BEST BOKEH LENS EVER?!

[nataliaflejszar&Photo]

What is in your opinion best ever lens to create most beautiful bokeh sceneries?
And an others great lenses, that can be used to create great bokeh ?

I'm so looking forward to get good answers, as I'm really bokeh effect crazy

I've been lot of experiences with... but, I want to very much to heard about your opinions here!! , epecially about lenses- what's only bradn!!!
As only I get answer about best one!! and an others great lenses to capture bokeh..
I want to improve my bokeh skills as welll,, so it's becouse I'm asking a lot about

I'll join to the dicussion too.. of couse, when I''ll back on the computer& Iphone on the forum..
Pictures are too welcome- as an exemple of lenses using to capture bokeh..
☀

 

[Tronto]

Have used them all...

 

[nataliaflejszar&Photo]

Have used them all...

do you have pictures for the lenses? Tronto ?

 

[Tronto]

No Unfortunately. I have tried most of what has been on the market when I was the store manager in a large store in Oslo.
Don't work with photos anymore, have to find something new. Have worked on this for 35years so that's enough.

 

[nataliaflejszar&Photo]

No Unfortunately. I have tried most of what has been on the market when I was the store manager in a large store in Oslo.
Don't work with photos anymore, have to find something new. Have worked on this for 35years so that's enough.

sadly
and sounds intresting!!

 

[Helix_2648]

The number of the blades from the iris is also very important for the bokeh!



So an aperture if f1.4 is very good and I'm not sure if you'll see a big difference between the above mentioned lenses.

You can get some really NICE bokeh effects by using just a simple piece of paper where you cut a heart or a star or something like that. If you put it right before the lens the bokes lights will have the same shape. So you can get heart bokeh spots or something like that.

Click me!

 

[nataliaflejszar&Photo]

The number of the blades from the iris is also very important for the bokeh!

View attachment 2880

So an aperture if f1.4 is very good and I'm not sure if you'll see a big difference between the above mentioned lenses.

You can get some really NICE bokeh effects by using just a simple piece of paper where you cut a heart or a star or something like that. If you put it right before the lens the bokes lights will have the same shape. So you can get heart bokeh spots or something like that.

Click me!

Wau!!, danke shön!!! Helix_2648
Thank you so much for the trics!!!
Very useful answer!!!!
I need to try the trics with papers...

 

[panos_adgr]

Nice topic!

A nice bokeh is dependent on the following factors.
1. Focal Lenght
2. Maximum Aperture
3. Aperture Blade Design and Construction
4. Lens Optical Design
5. Shooting Distance of Subject vs Backround

1. Focal Lenght
Wide lenses are not that recommended for soft and creamy bokeh due to theit great depth of field. But there are designs that have wide apertures such as f/1.8 that do create interesting bokeh.
from 40mm focal length you can have really nice results.

2. Maximum Aperture
The most important factor. Wide Aperture design lenses have very thin depth of field.Especially when a mid or tele lens has wide aperture such as f/2.8 and greater you can achieve really nice bokeh!

3. Aperture Blade Design and Construction
Here is all the juice... Having said the above, comes the hard part. Having a wide mid or tele lens will create a nice bokeh but.... Lenses wide open tend to have chromatic aberrations. It doesn't matter if they are expensive or cheap. Even expensive Noct versions/designs, with apertures wider than f/1.0 tend to suffer from chromatic aberrations. In order to control it sometimes you can close the aperture by half or 1 stop. It doesn't solve the problem but it makes it more controllable in Post Processing with the powerful tools of modern software. But as you stop down the f/ number then comes another issue... Aperture Blade Design. It is very important for the lens design to have an as possible rounded diaphragm blade design. This is achieved either by implementing as many as possible diaphragm blades of rounded shape! There are also designs that do not have to many blades but they have a well designed rounded blade implementation.

4. Lens design
Lens design can also affect bokeh performance style. Simpe designs tend to create intense bokeh bubbles. Rounded elements also tend to create swirly bokeh.
Most popular designs that affect bokeh are the Trioplan designs known for the soap bubble bokeh and a lot of 50mm to 85mm lens designs with rounded front elements design of large apertures. I won't consume any time in lens examples anyway.

5. Shooting Distance of Subject vs Backround

Experiment, experiment, experiment!
If you are using a dslr camera use live view to understand and learn how your lenses behave bokehwise. If you have a mirrorless camera you have realtime access to what the system lens / camera 'sees'. Move close or away from your subject and check how it behaves from each distance. It will help your creativity if you realise the performance of your lens. And there is always a rule. The closer you get to your subject the sallower becomes the D.O.F. If you are away from your subject then the greater distance you must also have for the backround. If it is at a great distance then you will need a strong telephoto with a narrower D.O.F. to isolate your subject.

