Ihave seen photos with boken in the tags what is it ?

You mean "Bokeh"? it simply means an out of focus background or foreground, a shallow depth of field. Confussed me at first too.



http://forums.steves-digicams.com/fo...amp;forum_id=2

hi thanks for your reply does this seem ok is this what it means coz if it is its just depth of field isnt it ?

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3135/...d700a54800.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3041/...b1e3838bc4.jpg

Yep thats all it is

Bokeh can also refer to the quality of the out of focus elements. Some lenses can have harsh bokeh and others have pleasing bokeh. It has a lot to do with the shape and number of blades in the diaphragm.

Or it could just be a speech impediment

"Ah shoot I dopped my camea and it bokeh"

I wonder if a description of a photo which includes the phrase "good bokeh" isn't much like a programmer yelling, "That is not a bug, it is a feature!"

Perhaps if someone could post some examples of bad bokeh ...

For instance, http://www.dyxum.com/dforum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11342

bad bokeh .... No Photoshop!

TCav posted a good link to photos taken with a catadioptric lens that is well known for producing dougnut boheh. Some of the photos are just fine, and some have very distracting background. Not all of the distracting backgrounds are due to the dougnut effect - some are simply due to the background being to messy (branches).

My feeling is that if the background attracts comment when the foreground is the subject, it is bad bokeh. (In general - there are alway exceptions.)