About Bokeh and Lens Diaphragm
About Bokeh and Lens Diaphragm | ||
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The word Boke, or Bokeh, is a Japanese word meaning to 'become blurred or fuzzy.' It is used to refer to the appearance of out-of-focus areas in an image, whether the transitions are smooth and uniform or coarse. Different lenses will have different characteristics with regard to their bokeh, often determined by the number of blades used in the lens diaphragm: The more blades used, the more circular the aperture and the smoother the result. Most modern lenses, particularly macro lenses, use diaphragms with eight or nine blades, which make the aperture very close to circular, generally leading to excellent bokeh. At least one lens currently on the market, the Nikon 105 mm f/2 DC- Nikkor, features a defocus control to enable adjustment of foreground and background blurring without affecting the main point of focus. Although designed primarily for portraiture, it may well be worth trying for close-up and macro work, if used with appropriate extension tubes. | ||