 So have you ever heard the term bokeh? It's actually something I've been using for years in my photography. And I didn't know it. I didn't know what it meant, didn't have an idea really of what the word meant. But when you look it up, it's pretty simple. Bokeh is the word, it's a Japanese word for blur or haze. And it can be used in lots of different ways in modern photography. There's a lot of, if you Google Bokeh today, you'll find a lot of creative uses of it. So what we're going to talk about today is its use in composition. So the definition for today is the use of focus. And I need to spell focus correctly here, a classically bad speller today. The use of focus in composition. So basically what is in focus and what is out of focus being considered an element of how you are creating a composition. As we all know, photography is a combination of science and art. So let's take a look at what's happening inside your camera so you kind of understand what is really going on here and why this is important. So here we've got a light source over there on the left. I'm creating a little line of lenses right now. And then I'm going to make some digital sensors here. And we've got our sensors. OK, so we've got our point of light. And let's make our first image is going to be in focus. The light hits the lens, goes through, and it meets at the very same point on the backside on the sensor. So the resulting image is going to be exactly a copy of that light. It's going to be the same shape and color and size as it would appear to your eye or through the camera of the lens. Now let's take an example of something that's not quite in focus yet here. So this right here, the light's coming in. And now when it hits the sensor, it's not quite meeting. You can see here that it looks a little different. If you look at this point where the light hits the sensor, the light isn't hitting in quite the same spot. So it's going to be a little bigger. It's going to be a little more diffuse. And it's going to be quite as intense of a light source. Going to be out of focus. So that's all that's happening when something is out of focus. Let's take an example now that is something that is over focus. So you've focused past it. And it's going to look something like this. So the focus point is right here. But the focus, so that means it's out of focus. The focus point of this image right here is actually behind the sensor. That's where it would be in focus. So that just kind of tells you about it's you have an idea of why it's out of focus. So in this image, it's going to be even bigger, more diffuse, and more out of focus. Now this can happen to different images in the exact same photograph. So you can have one image that's out of its range of focus and one that's in. And for that image that is in focus, like this one up here at the top, it's going to be sharp and look just like it does. And for other parts of the image that are out of focus, they're going to be sort of cast into these sort of globes of light that are sort of like conglomerations of the colors and tones of a certain part of the photograph. So these things down here are a part of the bokeh. They are haze. They are blur in your image. Now a little bit of a note before we move forward in this lesson is really important that you guys understand this. To be able to really use bokeh effectively, you're going to need a lens that has a little bit bigger of an f-stop. So I would say f1.4 through f maybe 5.6 is really going to be where you're going to be able to make images that make the most use of bokeh. You're also going to be noticing that a lot of the best images or a lot of the most bokeh-y images are going to be done in the macro range. And mostly that just has to do with the way that lenses work. It has to do with the fact that when you're closer to something, according to the rules of depth of field, things that are behind that object are going to be more out of focus than if you're zooming in on the Earth, than if you're focusing on something that's farther away. Because depth of field shallows as your object of focus closens to your lens as it gets closer to your lens. So you want to make sure when you're doing all this before you get too started and get frustrated that your camera can do all of this. You can do that by checking the barrel of your lens. So here's your camera. And maybe that's the barrel of the lens. Here's the glass of your lens. There should be some text sort of written around the edge of the barrel. And if you see anywhere in there a number that says F slash 1 point something or 2 point something or 3 point something, that's good. It means your lens is going to be able to do this. If your lens says F11, you're probably not going to really be able to be playing with Bokeh very much. Because your lens is probably designed to focus between three meters in infinity or one meter in infinity. And Bokeh is just not something that you're going to be able to play around with. But if you have a larger F stop, so you have more light coming in and you have less of a little window shutter inside of your lens, you're going to be able to play with this. And if you really need to know more about this, you want to understand this. We have a lesson called depth of field. So some of you probably already have seen it. Most of you probably have seen it. But if you haven't seen the depth of field lesson, it will give you an idea of what's really happening inside your camera and why this is working out the way it is and why Bokeh is something that you can even mess with in the first place. Now I was walking around yesterday in Berlin