On 29 Jul 1998 04:53:58 GMT, wkato@aol.com (WKato) wrote:

>Maybe this problem can best be phrased in the obverse, i.e. "ugly bokeh" I
>don't know what it is when I see it but when it's bad, it's ugly. Examples
>would be double out of focus lines (for hard edged objects), the donuts from
>mirror lenses of specular out of focus highlights, and other ugly things that
>are hard to define. I recall leaves in the backround that don't just look like
>out of focus leaves but they seem to want to take on a life of their own and
>look like hard edged green amoebas. The "ugly bokeh" joins separate elements
>that were never meant to be morphed together. A branch and a leaf sort of grow
>together with a semi-hard edge to form a third unworldly object, the green from
>the branch infusing into the branch and the brown from the branch into the
>leaf. Now that's "ugly bokeh."

OK, I can't resist responding...
Let's hear it for "bad" bokeh! ;-)
On the one side, one may be interested in
photographing in a way that may be condidered
good "recording" of what was in front of the
camera, in which case "good" bokeh may be
desireable... (though some of us would insist
that photographs make terrible records of
whatever is in front of the camera, so the
rendering characteristic of bokeh may contribute
little to enhancing the veracity of the
photographic record...). On the other side
is the concept that photography is a graphic
medium, and is little more than the arrangement
of tonal and color variations. From this point
of view, "bad" bokeh may be good bokeh, since
it makes possible some kinds of imaging that
don't work well using lenses that have "good"
bokeh... For examples of these, I refer you to
my web page, first and fifth photos in
"Aht Fotoz - art photography", and most of the
photographs in "Changing Showz - Sun-Plants".
The double-edging of features in out of focus
areas, and the "harder" textural quality in
out of focus areas serves to graphically
integrate the photographs better than if there
were more differentiatiation between what is
in and out of focus. (BTW, related to this is
the fact that "bad" bokeh lenses can appear to
be both sharp and have greater than normal DOF
[soft lenses also have extra DOF too...;-]).
I prefer lenses that render with snap and
contrast in the out of focus areas - lenses
with "bad" bokeh...