Cheat Sheet Education

Want Better Bokeh from Your Lens? You Should Try This

Chris Gampat
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09/12/2020
3 Mins read
Chris Gampat the Phoblographer Sigma 135mm f1.8 Art Lens review Portraits of Sarah

Last Updated on 09/13/2020 by Mark Beckenbach

How to get the best bokeh from your lens isn’t rocket science, but it isn’t apparent either.

We all love fast aperture lenses. In the past decade, they’ve gotten so much better too. The Japanese, Korean and German manufacturers have an obsession with achieving gorgeous bokeh. So does the company that makes your phone, but they do it in a far different way. We’d all like better bokeh from our lenses. And the key to it is to do a bit of trickery. Today’s Cheat Sheet focuses on how to get better bokeh from your lens. One of these steps is obvious, but we’re sure you haven’t tried the others.

The Aperture Blades and Better Bokeh

Zeiss’ old 58mm f2 had anywhere from 13 to 17 aperture blades depending on which version you got your hands on.

The quality of your bokeh depends on a few factors. Of course, you need a fast aperture lens. Sometimes it has to do with the lens elements. But a big factor is the aperture blades. Though I’ve never fully confirmed this with engineers, the more aperture blades there are in a lens, the more circular and smoother the bokeh can be. Many high-end, modern, autofocus lenses have 11 aperture blades. But some vintage lenses have somewhere around 17 aperture blades. The point is to create an iris that has a perfect circle. Cheaper lenses have 5 aperture blades, but most lenses hit the sweet spot with around 7 or 9 blades. Manufacturers have found that most consumers are content with that number.

Some older lenses also have a swirly bokeh to them. You’ll see this a lot more in vintage lenses, but some new ones have it too. It adds character and is most apparent when used wide open. Before I go on, I should get this out of the way; don’t try to Photoshop or Luminar the bokeh. Embrace the lens for what it is.

Shot at F2.

The Lighting and Better Bokeh

Though we usually don’t condone the use of cigars or smoking in images, they can work with a specific scene to emit a scene of power. To do that, tilt the subject’s head a bit and also ask them to tense their forehead a bit.

Lighting is everything when trying to emphasize the bokeh in a photo. The infographic talks about using a flash. It works by having the flash duration act as another shutter speed to overpower ambient lighting. With your subject in focus, this makes the out of focus areas darker. Constant light can sometimes work if you have enough shadow coverage to emphasize it, but you can do it in other ways too. In the photo below, we’re abiding by Steve McCurry’s Rules of Portraiture. The big one here is using only three colors. Chelsie is bathed in red. The background is a mix of orange and blue. By making the bokeh (out of focus areas) another color, you’re also making it more apparent and emphasized. Combine that with the right lens, and you’re in business!

We’ve got another example below where the bokeh and the subject are the same color. If you’re shooting at night, know that your flash is balanced to daylight. More often than not, it will contrast with ambient lighting at night. The bokeh in the photo below is emphasized because it’s just so darned bright. It’s bathing her in light. But if it were blue or another color, it would stand out so much more.

Remember: You Have Other Apertures

Lastly, even though you’ve got a wide-open aperture and can create superb bokeh, don’t forget about the rest. If your lens has other apertures, you can use them to tell better stories.

The Phoblographer’s Cheat Sheets are made with Visme.

apertures Better Bokeh Bokeh cheat sheet infographic lens lighting Photography portrait
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.