Bokeh comes from Japanese language which literally translated as ‘blur’. In photography, bokeh is the quality of out-of-focus areas of an image. It is one of most popular subject in photography. Why ? because by adding bokeh we can make our photos more visually appealing , forcing the viewer’s attention to a particular area of the image.
Take a look at the following image with bokeh ( shoot with Nikon AF-S 18-70mm F3.5-5.6)
Bokeh largely depends on the lens , not the camera. Most fast prime lens and macro lens create really nice bokeh while consumer zoom kit-lens can only create rather ‘unpleasant’ bokeh. Like my image above :)
Here is what you need to do to create some bokeh / blur behind your subject:
- Set mode dial to A ( Aperture Priority ) – check page 76 on your D3100′s manual
- Set the aperture value to lowest number ( large aperture )
- Make sure the subject’s distance to the background is far enough to create out-of-focus area
- Get close to your subject by moving closer or use longer focal-lengths
- Focus to your subject , then shoot!
- Check the result , the subject should be in focus, while the background is blurred. If you have a good lens, the bokeh should be soft and fuzzy
My other bokeh photos :