Nice blurred backgrounds (bokeh) with ANY lens! Here is a guide on how to do it, but why you should really consider a wide aperture lens.

A lot of people think that you  must have an F/1.4 lens to create nice creamy bokeh (out of focus background blur), however, you can achieve this effect with almost any lens, even a standard kit lens if you know and understand how that effect is created in the first place. First we will discuss the three simple  principles of getting this effect with any lens, and then we will look at why have faster glass still makes more sense and gives better results.

To understand how to achieve bokeh, or the aesthetic quality of out-of-focus blur in a photograph, you must first grasp the factors that influence it. You can get bokeh with any lens, but it’s much easier and more pronounced with a wide-aperture lens.

The Three Key Factors for Bokeh

• Aperture: This is the most crucial factor. A wider aperture (represented by a smaller f-number like f/1.8 or f/2.8) creates a shallower depth of field. This means the range of what’s in focus is very narrow, causing the background and foreground to blur more significantly.

• Focal Length: A longer focal length (e.g., 85mm, 200mm) naturally compresses the scene and magnifies the background. This magnification effect enhances the appearance of blur, making the bokeh more noticeable. This is why portrait lenses, which often have longer focal lengths like 85mm, are excellent for producing beautiful bokeh.

• Distance to Subject and Background: The closer you are to your subject, the shallower your depth of field will be. Similarly, the farther your subject is from the background, the more pronounced the blur will be. To maximize bokeh, get close to your subject and ensure the background is far away.

How to Get Bokeh with Any Lens

Even if you have a kit lens with a narrow maximum aperture (e.g., f/3.5-f/5.6), you can still achieve bokeh by manipulating the other two factors:

• Use a Longer Focal Length: If your lens is a zoom lens, zoom all the way in to use its longest focal length. This will help to compress the background and make the blur more visible.

• Get Close to Your Subject: Move physically closer to the person, object, or flower you are photographing. The closer you are, the shallower the depth of field will be.

• Increase Distance to the Background: Position your subject as far away from the background as possible. For instance, if you’re taking a portrait, have your subject stand in a field with trees far behind them, rather than right in front of a wall.

Why Wide-Aperture Lenses Are Better

While you can technically get some bokeh with any lens, wide-aperture lenses (often called “fast” lenses) are specifically designed for this purpose and offer significant advantages over other lenses.

• Superior Low-Light Performance: A wide aperture lets in a lot of light, allowing you to use a faster shutter speed in low-light conditions. This helps to prevent motion blur and produce sharper images.

• More Pronounced and Creamier Bokeh: A wider aperture creates a much shallower depth of field than a narrow one. This results in a more significant and aesthetically pleasing blur, often described as “creamy” or “smooth.”

• Greater Creative Control: The ability to easily control depth of field gives you more creative freedom. You can make your subject pop by completely blurring the distracting background, or you can keep some of the background in soft focus to provide context. You don’t need to lose the purpose of the lens focal length and you don’t need to get in close or zoom in on your subject.

Conclusion

Ultimately, while the fundamentals of achieving bokeh apply to all lenses, a lens with a wide aperture is a game-changer. It makes the process easier, more effective, and gives you a level of creative control that’s difficult to match with a narrow-aperture lens. The advantages of using a fast lens far outweigh relying on a lens that is not natively a wide aperture and the results always speak for themselves. 

While achieving bokeh is not always important, for events such weddings and portraits it can be an essential part to getting a much more professional look to your images. Having a trio of fast primes such as a 35mm, 50mm and 85mm (or what suits you needs) is an important part of separating your photography from someone who is using a mobile phone or kit lens.

Use what lenses you have and make your next purchase a fast lens, and it will change the way you do photography, and change the way people see your as a photographer.