Its All Good Photogra wrote:
Bokeh

It is a Japanese (I think) word meaning blur...specifically the blur you get by having your lens wide open vs the sharpness when stopped down.

Example:

James Jackson wrote:
It is a Japanese (I think) word meaning blur...

More or less.  It is a difficult word to describe precisely.

But ... actually, I'm not posting to comment on your definition but to point out that it isn't an acronym, it is indeed a Japanese word.

We are so used to seeing combinations of letters that seem so out of place, it is interesting to see one that is actually a word.

UnoMundo Photography wrote:
lens are judged by having good bokeh. Some folks believe it some not. There  a tens or articles on the web about good bokeh.

While this is an aesthetic thing to be sure, some lenses do in fact produce better bokeh than others. It has to do with how many blades are in the diaphragm, and whether or not the edges are rounded. Nikon actually advertises "good bokeh" on a few of their lenses. Bad bokeh would be the out of focus highlights having distinct hard edges, as opposed to edges that are soft and aren't distracting or unnatural looking. The image used in this thread as an example has what I'd call good bokeh.

  -P-

Pat Thielen wrote:

While this is an aesthetic thing to be sure, some lenses do in fact produce better bokeh than others. It has to do with how many blades are in the diaphragm, and whether or not the edges are rounded. Nikon actually advertises "good bokeh" on a few of their lenses. Bad bokeh would be the out of focus highlights having distinct hard edges, as opposed to edges that are soft and aren't distracting or unnatural looking. The image used in this thread as an example has what I'd call good bokeh.

  -P-

I never knew about the rounded edges part...interesting!

Pat Thielen wrote:
The image used in this thread as an example has what I'd call good bokeh.

Thanks!

That's from the Canon EOS 28-200mm f3.5-5.6 USM lens.