Bramley Apple

To blur or not to blur?

Added 2021-09-08 07:30:01 +0000 UTC

This whole idea about bokeh and blurring backgrounds is relatively new, but photography in itself is a very young form of art in comparison to all others.

In the initial phase of photography, a limited depth of field was a necessity imposed by less sensitive emulsions and large format cameras.

In the middle age of photography most artists were concentrated on maximising quality by using medium apertures, like the "Images à la Sauvette" of Henry Cartier Bresson, or even the all in focus approach of the American group f.64.

Nowadays, with highly sensitive sensors and clinical computer designed lenses we are free from most technical limitation, so we can choose our style based on our personal tastes alone.

Shooting wide open all the time for portraits has become a trend and a religion in itself, even if the resulting pictures are not particularly good looking.

iPones can even simulate the blurred backgrounds by using computational photography, or you can reproduce locally the blurring effect with popular softwares.

But I still prefer the "natural" effect you can obtain with a high quality lens, and possibly some depth of field to keep enough of the subject in focus.

This lens is the brillant Voigtländer Nokton 58mm f1.4 SL II lens stopped down a couple of stops.