I have found that most of my lenses display good to excellent bokeh for out of focus objects behind the point of focus and poorer bokeh for OOF items in front of the POF. One notable exception is my shift lens. It has good bokeh for OOF objects in front of the POF, but (comparatively) poor for OOF items behind the POF. Actually, this may make sense.
Regards, Bob.... -------------------------------------------------------------------- "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy!" - Benjamin Franklin From: "Timothy Sherburne" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > This is an interesting idea: Could the choice of background *and* distance > from main focus of interest in a photograph be more of an influence than > lens design in the perception of "bad bokeh"? > > The reason I ask is that I have examples of both soft, smooth bokeh and > harsh, edgy bokeh from the same lens, an A50/1.4, which I believe is > generally regarded as a good lens for bokeh as well as many other attributes > (color rendering, sharpness, contrast, distortion). > > I've noticed that spherical or cylindrical objects near the focal point of > the photograph tend to lend themselves to harsh bokeh; they reflect a lot of > light and have a great deal of contrast with their surroundings. Point light > sources themselves don't seem to suffer from the same problem, though. Not > sure why. > > I'll have to post some examples later and see what the list thinks. > > Tim > > On 12/11/02 8:46 AM, Fred wrote: > > > Keith wrote: > > > >> What is judged good or bad bokeh depends only on the lens, not the > >> subject's surroundings. What surrounds the subject may be judged > >> to be a good or bad choice of _background_, but whether the image > >> exhibits acceptable _bokeh_ depends ONLY on the lens. In my > >> opinion of what I understand. > > > > I would say that you are correct, Keith. Nonetheless, the choice of > > background (and sometimes foreground) when shooting, when making > > such a choice is possible, can make lenses with bad bokeh (even > > mirror lenses, for example, which are my own worst lenses for bokeh) > > "look pretty good" (for bokeh) - <g>. > >
