imaging performance of a lens also affects the beauty of the blur. You can easily tell where the money goes when buying lenses.
I always thought that the Sigma Art lenses all have super great bokeh. After all, there was a lot of blurring so that the model could be completely isolated from the background.
Then I got the Sony 24mm 1.4 and learned a lot. In comparison, the bokeh of the 24mm Sigma Art looks much harder.
It's not just about the degree of blur and the blur radius (size of each individual bokeh ball). But also how round and soft each of these balls is.
An edge that is as soft as possible flatters the eye. Otherwise the bokeh looks very stubborn in detail. And the picture somehow restless.
What at first may seem like a scrap of detail, ultimately contributes to the fact that we ourselves and our customers subconsciously have a better feeling when looking at the photo.
IN MY OPINION, THE FOLLOWING CHARACTERISTICS ARE USED TO JUDGE THE BOKEH QUALITY IN THE BLUR:
- How soft does each individual point of light appear?
- Do hard double edges form on individual lines?
- Are the lights circular or square?
- Do "cat's eyes" increase towards the edge?
- How badly are the edges of the lights infested with color fringes (green, magenta or turquoise)?
In addition, there is often the special case that the bokeh seems to rotate elliptically around the center of the image (Swirley Bokeh). I don't think that's bad in principle, but it depends on the situation. One such lens is the Helios 44-2 58mm F2 lens .
Here you can see how hard the lights were displayed in the bokeh back then. Today it looks a lot softer. Still, I'm often a fan of such old optics. This is precisely what gives them an unmistakable characteristic. It also depends on what you like and what you have in mind.
Characteristic Swirley bokeh from the analog Helios 44-2 58mm F2 lens. Here the bokeh rotates around the center of the image.
The lens structure not only influences the bokeh quantity, but also the quality. In addition to the general imaging performance and lens construction, the number of blades and the shape of the aperture often play a role in how round the bokeh appears.
THE RIGHT FOCAL LENGTH
Everyone knows that wide-angle optics tend to distort. But that's not the point. In this context, it's more about the bokeh characteristics.
Due to the compression of telephoto focal lengths, the bokeh appears somewhat fuller and softer due to the higher blur radius. The bokeh effect of wide-angle lenses, on the other hand, is more fine-grained over the surroundings.
Once again, it's a matter of taste. When it comes to a pronounced blurring effect, I recommend an 85mm lens compared to a 24mm lens.
3. CHOOSING THE RIGHT CAMERA FOR MORE BACKGROUND BLUR
To make the bokeh effect more visible, a full-frame camera is recommended. Yes, the effect is visible even with smaller sensors. However, full format will always be able to offer a little more reserves.
This is primarily due to the crop factor, which is missing here. In order to get the same image section, I can get closer to the subject with the same lens. The shorter focus distance gives me a blurred background.
Nothing changes in the bokeh quality, but in the quantity. And because of that I can marvel at the bokeh from my lens even better.
It doesn't matter whether you have an SLR or a mirrorless system camera. With the latter, however, there is one important setting to consider. We'll come to this in a moment.
Further full format blog posts:
- APS-C vs full format: This is how the image look is created
- The advantages of full format for my photography
4. SELECT APERTURE AND CAMERA SETTINGS DEPENDING ON THE SITUATION
I was just talking about an open aperture. However, this should always be chosen in relation to the focal length and distance to the subject.
When I completely image a person with my Sigma 85mm 1.4 lens and stand far away, I confidently take photos at aperture 1.4. However, when I photograph portraits that only include the upper body or even the head, I fade out.
The correct aperture setting for portraits thus forms a compromise between pleasantly soft background blur, but also sufficient depth of field to depict the person. Make sure that both eyes are sharp as possible. Depending on your taste, maybe your nose too.
And even if the subject is gradually becoming obsolete in times of eye autofocus: With F2.0, the probability of hitting the focus point is slightly higher than with open aperture. Open aperture F1.4 does not forgive mistakes here. And the eye autofocus is not yet 1000% perfect (albeit within a framework in which you would never notice it in passing).
The aperture is the size of the opening in the lens through which a certain amount of light can enter the camera at once. A camera setting with an open aperture (= small aperture value) offers a lot of depth of field.
That said, in the end you can also consider whether it really has to be the big and heavy F1.2 or F1.4 lens. Or whether maybe the light F1.8 lens is enough.
The following supplement to the choice of lenses:
A lens with a high aperture is actually like a sports car. It has a lot of power (= light intensity) that can only rarely be extended in normal use on public roads (= too little depth of field with a short focus distance). He consumes a lot of fuel (= high weight in daily use). In the end, however, you know that you could drive fast if necessary (= F1.4 is still available in dark situations). Both sports cars and F1.4 lenses are more expensive to buy than conventional models.
But: in the end, both are often more fun, despite the disadvantages.
You can see it in a similar way with the full-frame camera body. Personally, I still think F1.4 lenses and full-frame cameras are cooler for the mission to create a lot of great bokeh.
