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UER Forum > Archived UE Photo Critiques > How much bokeh is too much? And a critique. (Viewed 544 times)
faustian pact 


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How much bokeh is too much? And a critique.
< on 10/18/2013 3:40 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
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Not that this necessarily applies to the photos I've uploaded but I'm simply curious...how much bokeh is too much bokeh, as it applies to photos taken while exploring?

I mean, we all love the decay, the dripping pipes and peeling wallpaper eh?

But when photographing such things, how much bokeh should be used, if at all?

And I'm not talking about isolating a sole subject in a field of trash; I'm referring to any larger shot, architectural photos and such.

Also, critique if you please.
[last edit 10/18/2013 3:42 AM by faustian pact - edited 1 times]

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QuikSink 


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Re: How much bokeh is too much? And a critique.
<Reply # 1 on 10/18/2013 5:11 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
6 and 7 are my favorites. I think that the depth of field really helps you define the window and the leaves. I also think it really suits the bear. The only thing is I wish that the bear was exposed more, subtle exposure blending or something as the background is wickedly exposed, but the bear is just black.

I would straighten the lines a little on one. I'd have also given us a little more of a look around it so we have more context.

The phone in 3 looks like it is in a really big bird nest, I like it!

Good job all around.

sirpsychosexy 


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Re: How much bokeh is too much? And a critique.
<Reply # 2 on 10/18/2013 9:24 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Bokeh's always good. I know a lot of people only shoot at F8 with their wide lenses because "it's on a tripod anyways", but especially indoor shots can get a bit boring without any bokeh. I'm on F4 a lot which is the widest my lens goes, which makes the autofocus fail more often but gives more interesting pictures. That little bit of overall sharpness that you lose is barely noticeable with most modern wide angle lenses.

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faustian pact 


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Re: How much bokeh is too much? And a critique.
<Reply # 3 on 10/18/2013 12:39 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Posted by QuikSink
6 and 7 are my favorites. I think that the depth of field really helps you define the window and the leaves. I also think it really suits the bear. The only thing is I wish that the bear was exposed more, subtle exposure blending or something as the background is wickedly exposed, but the bear is just black.

I would straighten the lines a little on one. I'd have also given us a little more of a look around it so we have more context.

The phone in 3 looks like it is in a really big bird nest, I like it!

Good job all around.


I spent quite a lot of time on the bear photo...see, I was an idiot and only brought along a monopod and my 50mm 1.8, and considering the crop factor of the camera I use...not exactly wide angle. So I metered for the windows, focused on the bear and ended up having to do a lot of cropping to get rid of extra crap lying around (literally crap, as in feces, probably human).

As a result, while the image is OK as is, increasing the exposure on the bear much more introduces A LOT of noise, and rather ugly noise in contrast with the bokeh through the windows.

That being said, I will take any tips at all on how to resolve this, short of ramping up luminosity or clarity in Lightroom, haha.

And that phone? That sort of thing always creeps me out for some reason. You know, corded phone receivers lying in odd places. This one? The middle of an overgrown field flush with rusting farm equipment, outside a farmhouse that sits half burnt and is the scene of an unfortunate death a few years back. Kinda creepy, so oddly placed haha.

But thanks for the critique!

"Fight the control image. Fight the control machine"

www.flickr.com/docbenway84
faustian pact 


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Re: How much bokeh is too much? And a critique.
<Reply # 4 on 10/18/2013 12:45 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Posted by sirpsychosexy
Bokeh's always good. I know a lot of people only shoot at F8 with their wide lenses because "it's on a tripod anyways", but especially indoor shots can get a bit boring without any bokeh. I'm on F4 a lot which is the widest my lens goes, which makes the autofocus fail more often but gives more interesting pictures. That little bit of overall sharpness that you lose is barely noticeable with most modern wide angle lenses.


They do indeed get boring without any of that soft, creamy lack of focus in the background (or foreground or wherever). I guess my concerns were based upon the subject matter. If I'm shooting my daughter blowing bubbles on a summer day, I want to isolate her and the bubbles and have the rest melt away into a gorgeous blur, a riot of undefined colors.

Conversely, if I'm shooting a half demolished or collapsed abandoned home or warehouse or something, does the mere act of producing decent bokeh drown out the "beauty in decay" concept? I mean, is juxtaposition something to shoot for in UE photography? I love it, no doubt, and in the end what I like is all that really matters, but is the juxtaposition of traditional beauty against the beauty of a decaying, dying structure something that is becoming almost overused, such as light painting?

I guess that's my question. I'll keep shooting it this way because I prefer to, I guess I was just curious as to the opinions of the community as a whole.

But anyways, long rant here and the point is? Thank you kindly for your opinion!

"Fight the control image. Fight the control machine"

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ahhntzville 


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Re: How much bokeh is too much? And a critique.
<Reply # 5 on 10/18/2013 6:19 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Whatever you did to resize these for the web turned all of the diagonal lines into jagged sawteeth. #4 especially is atrocious.

faustian pact 


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Re: How much bokeh is too much? And a critique.
<Reply # 6 on 10/18/2013 6:57 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
I just let the site do the resizing; original image size lacks the jaggies.

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randomesquephoto 




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Re: How much bokeh is too much? And a critique.
<Reply # 7 on 10/20/2013 1:48 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Here's a good article on bokeh.


http://blog.mingth...1/bokeh-revisited/



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nb198 


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Re: How much bokeh is too much? And a critique.
<Reply # 8 on 10/22/2013 9:10 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
For me, there is really no such thing as too much bokeh. It really all depends on the shot that you are taking. If you want the shot to be very focused on one thing, then bokeh is important and the more bokeh will help pull the subject out. However, you are taking a shot of a room and use a super shallow depth of field and bokeh the back of it, it might be weird.