and I was at a friend's house and I saw this whiskey bottle sitting on a table. And I thought, this is a great example of something that I would like to do a lot in photography. I like to simplify. See, I can spell it correctly. I did simplify. And I really wanted to simplify in that I just really liked the top. I liked the way the light was hitting the top of this bottle. And I liked the way the light was hitting the table down here. And I just, I kind of liked the feeling of the image. But I didn't really want it all to be in focus. So to do that, I decided, OK, I just want to simplify this image. It's one of the uses of Bokeh. And I just zoomed in on and focused in on this top of the bottle and said, OK, everything else is out of focus. So I shot it at f 1.8. And this Bokeh affects through everything that was behind and in front of that light or of that cap out of focus. And this is a great way. Basically, you have two things that you can really do with Bokeh as a tool. You can simplify your image or you can emphasize something. So you can emphasize, add emphasis. And these are really two very deep principles in composition itself. These are two things that you're almost always going to be trying to achieve with your photography. And using Bokeh is one way to do that. It's just one way of many to simplify and emphasize. You're subject to an image. Here is another example, just taken a few hours after the first. I was at dinner with my friend, Mary, and I had a Coca-Cola bottle sitting in front of me here. And I thought, OK, I really liked the feeling of sitting across the table from someone with drinks between us and just talking about life. And I thought, OK, well, I don't really need to tell the whole story. I just want to tell part of it. And oh, I have that Bokeh lesson that I'm teaching tomorrow. How about I make an image that exemplifies that a little bit? So I focused in on here. Again, I was shooting at f 1.8. You can do this at f4 if you would like it. Mary will be a little bit more in focus here in the background. Mary was about 1.5 meters away from me. And you can see what's happened here. I've focused in. Everything is sharp here in the foreground. And in the background, light sources have just turned into big blobs of light here, pearl earring. Here are her other pearl earring over here. This light in the background that was over her shoulder, all out of focus. Even her face and things like that have been kicked out of focus. But I think what's really the coolest is what happens with light sources, like these things here that I've already circled. Light sources will just be turned into big patches of light. And I would really encourage you if you have a chance try this at night with a cityscape, or maybe with, if you have Christmas lights laying around, you can do lots of fun tricks with Christmas lights and playing with bokeh. And those are all great things that can really kind of create fun, cool images. I was shooting in black and white yesterday for some reason. I was in a black and white mood, so you're not seeing all the pretty colors. But this kind of gives you an idea of how bokeh works. Now, one danger in bokeh is that you can really kind of choose your subject a little too closely. And I zoomed in right here on Mary's left eye to her left eye. But I threw this her right eye completely out of focus. So if I were to do this again, if I were to go back and shoot this image again, I would move from F1.8. So I was shooting at F1.8. I'd probably move to F4. Because in this image, I've got a depth of field of about maybe like 5 centimeters. And I probably need to be able to get both of her eyes in focus. I probably need an F-stop around F4. And the reason I want that is because if one eye is in focus and the other isn't, I just don't feel like that's comfortable with the image. I don't feel as comfortable with Mary. Now, if I were to choose an eye to be in focus, I'd probably choose the closer one, to be honest. Just because that is kind of more of a convention and I like conventions, I guess, I don't know. But you can see here a great example of, this is a great example of depth of field and how crazy it can be as well in this image. See, everything here is out of focus, or here's out of focus. But you can see that the coat is perfectly in focus and this hair here is almost perfectly in focus. So that means that these points right here are all on the same plane. And everything other than that is basically in front of or behind that. So you can kind of see which way here. Head's tilted according to this and things like that. But still, I would move my F-stop up to F4. This would make the background here a little bit more in focus. So all this stuff wouldn't be so bokeh-y. It would be a little bit more sharp. But that would still allow for things in the background to be out of focus enough, because Mary is only about one, maybe 1.5 meters away from me. She's pretty close, probably about a meter away. And so that still is gonna allow for lots of things to be kicked out of focus in the background. Distance to the subject and one of the rules of depth of field is very important to how you use bokeh. Just gives you an idea of maybe another thing, things that you might want to be careful about on top of all the deeper depth of field. I might also, instead of zooming in and focusing on that eye, I might focus on the bridge of her nose and kind of balance out my depth of field. All right, so that is your lesson about bokeh. I hope that you enjoyed it. You can go out now and experiment with it with whatever camera you have. And hopefully it will work out for you.