'Bokeh' was a concept not understood (not even any awareness) outside of Japan, until Mike Johnston, editor in chief, published three articles in a monthly photography periodal in 1997, Photo Techniques
Lost to the world for a long while, someone linked to one of the articles in somewhat recent times, leadiing to this...
It was clearly explained then, the origin of the term 'bokeh' and clarification of the proper pronunciation (and re-spelling to reduce doubt about the pronunciation), and that the term referred to the CHARACTERISTICS (or 'quality') of the out-of-focus areas in a photo. Unfortunately, the web has served as a major vehicle for spreading the mis-belief that 'bokeh' is 'the out-of-focus' that you can 'create' in a photo, rather than the reality that 'bokeh' is pleasing or not pleasing (some might say 'jarring' for the not-pleasing) and you cannot create it, it merely is the result of the optical tradeoffs inherent to the design compromises.
Nikon and Zeiss had since published papers on the topic, and their definition has always been fully in alignment with the original article. Unfortunately , while Nikon has the definition fundamentally correct, it later misuses the term in a subtitle "How to Achieve Bokeh", rather than saying "How to achieve out-of-focus areas".
Lost to the world for a long while, someone linked to one of the articles in somewhat recent times, leadiing to this...
It was clearly explained then, the origin of the term 'bokeh' and clarification of the proper pronunciation (and re-spelling to reduce doubt about the pronunciation), and that the term referred to the CHARACTERISTICS (or 'quality') of the out-of-focus areas in a photo. Unfortunately, the web has served as a major vehicle for spreading the mis-belief that 'bokeh' is 'the out-of-focus' that you can 'create' in a photo, rather than the reality that 'bokeh' is pleasing or not pleasing (some might say 'jarring' for the not-pleasing) and you cannot create it, it merely is the result of the optical tradeoffs inherent to the design compromises.
Nikon and Zeiss had since published papers on the topic, and their definition has always been fully in alignment with the original article. Unfortunately , while Nikon has the definition fundamentally correct, it later misuses the term in a subtitle "How to Achieve Bokeh", rather than saying "How to achieve out-of-focus areas".
"Bokeh is defined as “the effect of a soft out-of-focus background that you get when shooting a subject, using a fast lens, at the widest aperture, such as f/2.8 or wider.” Simply put, bokeh is the pleasing or aesthetic quality of out-of-focus blur in a photograph. " https://www.nikonusa.com/en/learn-and-explore/a/tips-and-techniques/bokeh-for-beginners.html
To exhibit the full Zeiss agreement with the original Photo Techniques articles, even by highly respected experts in photographic optics..