For me it really depends on the shot in particular and every shot will demand a varying amount, where some demand a lot and some demand none.

For larger shots that are more architectural, I personally stay away from bokeh unless i am trying to make a particular part of the photo stand out. If i am not trying to take a photo of a single subject, I will try to reduce the bokeh as much as possible to make the entire photo as sharp as possible.


[last edit 10/22/2013 9:11 PM by nb198 - edited 1 times]

faustian pact 


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Re: How much bokeh is too much? And a critique.
<Reply # 9 on 10/22/2013 9:49 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Posted by nb198
For me, there is really no such thing as too much bokeh. It really all depends on the shot that you are taking. If you want the shot to be very focused on one thing, then bokeh is important and the more bokeh will help pull the subject out. However, you are taking a shot of a room and use a super shallow depth of field and bokeh the back of it, it might be weird.

For me it really depends on the shot in particular and every shot will demand a varying amount, where some demand a lot and some demand none.

For larger shots that are more architectural, I personally stay away from bokeh unless i am trying to make a particular part of the photo stand out. If i am not trying to take a photo of a single subject, I will try to reduce the bokeh as much as possible to make the entire photo as sharp as possible.




And rather than for technical or composition-based reasons, do you ever find bokeh to be...artistically inappropriate? I mean sure, it can be a lovely component to any photo but in a from an aesthetic standpoint, is it correct to use?

I guess that, while I use it often, I don't always prefer it when shooting an abandoned location...as a matter of fact, I'll try and muddy up the bokeh with some grain on occasion, to get that rougher effect.

I guess I was just curious about personal preference when it comes to aesthetics over composition and all. You know, seeing this decay and recognizing it's beautiful in a way but it stills remains dirty, grimy, and dead or dying.

Also, as somewhat applies to bokeh and abandoned locations, anyone ever try those star filters? Introduce some sharp lines or oddly shaped bokeh?

"Fight the control image. Fight the control machine"

www.flickr.com/docbenway84
nb198 


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Re: How much bokeh is too much? And a critique.
<Reply # 10 on 10/25/2013 4:17 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Again, it really depends on what you are taking a photo of. I think it would be a bad move to use a lot of bokeh on a shot of a large room. If there isn't a subject in the foreground it will look really weird.

I don't think that anything that ever be artistically inappropriate. If you think a shot would look good with more bokeh, then go ahead and take it with more bokeh! Your intuition as to whether bokeh should be used is probably pretty good.

lovelife 


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Re: How much bokeh is too much? And a critique.
<Reply # 11 on 11/18/2013 12:39 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
On the whole bokeh deal, One of my best pictures I have ever taken has pretty wild bokeh but it turned out awesome. And throughout my many college photography classes, It really depends on how well you can explain your motives. I had a snobby black and white, film obsessed hipster in one of my previous classes that would only ask questions about my work from a somewhat rhetorical standpoint thinking that he could outsmart me. He asked what is it? Why all of the bokeh? And I told him that it's how I wanted it to look. Point being, Do whatever inspires you and be ready to defend it.



And i only explore with the strobe setting. The standard setting is for squares. People tend to get a little upset with me, but it's the only way to truly live. -Relik
UnchartedSights 


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Re: How much bokeh is too much? And a critique.
<Reply # 12 on 11/18/2013 4:30 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Really it depends on what you want your viewers to focus on in the resulting image. If you want them to focus on something specific(ex- your telephone or the first broken window in photo 1) then a shallow depth of field draws the viewers attention to that one subject. If you want multiple objects to be the focus of your photo, or a large area, then a wide open depth of field will allow everything to be in focus and the viewer can wander the photo taking it all in.
The shallower the depth of field the more artsy and specific your photo will be, the wider your depth of field the more there is to look at.
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Kuroneko 


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Re: How much bokeh is too much? And a critique.
<Reply # 13 on 11/19/2013 7:59 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Quick read I know, but assume you know the difference between bokeh and depth-of-field, and stuff just out of focus? Bokeh is the out of focus highlights. The stuff that glows. Only one or two of your pics contain anything close to actual bokeh, with the most simply having DoF and stuff out of focus... Neko.

QuikSink 


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Re: How much bokeh is too much? And a critique.
<Reply # 14 on 12/1/2013 6:06 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Posted by faustian pact


I spent quite a lot of time on the bear photo...see, I was an idiot and only brought along a monopod and my 50mm 1.8, and considering the crop factor of the camera I use...not exactly wide angle. So I metered for the windows, focused on the bear and ended up having to do a lot of cropping to get rid of extra crap lying around (literally crap, as in feces, probably human).

As a result, while the image is OK as is, increasing the exposure on the bear much more introduces A LOT of noise, and rather ugly noise in contrast with the bokeh through the windows.

That being said, I will take any tips at all on how to resolve this, short of ramping up luminosity or clarity in Lightroom, haha.

And that phone? That sort of thing always creeps me out for some reason. You know, corded phone receivers lying in odd places. This one? The middle of an overgrown field flush with rusting farm equipment, outside a farmhouse that sits half burnt and is the scene of an unfortunate death a few years back. Kinda creepy, so oddly placed haha.

But thanks for the critique!


Hey Mate,

Sorry for the long time to reply.

I can completely relate to not having the gear for the exposure job sometimes. But bringing just a monopod or a prime lens can really help us challenge ourselves photographically, so I say keep it up!

Regarding brightening the subject without noise... I've been playing around the past few months with turning my image to black and white, then exposing colours as I want, then turning that layer into a luminosity layer on photoshop. It can't completely kill noise, but you can expose as you like and often times it gets rid of a lot, or it looks super natural. Hope that helps.

-QuikSink

UER Forum > Archived UE Photo Critiques > How much bokeh is too much? And a critique. (Viewed 544 times)



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