” The term comes from the Japanese word boke (暈け or ボケ), that means ” blur” or ” haze” , or boke-aji (ボケ味), the ” blur quality” . The Japanese term boke is additionally used within the sense of a mental haze or senility.” -Wikipedia

The Challenge

For this week’s Shooting Challenge , you should take a photo that celebrates bokeh, or a pleasing blur. The photo needn’t be entirely out of focus. But some part have to be, significantly.

The Method

Bokeh has been so popular for the past decade that it’s a cinch to seek out excellent resources. most of the final look comes all the way down to the lens you’re using-certain limitations of physics-and you may best research that by exploring bokeh groups on flickr. But achieving the effect is extremely doable.

Roberts Donovan will walk you during the basic rules of the technique, in addition as the ” secret” to it all-out of focus highlights.

DIY Photography even suggests a bit hack you should use for special bokeh shapes.

The Example

Our lead photo is by flickr member pasukaru76 . Shot with a Sigma 105mm f/2.8 EX DG Macro lens.

The Rules – READ THESE, SOME HAVE CHANGED

1. Submissions must be your individual.
2. Photos needs to be taken since this contest was announced.
3. Explain, briefly, the equipment, settings, technique and story behind shot.
4. Email submissions to contests@gizmodo.com, not me.
5. Include 930px wide image (200KB or less) AND a 2560×1600 sized in email. I know that your photo would possibly not fall into those exact high rez dimensions, so whatever native resolution you’re using is okay.
6. One submission per person.
7. Use the appropriate SUBJECT line to your email (more info on that below)

Send your best photo by Monday, January 31st at 8AM Eastern to contests@gizmodo.com with ” Bokeh” within the subject line. Save your files as JPGs, and use a FirstnameLastnameBokeh.jpg (960px wide) and FirstnameLastnameBokehWallpaper.jpg (2560px wide) naming conventions. Include your shooting summary (camera, lens, ISO, etc) within the body of the email at the side of a story of the shot in a couple of sentences. And don’t skip this story part because it’s often essentially the most enjoyable part for us all beyond the shot itself!

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This post is tagged: excellent resources, japanese word, limitations of physics, native resolution, term comes from