Major Pre-Production: Cinematography Research - Bokeh

   Bokeh is a Japanese word which translates to English to being 'blur quality'. Bokeh is the portions of an image which are blurred and not focused on, a type of depth of field technique. Basically, it refers to the quality of the out of focused (blurry) parts rendered by the lens of the camera. has been used in DSLR Photography since roughly 1998 and is one of the most popular subjects in photography, as well as filmmaking since the beginning of growth in DSLR Filmmaking popularity.

   This is a technique I am highly considering to use for cutaway shots and possibly shots in general for 'Inoculum'. My reasons for considering this technique as I feel it can be aesthetically pleasing to the eye if done correctly. This technique highlights a portion of the image highly so it could also be used in other shots, such as shots with people in general to focus on the people more than the background as this will help stop the audience being distracted with what is or what could possibly be happening in the background, also if I have a shot where I need to highlight an object within the scene Bokeh would be very useful for creating this effect.

Below is some examples of Bokeh used in photography as well as filming.

Photography

This image demonstrates a simple use of Bokeh with this Sparrow as it is in focus in the depth of field. It adds more detail to the Sparrow which draws your eye to it automatically.

This image uses Bokeh differently than the previous image. This differs from the image above as there is no subject in focus. Due to the image being taken at night with the street lights in view, the blurry lights create a unique effect which is aesthetically pleasing visually.

This image focuses on a section of the grass, yet you still look at the blurry areas as it creates a similar effect that the night time photo above does where segments become blurred circles. It like the image above makes the image seem bigger and more vast than it actually is.

This picture is exactly what I am aiming to create for the film. Lighting and colour treatment has a huge effect on this with the light on the females face and overall colour tones, but paired up with the blurry lights in the background created by Bokeh, it creates a solid professional looking image. The video below shows how the effect in this image can look like when filming on a Canon 7D.