Bokeh Balls & Bubbles

Discover the charm that beautiful bokeh adds to images.

Generally speaking, bokeh describes the quality of the out-of-focus areas of an image caused by the lens’s circles of confusion. But bokeh is not just bokeh. It can be smooth and creamy, wild and exciting, or nervous and annoying. Let’s not forget the bokeh balls, bubbles, and swirls some lenses produce. Everyone has their opinion of what pleasing bokeh is.

Not every lens can produce pleasing bokeh. However, what is pleasant is totally up to you. I like it smooth or wild. Wild bokeh can be incredible or destroy an image single-handedly.

Different lenses are capable of certain types of it. Triplet lenses tend to produce these delicious soap bubbles. Helios lenses (maybe not all of them), based on the Zeiss Biotar design, can create an exciting variety of swirling effects. Modern lenses are usually better corrected for a wide range of optical flaws and often do not exhibit the wilder side of bokeh. Still, sometimes, when all the stars align, the magic happens. Some modern lenses are designed to create exciting bokeh, sometimes by copying the old “masters”. I’m looking at Lensbaby, modern Meyer-Optik lenses, TTArtisan, etc.

I own a few vintage and not-so-vintage lenses that can produce outstanding bokeh. That does not mean it will happen all the time, or that it will look great. But when the object of my desire, the background, and the light conditions come together, it will happen. I will add or exchange images occasionally to this project.

I hope you enjoy the photos. I had a blast creating them.