5. ATTENTION: NOTE THIS SETTING ON DSLM CAMERAS FOR BETTER BOKEH
Mirrorless system cameras have many differences from other single-lens reflex cameras. But one of them also affects our bokeh enormously.
With mirrorless cameras, we always see the image through a live view. The sensor is always active. When the shutter release is pressed, the following happens: The exposure (as with DSLR cameras) starts with the first shutter curtain. When the shutter speed has expired, the second shutter curtain ends the process and the photo is taken. The camera then goes back to live view and transmits the sensor signal to the screen.
I am still writing a complete guide on the subject of closure for DSLM cameras. At this moment only the topic of the 1st electronic shutter curtain is important.
With the mirrorless camera, the beginning of the exposure, i.e. the 1st shutter curtain, is simply "started" electronically. A mechanical shutter curtain is not absolutely necessary for this. The second shutter curtain ends the recording mechanically. That is the only click that you mostly hear with the DSLM.
However, the interaction between this electronic-mechanical mixing method results in negative optical effects in the bokeh when using small aperture values and short shutter speeds. Sometimes the bokeh circles are cut off, do not appear so full or have harder edges. So for now, remember the following:
Deactivate the first electronic shutter curtain in the menu for better bokeh with fast shutter speeds.
As a result, the camera now clicks twice for each photo - precisely because the first shutter curtain now also mechanically marks the start of the recording. Note that this extra movement can also tend to wear out the closure.
I will go into this in more detail in a future post. Sony itself also writes about the advantages of the mechanical shutter in this regard.
All other photos in this post were of course taken with the first electronic shutter curtain deactivated.
6. BRING OUT BOKEH WITH MOTIF
So now you have a full frame camera, a great F1.4 lens with good optical bokeh properties. You have the aperture setting out and also pay attention to your (possibly) electronic shutter curtain.
Now it's raining, however, and you're taking photos in the studio against a white background. With the result:
As you can see, you see nothing.
The challenge now is to find situations where the bokeh can really unfold. In my opinion, that's more the case with an outdoor photo shoot.
Find places where the bokeh can unfold well. I find this more in nature.
There are a lot of great structures here (especially in nature). This turns your camera into an interesting image look rather than a uniform background. Go in search of such situations.
Bokeh from the Sony Zeiss 55mm 1.8
A blurry background isn't everything either. As written in my depth of field post, you should also think about a foreground . This also sinks into blurring and forms a further dimension in the photo.
On site it is also crucial what you specifically show in the background. Do you see, for example, a particularly large number of points of light that come through the leaves? Are there leaves on the ground where each leaf forms a bokeh circle?
7. BLURRED BACKGROUND DUE TO CORRECT SPACING
However, you don't always need an F1.4 lens with a full-frame housing. Often there are also a few optical tricks with which you can tease out a bit more depth of field.
The keyword is distance. On the one hand, the distance to the subject. The shorter the focus distance, the blurrier the areas outside the focus plane will be.
The large distance between the model and the background makes it appear even softer.
But many forget the second distance (which I underestimated for a long time): The distance between the model and the background. The laws of optics also apply here. The further the person is from the background, the more blurry it will appear.
A focal length from 50mm is particularly suitable for this. In the wide-angle range, the background tends to appear too small due to the lower compression.
CONCLUSION: MORE THAN JUST A BLURRY BACKGROUND
Another point that you should definitely consider when buying lenses. But it is often not easy to assess the bokeh in advance. Many of the popular tests are limited to looking for cat eyes in the bokeh. Or how big the bokeh lights appear.
In fact, the blurring in its full glory only shows up in everyday life. When it comes to obtaining the smoothest possible result even against a restless background. Only when the bokeh appears visibly soft in practice does the transition to the blur appear softer. And that's a terrific effect.
As I said, this not only makes the picture look more harmonious. It also helps to create the 3D pop effect already mentioned in the article. I find that things always look very vivid and tangible in the photo thanks to a calm sharpness gradient in the bokeh.
In addition to the aesthetics, as I said, the whole thing has a practical use. In situations in which you have to accept the scenery as it is (e.g. for a report), you get a better and more harmonious picture. Because disturbing elements are better defused here.
Thus, the lens is the basic requirement. Of course, you have to weigh up how stark the difference is and how it is reflected in the price. Of course, I would always like the lens with the best bokeh. At some point, it just becomes unaffordable. But you should not only look at the number of the aperture on the packaging, but also compare the bokeh quality.
The differences range from barely noticeable to brutal. While the difference between the Zeiss and Sigma 35mm, for example, is limited, it is very clear between the GM and Sigma. But that's always a matter of taste.
The other aspects and settings mentioned are also important for a great blur. The motif and positioning also play a significant role.
All of this combined results in a photo with a great deal of blurring in the background.
LENS RECOMMENDATIONS FOR BEAUTIFUL BOKEH (SONY E-MOUNT)
- Wide angle: Sony 24mm 1.4 GM *
- Slight wide angle: Sony 35mm 1.4 Zeiss *
- Slight telephoto range: Sony 85mm 1.4 GM *
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