Good Thursday Morning, yes I realize it is now Thursday, but this still counts as What’s that Wednesday because I started writing this post yesterday. LOL! Anyway, here you go. Enjoy!

First, I have to tell you all that I adore bokeh. I mean like, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! When I download a card after a session and find an image with yummy bokeh, I almost always edit that image right away. (And yes, note to readers I did just call bokeh yummy. But seriously, it is!) So now I got you all thinking what the heck is bokeh anyway?

Wikipedia defines bokeh as follows -
In photography, bokeh is the blur,or the aesthetic quality of the blur, in out-of-focus areas of an image, or “the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light.” Differences in lens aberrations and aperture shape cause some lens designs to blur the image in a way that is pleasing to the eye, while others produce blurring that is unpleasant or distracting— “good” or “bad” bokeh, respectively. Bokeh occurs for parts of the scene that lie outside the depth of field. Photographers sometimes deliberately use a shallow focus technique to create images with prominent out-of-focus regions.

Bokeh is often most visible around small background highlights, such as specular reflections and light sources, which is why it is often associated with such areas. However, bokeh is not limited to highlights, as blur occurs in all out-of-focus regions of the image.
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Now you are probably wondering how to get some of this yummy delight in your next photograph. Well, here are a few things that have worked for me.
-use a good quality lens
-shoot wide open (a.k.a. use a large aperture)
-pose your subject so there is light peeking in behind him or her from a tree or other object
-don’t try too hard, just have fun! (this is probably the most important one!)

Here’s an example of an image with some good bokeh going on. Check it out below and have a great day!