Anti Bokeh Wednesday / Discuss

Humuhumu    says:

Bokeh...

Why is Flickr obsessed with it? Why, oh gods of the aperture, why?!

Don't get me wrong. Bokeh (or shallow depth of field, as it was also known before we all evidently became native Japanese speakers) is a wonderful thing. An artist's tool. For some, it can approach an art form in itself. There is nothing wrong with using superb bokeh as an integral part of a well-composed photo.

I use bokeh extensively (albeit not necessarily gracefully), in many close-up shots, especially of flowers. I am not anti-bokeh in any way. I even belong to several bokeh groups, and won't chase you away for making a nice comment about my wonderful bokeh.

But Flickr's slavering lust over bokeh misses the point. It is the addiction of a group mind gone mad. Flickr seems to want bokeh more than it wants good photography. On Flickr, bokeh has become an end in and of itself.

Bokeh envy. Bokeh lust. Bokeh this. Bokeh that. Bokeh pimps. Bokeh whores. Bokeh bokeh bokeh. To my mind, it's overblown.

I implore people to look at the overall art, the composition, the hierarchy and palette of a shot, before jumping to bokeh. If you don't you may just miss the point.

The tendency I've seen during my short time on Flickr for people to only notice and comment on the bokeh of someone's shot instead of examining the overall composition of the photo, is a bad thing.

The same way that staring at someone's enormous fake boobs and thus being unable to remember their face is a bad thing.

Bokeh is more than fake boobs. But like fake boobs, it's a small part of an overall composition.

Think about it. Bokeh out.
Posted at 12:40PM, 21 October 2008 PDT (permalink)