What is bokeh?
Sharp, unsharp, bokeh – the intentional unsharpness in an image is called bokeh. A bokeh may appear creamy, or may express itself in the form of soft rings or delicate highlights.
What characterises a good picture?
Bokeh-lovers would answer: a depth of focus as shallow as possible and background details as if seen through a mist. Photos with bokeh reveal the invisible – the air, the night, poetry.
The term bokeh originates from the Japanese word for ‘unsharp’ or ‘diffused’, and describes the parts of a picture that are not sharply rendered.
More Details
This unsharpness is by no means due to any form of aberration caused by the lens, it is much more the unsharpness in front of and behind the plane of focus that results from the chosen parameters – focal length, aperture and the distance from the main subject. In terms of the desired visual effect, background-bokeh is often more important than foreground-bokeh.
Bokeh pictures always have something magical, surreal or fanciful about them. The bokeh-technique is particularly suitable for the communication of moods. The intensity of bokeh varies from lens to lens. A useful rule-of-thumb says: the faster the lens, the more pronounced the bokeh.

To illustrate wonderful bokeh, you need a foreground that is not so far away and a background with contrasts, small elements and highlights to enable you to see very beautiful, soft and flowing light.
The well-proportioned gentleness of the light relegates what goes on in the background to secondary importance. In this way, the photographer decides on the message to be transported by the picture.
Insider tips
at first hand in Leica Stores

Experience the magic of beautiful bokeh in our Leica Stores around the world. Our Leica Stores are meeting places that offer dialogue and opportunities to experience the world of photography.
Here is where you can find insider-tips, fascinating facts and inspiration for your creative photography.
More about Bokeh
find out in our photographic workshops
In its extensive programme of photographic workshops, the Leica Akademie offers you the opportunity to enjoy an intensive experience of the broad spectrum of photographic creativity.
One example of what is offered by the Leica Akademie is, for instance the use of bokeh for the creation of imaginative pictures. Enrich your creative photography, and let us guide you to the best possible picture.
Leica lenses
with that certain bokeh

A particularly appealing bokeh speaks for the excellence of the lens with which it is captured.
Different lenses produce different bokeh effects, depending on their optical construction. Many Leica lenses are known for their especially creamy bokeh – if used creatively, this enables photographers to achieve incomparable visual effects in their pictures.
More DetailsA sharply focused portrait that appears out of a misty background, a person against a backdrop of dancing, brightly coloured rings or a blossom that first reveals its magical nature when it emerges from the surrounding unsharpness.
Who can capture the most beautiful bokeh?
See if you can make the invisible visible, and find inspiration for your own bokeh pictures in the LFI Gallery.