In conclusion.
There lenses that are known and popular for great bokeh. But you can achieve bokeh results with proper use of any lens of f/2.8 and wider from 40mm- 50mm and more.
If you use close up filters or extenders in case your lens is not macro you will also achieve sallow D.O.F. but with lens performance drop down depended on the quality mostly in the case of close up lens filter design.

 

[panos_adgr]

There are loads of articles written in the web about bokeh and lenses... But there also countless examples of photos taken with lenses that you wouldn't believe that can create impressing bokeh because they were used technically the best way. A friend of mine achieves impressing bokeh results with a nikkor af-s 18-140mm VR lens because she has found the sweet spot of her lens at 140mm. A day she shared a photo of her's with slight swirly bokeh. I'm not talking about crazy results, but the point I want to make is that first and above all is technique in any case of gear thus trying not to be gear addicted and start to believe that only this or that, lens can create bokeh.

We have to master our equipment with our techniques.
An f/2.8 or f/2.0 or f//1.8 Nifty Fifty lens (50mm) lens can do bokeh miracles at fractions of cost of expensive lens designs. If combined with a good close up filter (with small image quality drop down impact) can offer a good starting point for macro photography until someone saves money for a dedicated macro quality lens.

 

[nataliaflejszar&Photo]

Nice topic!

A nice bokeh is dependent on the following factors.
1. Focal Lenght
2. Maximum Aperture
3. Aperture Blade Design and Construction
4. Lens Optical Design
5. Shooting Distance of Subject vs Backround

1. Focal Lenght
Wide lenses are not that recommended for soft and creamy bokeh due to theit great depth of field. But there are designs that have wide apertures such as f/1.8 that do create interesting bokeh.
from 40mm focal length you can have really nice results.

2. Maximum Aperture
The most important factor. Wide Aperture design lenses have very thin depth of field.Especially when a mid or tele lens has wide aperture such as f/2.8 and greater you can achieve really nice bokeh!

3. Aperture Blade Design and Construction
Here is all the juice... Having said the above, comes the hard part. Having a wide mid or tele lens will create a nice bokeh but.... Lenses wide open tend to have chromatic aberrations. It doesn't matter if they are expensive or cheap. Even expensive Noct versions/designs, with apertures wider than f/1.0 tend to suffer from chromatic aberrations. In order to control it sometimes you can close the aperture by half or 1 stop. It doesn't solve the problem but it makes it more controllable in Post Processing with the powerful tools of modern software. But as you stop down the f/ number then comes another issue... Aperture Blade Design. It is very important for the lens design to have an as possible rounded diaphragm blade design. This is achieved either by implementing as many as possible diaphragm blades of rounded shape! There are also designs that do not have to many blades but they have a well designed rounded blade implementation.

4. Lens design
Lens design can also affect bokeh performance style. Simpe designs tend to create intense bokeh bubbles. Rounded elements also tend to create swirly bokeh.
Most popular designs that affect bokeh are the Trioplan designs known for the soap bubble bokeh and a lot of 50mm to 85mm lens designs with rounded front elements design of large apertures. I won't consume any time in lens examples anyway.

5. Shooting Distance of Subject vs Backround

Experiment, experiment, experiment!
If you are using a dslr camera use live view to understand and learn how your lenses behave bokehwise. If you have a mirrorless camera you have realtime access to what the system lens / camera 'sees'. Move close or away from your subject and check how it behaves from each distance. It will help your creativity if you realise the performance of your lens. And there is always a rule. The closer you get to your subject the sallower becomes the D.O.F. If you are away from your subject then the greater distance you must also have for the backround. If it is at a great distance then you will need a strong telephoto with a narrower D.O.F. to isolate your subject.

In conclusion.
There lenses that are known and popular for great bokeh. But you can achieve bokeh results with proper use of any lens of f/2.8 and wider from 40mm- 50mm and more.
If you use close up filters or extenders in case your lens is not macro you will also achieve sallow D.O.F. but with lens performance drop down depended on the quality mostly in the case of close up lens filter design.

Thank you so much panos_adgr . Great bokeh teaching!!. I need to read it all later, I'm bit busy now . I want to discuss still with you about Bokeh!! you are right person with it and with my project for summer . So happy to see you back here!!!!

 

[panos_adgr]

Thank you so much panos_adgr . Great bokeh teaching!!. I need to read it all later, I'm bit busy now . I want to discuss still with you about Bokeh!! you are right person with it and with my project for summer . So happy to see you back here!!!!

Thank you very much for your words!

I'm just an amateur. But if there is something I could say and share to help I'll be happy to do so!