I think I broke my bokeh

[MrGibbage]

<<Link removed by Moderator>> RFMSports

ISO 100
f 1.8
1/4000

I got the "nifty fifty" and this is one of the pictures I took with it. The bokeh doesn't look so great. I know it's a little overexposed. (And, yeah, I know I should have used a fill flash.) Is that why it looks like it does? Or maybe it was too wide open? Do I need a lens hood? Or is it something else?

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[Tom W]

Hmmmnn - My firewall says this when I click on this thread:

Someone on address fe1-2.edge1.atl.atl.megapath.net [66.80.128.54] wants to send ICMP packet to your machine.
I believe that it has something to do with where you're linking your image.

[MrGibbage]

That's strange.
Here's a link. Try this.

http://skipmorrow2362.fotopic.net/p14975272.html (http://pelorus.org/BadBokeh.JPG)

[MrGibbage]

http://skipmorrow2362.fotopic.net/p14975272.html

Full res image (hosted by my personal DSL line, so hopefully I won't get slashdotted)

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[Muzz]

FYI: There are plenty of other image hosts that dont show pron ;)

[Tom W]

www.fotopic.net is a good choice.

[PacAce]

Image looks fine on my end (unless it's been fixed already).

Anyway, it's hard to tell what kind of bokeh you have with such a small image. Any way you can post a 100% crop of a portion of the full-size image?

[Bruce Hamilton]

I was thinking the same thing... bokeh looks pretty good to me. :rolleyes:

[MrGibbage]

I edited the offending post, and added a link to the image from my web server.

I think the bokeh in this image looks too much like lots of lens flares, with halos and edges, rather than the creamy, smooth more appealing look.

Here's a link that should work:

http://skipmorrow2362.fotopic.net/p14975272.html (http://pelorus.org/BadBokehFull.jpg)

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[PhotosGuy]

Looks OK to me, too. If you'd moved in closer to the subject, the background would be more OOF.

[Tom W]

OK, now things are more in order. I looked at the image and the bokeh does look a little busy. It is more a condition of there being a lot of different things in the background of varying color. As PhotosGuy says, decrease the distance between yourself and the subject, and/or increase the distance between the subject and the background and things will smooth out a good deal.

[MrGibbage]

I understand what you are saying - be close to the subject and far from the background. Here's another picture I took the same day. Again, overexposed slightly, I know (I had the aperature wide open, but didn't know to look for the flashing 4000 in the display), but I still theink the bokeh is bad. As you can see, I was a lot closer to the subject, but rather far from the background, and the bokeh still looks splotchy, rather than creamy. Is there anything else that affects the quality of bokeh?

http://skipmorrow2362.fotopic.net/c539808.html
(the landscape-oriented image is the new image)

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[Tom W]

Here's a couple of links regarding this lens and bokeh that I found searching the lens forum:

http://www.photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=50631&highlight=bokeh

http://www.photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=69785&highlight=bokeh

Worth reading - particularly the posts by Rich Denney who has a pretty good handle on the various lens construction issues that affect bokeh.

[MrGibbage]

Well, those links definitely explained it. I guess that's what the gaussian blur is for.

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