Often, in my lens reviews, I am first guilty of talking about a lens with “Good Bokeh” or “Bad Bokeh” without providing a disgrace: The quality of the background of a photo is only partially due to the rendering of your lens. Other factors matter more – and many of them are well under your control.
Focus influencing focus blur
In any particular order, here are some of the main factors that can help or damage the quality of the out-of-focus blur of the photo:
- hole
- focal length
- Lens rendering properties
- Camera-to-subject distance
- Tones and texture within the background (and foreground)
- Subject-to-background distance (and subject to-yagrahi)
There are some other factors beyond this. For example, using slow shutter speed in combination with some camera movement can change the quality of out-of-focus blur. And at some cameras/lenses, there may be a slight difference in bokeh when using image stabilization or electronic shutter. But generally, the above six factors are the most important, or at least, the most discussed.
When Bokeh can be improved by your lens
I am not trying to suggest in this article that there is a better lens No Effect on bokeh. Here is a very clear comparison – thank you for sending these photos Libor! – Between two pictures where a separate lens was the only good way to improve the background blot of a photo. The first is an image with Nikon Z 180-600 mm f/5.6-6.3, which is on the maximum aperture of f/6.3, vs. Nikon Z 400 mm f/2.8 TC VR S at the maximum aperture (at least when TC) F/4:
For this picture, it was impossible to replace factors such as the choice of background like the subject-to-back distance, camera-to-subject distance, or even the first place. After all, Libor could only see this owl through a small window in the branches of the tree. It was not possible to roam around the camera, so the best way to improve Bokeh was to change the lens.
In this case, 400 mm f/2.8 (at 560 mm and f/4) offered 180–600 mm f/5.6–6.3 (600 mm and f/6.3) offered more than one stop of additional backgrounds compared to one more backgrounds, which was a meaningful difference in this photo.
These conditions are definitely there. However, the difference is usually not going to exceed one or two of improvement with broader aperture lenses. Even the biggest difference that I can think in Nikon lineup-400 mm F/2.8 vs. 28–400 mm F/4-8 when both are used at 400 mm-there is a difference of three stops (F/2.8 vs./8). You can do better than this.
Get closer to improve bokeh
There are three major ways to improve Bokeh of a photo without changing your lens. The first is to adjust the camera-to-subject distance. In particular, as you get closer to your subject, the depth of the region becomes turmoil and turmoil. This is why you can also take Macro photos with dreams, creamy backgrounds on aperture like F/8 or F/16.
I do not congratulate a wildlife photographer for the crop. Sometimes it is the only way to get a shot. However, if you have to harvest your photos regularly, keep in mind that you are not just losing resolution. You are losing a significant amount of background stain in comparison to what you get closer to your subject in the first place.
Here is compared between two photos taken on different aperture: F/1.4 and F/4.5. This difference is approximately 3.3 stops, which you will miss, Nikon is slightly higher than the difference between 400 mm F/2.8 and Nikon 28–400 mm F/4-8. Anyone will expect f/1.4 photos and more (and better) background blot, right? Well, see for yourself in the pictures of the pair that Jason sent me:
In fact, this is a photo on F/4.5 with a soft background! And the reason for this is that Jason’s camera-to-subject distance in the second picture was very low. He probably proceeded closely to the Worth Background Blur of five or six stops, which was more than combating the 3.3 stop difference in the aperture.
In other words, if you want one or two stop improvement in your background, you can spend thousands of dollars on more expensive lenses. If you want five or six stop improvements in your background, get closer to your subject.
But what if you can’t get closer – perhaps you don’t like the close composition, or perhaps it is a distant bird and you are already as close as you can get? Is this time to spend $ 14K at 400 mm f/2.8?
Well, before you use the links of our website and make us rich, stop and think what is something else that you can do to improve the background spot, if not more. Especially: Finding a better background in the first place.
Getting a better background to improve bokeh
If you thought that the camera-to-subject distance was very impressed, wait until you see what you can do with a better background!
To either change your camera position or wait for your subject, you can dramatically change the quality of the background explosion in the image.
