On Wednesday, December 11, 2002, at 10:46 AM, Fred wrote:
Fred's right. Bokeh won't be a problem if you don't have any objects of the right sort in the right spot, foreground or background. The optical characteristics of the lens are in the lens, but you need the right combination of elements in the scene being photographed for "bad" bokeh to end up on the film. Plus, the third factor affecting valuation of bokeh is the viewer. If you like the bokeh in evidence on the print or transparency, it's "good" bokeh if you don't, it's "bad".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>.Fred
Dan Scott
