n. japanese term for blur, or out-of-focus. Pronounced bow-keh, with the first syllable soft, and the second one hard. The anglisised proununciation sounds more like "bow-ka" with the accent on the first syllable. It's a way of describing how out of focus areas are rendered in the image. Despite popular belief here and elsewhere, bokeh is not limited to describing how actual points of light are rendered. It's just that an out of focus point of light is the best and easiest way of describing and classifying the bokeh of a lens. Classifications includes donut, flat, and indistinct. The latter is generally preferable since it gives a softer and better blended out-of-focus background. Bokeh is subjective however, what looks good to one person may not be good for another. _______________________________________________________

Bokeh describes the rendition of out-of-focus points of light. It describes the appearance or "feel" of out-of-focus backgrounds and foregrounds.

Bokeh describes the rendition of out-of-focus points of light. Differing amounts of spherical aberration alter how lenses render out-of-focus points of light, and thus their bokeh. The word "bokeh" comes from the Japanese word "boke" (pronounced bo-keh) which literally means fuzziness or dizziness. For a full description go to http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/bokeh.htm (see: aberration)

Bokeh describes the quality of out-of-focus areas of an image. The word "bokeh" (pronounced as boh-keh) comes from the Japanese word "boke" which means fuzziness. Bokeh isn't the depth of field itself, but the way this unsharpness (usually the background) is displayed on a picture. A lens has good bokeh if the out-of-focus areas are pleasant and don't distract from the subject. The shape of the aperture of a lens has a influence on bokeh. Lenses with more blades in the aperture diaphragm tend to result in more "round" bokeh.

The way in which out of focus light is rendered by a lens. Good bokeh is a smooth and natural looking fuzziness. Bad bokeh tends to create unpleasant artifacts. This page give a more complete definition, with examples of good and bad bokeh.

Bokeh (from the Japanese boke (ぼけ), "blur"Mike Johnston, former editor of Photo Techniques magazine, claims to have coined the "bokeh" spelling to suggest the correct pronunciation to English speakers; see his Bokeh in Pictures article referenced below.) is a photographic term referring to out-of-focus (OOF) areas in a photographic image. While this is an and no evidence of formal definition, quantitative, or qualitative framework has been provided, some continue to link this vague, subjectively described quality to various lenses where no obvious consistent link has been demonstrated (see for example http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1030&message=13659518). Unfocused background or foreground is both an inevitability in many photographic situations, and a frequently-used artistic device http://www3.flickr.com/search/?q=bokeh, for example as an attempt to reduce distractions, and emphasise the subject.