For example, take these photos. The subject is about the same size in both images-Arf, the camera-to-subject distance did not change much-but Bokeh is very good in the second shot!
What did you give? Well, it was not a lens or aperture. Jason used Nikon AF-S500 mm F/5.6 PF for both photographs and captured both F/5.6. However, the background in the second picture is much better. First, it is far away-and the subject-to-background distance is a major factor in background blot. And second, it is just very lowly busy and distracted, with a minimum surrounding texture to disturb the focus areas.
Here is another, more subtle example of how a different background is enough to change the quality of the background of a photo:
Here, the background has gone away from being relatively pleasant – but slightly distracted – in almost the same washing of dark green. In this case, there are three factors in the game:
- For the second picture, Kiskadi went to a slightly close branch. This again shows how the camera-to-subject distance can matter.
- Not only the second branch was close, but the background behind it was far. This showed it even more carefully.
- Finally, the first place in the second background had more equally colored plants! All the plants were dark green, while the first picture had plants from bright to darkness. Even if the two backgrounds were equally far away, the second picture would have a smooth background blot due to this uniformity.
Therefore, if you want to improve Bokeh in your photo, pay attention to your background choice at first. How far is it? Is it the same in tone, or do it have a lot of different light and dark textures? Answers to those questions almost always matter more than your choice.
To improve the bokeh by changing your angle
There is another major way to change the quality of your background, and it is my personal favorite. If you cannot get closer to your subject, what do you do, and there is no way to switch to a different background? Is it finally the time to maximize the credit card?
not yet! Even if you keep everything the same, you can improve the bokeh in your photo using a slightly different camera angle, usually by shooting less on the ground. This changes the effective distance for the background so much that it can be like staining background 10 stops or more.
Here, for example, the camera-to-subject distance has not changed too much, and the scene is the same-there is some grass behind the eerd pigeon. However, in the second picture there is a very good appearance for Bokeh:
This happens when you just change your shooting angle! Jason used a low camera status in different ways here, effectively kept the background and foreground far away from the subject due to the new angle of the camera. The lens and aperture were similar. And no, Jason did not add any additional “lens blur” to post-processing 🙂
For me, it goes to show how much power you have on the background of your photo, which does not depend on the lens in this way. It is true that Jason could have spent many more gorgeous spending on 500 mm F/4 and could get a slightly less depth of the field in the first photo. But a low camera situation did all that and then something. I also argue that the light weight of 500 mm F/5.6 PF made the ground so easy in the position of handheld at the ground level. In other words, slow lenses – with a PF lens element that has been accused of damaging Bokeh – directly led to a better background spot!
Conclusion: A final example
I want to show you a final example that displays the difference between my own (minimum) wildlife photography skills and the experienced approach of Libor.
The first is a picture that I took with Nikon’s most expensive Z lens-600 mm F/4 TC VR S, with the built-in teleconverter. The second is one such picture that Libor took by F-Mount 200-500 mm F/5.6 with 1.7x teleconverter. I shot my photo at f/5.6, and they shot at f/8. Certainly comprehensive aperture and large scale value difference between these two lenses means that my photo is better than that? Not lol.
With this comparison, Libor proves that a $ 650 lens (price of about 200-500 mm on the market used) can defeat $ 15,500 lenses where out-of-focus blur is concerned, until the owner of $ 650 lenses uses the right techniques. Here, Libor achieved such improvement by mixing a close camera-to-top distance with a lower camera angle. The result was a very nice photo and that I managed to get with a foreign 600 mm F/4, much more shallow depth than that!
Hopefully these example photos, and the article as a whole, prove that the boke of a photo is not just about your lens. Often, more important factors are those decisions that you do as a photographer: your camera-to-subject distance, your choice’s background and your theme-to-back distance.
I would not say that the lens is irrelevant. There are still many good reasons to go with a sharp lens, and of course I am going to continue to show Bokeh tests in my lens reviews. But the next time your finger rotates on the “Buy” button, take a moment to think back on this article and decide if you want to boke, it can be captured in another way.
