Bokeh: A photography term, derived from Japanese, that refers to the out-of-focus backgrounds, which are often used to reduce distractions and emphasize the primary subject.

In English: When the backgrounds of a photograph are all blurry but the subject is in focus. 

Examples:  Visit here.   Yep, that Bakerella has bokeh down.  There are tons of examples out there, her stuff was just fresh on my mind because I’m experimenting with her cake pops (but that story is for another day!)

Bakerella Cupcake Photograph

This week in my photography class we are experimenting with  depth of field.  Well, I’ve learned a few things.  I have a point & shoot camera but it has a manual setting. (I can adjust the f-stop and aperture.)  So I thought getting a shallow depth of field would be manageable.  After a gazillion photographs, not one with a blurry background, I  went to the web for help.  (I had already read my manual and it was no help.)

This is what I learned from Sam.  “…If you WANT to defocus the background, you are going to have to work pretty hard at it. You would have to zoom to the longer end of the lens and set the aperture open as wide as it will go… and get pretty close to your main subject while having the background a fair distance away.”

So I set up my tripod, picked a subject matter (pincushion on fabric stack), put it far away from the background matter (bolts of fabric), zoomed in and managed to get a little bokeh. (Other issues of this photograph I won’t address here!)

Yep, honey.  I’m gonna need a digital SLR sometime.

PS That little contest is still comin’ up.  I’ve just been obsessed with cinnamon rolls and bokeh lately.  I’ll get on that post soon!