bokeh

I have  taken photos all my life and these days I am hyper aware of the "Bokeh effect". 

This is defined as the blurred background on professional images. The subject is in focus and everything else is blurred. This seems very natural to us as its exactly the way our eyes work. Our eyes, like the fancy cameras have a very specific sharp focus area.

This is something that I now use regularly when taking portraits. The effect is really amazing.

True DSLR cameras have very fine control over depth of field. This is based on the good optics used.

On modern cell phones the optics are limited by the thickness of the phones (more precisely the thinness) and as a result they simply don't have the glass. Computational photography, or software wizardry for the rest of us is able to very convincingly simulate the effect.

Each successive generation of phone has done this better. When coupled with a time of flight sensor the camera can detect depth with a high level of accuracy.

OK class, the heavy science portion is over.

What just occurred to me was that before the smartphone makers started talking about Bokeh, I hadn't heard about it.

How was it possible that I have  toyed with photography all my life without using that term. I suppose I knew that the effect existed, but I must admit that I didn't dwell on it that much.

Is this another case of "they won't know what they want, until I tell them"? 

Pronounced

"Bo" as in bow and arrow

"Ka" as in motorcar

𝓜 𝓟𝓪𝓻𝓪𝓴

Dec 2021