Saturday, October 8, 2011

Bokeh Mania - Can it be stopped ?


One of my Flickr contacts drew my attention to the term ' nervous bokeh' evident in the above image, so I researched it and found an informative if not subjective article at Photo.Net. The author, Les Berkley offers -
"..... At first, it was just a harmless bit of silliness, like giclée. Now the Bokian Heresy threatens all of photography as we know it. Clearly, it is time to take a stand.
What is 'bokeh' anyway? No one seems to be quite sure, but it refers to the quality of blurred areas in a photograph. Smooth blur is considered desirable, and is referred to as 'creamy bokeh' (new from Kellog's®). Jagged blur with angular shapes is undesirable to the Bokians, and is called 'bad bokeh' or 'nervous bokeh' or 'nissan bokeh'. No one had heard of 'bokeh' before the mid-90s, although I have seen unsubstantiated accounts of Japanese photographers using the term in the 60s. (Boké is a Japanese work meaning 'blur'.)
What harm is there in this? Well, due to the awesome power of the Internet to instantaneously spread garble to every corner of the world, 'bokeh' is taking over. (2.5 megahits on Google.) It is discussed everywhere, including by me. I will tell you precisely why it is Evil after this......"
To read more, drop by Photo.Net

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