The Bokeh Misconception
Derek Smith • 21 August 2024
Many photographers think that the only way to isolate subjects within a scene, especially in portraiture is to buy, and use a f/1.4 aperture lens, there are even f/1.2, and f/0.95 lenses available.
When photographers discuss having a blurred background to images, to create subject isolation as a compositional aid, they are talking about the depth of field produced by a specific lens / camera combination.
Depth of field, and therefore isolating a subject within an image is primarily obtained by the closeness to the subject, and distance from the subject to the background. The aperture setting, and also the size of the camera sensor all play a part in this.
I use an app on my mobile phone called “PhotoPills”, this is a very informative, and invaluable app for photographers. The “PhotoPills” app gives information about sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset times based on your location, exposure value calculator, field of view calculator. The "PhotoPills" depth of field (DoF) calculator to enables a photographer to determine the depth of field for his camera, and lens combination.
Mastering aperture priority mode on your camera is a key skill to learn, often it’s a matter of choosing the correct aperture for each situation. In this photo of yours truly, taken by my young lady in a heritage railway carriage, I’ve deliberately set the aperture at f/2 on the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 lens, before handing the camera to her, and you can see with the sharp focus on my eyes, my clothes, and the backrest of the train seat are blurred, this is a deliberate portrait rather than a contextual view of me sitting in a railway carriage, for a contextual view f/5.6 could have been selected, if an f/1.4 aperture had been chosen my ears, and nose would also have started to blur.
Insects, and small mammals / reptiles are notoriously difficult to select the correct aperture (sometimes termed “f stop”) for depth of field, and therefore sharpness over the whole of the creature. How many times has a judge commented on an insect photo about the wings, or tail being out focus? For this lizard photo I selected f/7.1, (more by accident than design) on a 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, the focus on the eye is perfect, the foreground, and background rocks are defocused, in this situation f/5.6 or even an f/6.3 aperture may not have given the correct sharpness on the reptile.
This butterfly photo is a complete failure, a grab shot, taken at f/5.6, on the 70-300mm telephoto lens, I’ve got one wing in focus!! A choice of f/7.1 may have improved the focus across the scene.
For landscape photographers, choosing the correct aperture to achieve foreground to background sharpness is important. Many landscape photographers suggest setting the aperture somewhere between f/8 to f/16 and focusing a third of the way into the scene. In this scene of the Cow and Calf rocks on Ilkley Moor, I’ve chosen f/11 and deliberately focused on the foreground rock to capture the engraved graffiti, this is a contextual scene, with the heather, and Cow and Calf rocks acceptable, rather than “tack sharp”.
Remember failure in photography should assist us to learn, rather than discourage us from taking great photographs. Get out there with your camera and enjoy this wonderful hobby.
Louth Photographic Society

Last night Lee Dixon from Cleethorpes Camera Club gave his first ever presentation to a camera club, which we were privileged to view. His presentation consisted of portraiture, creative, and his genre of choice; wildlife. Lee is an extremely talented photographer, with a highly creative portfolio, his portraits are quite atmospheric, unusual, and capture the essence of the model, and scene. For Lee’s creative work, he buys props from charity shops, often very cheaply, reusing those props in various scenes. For his composite work he will often take one of his photos of a room, and blend it with a subject in Photoshop using “blend” modes. For wildlife he visited Lake Kerkini in Greece to photograph the Pelicans, if the sky is a little on the bland side, Lee will often over expose the image resulting in a striking white background to the subject. On safari in Africa Lee showed us some amazing images of the wildlife, the close-up images of elephants, the wildebeest migration, and this stunning image of a cheetah. Lee was ably assisted by Mike Bennett. More of Lee’s work can be found on his website: https://leedixonphoto.co.uk/ Lee his kindly given permission for his images to be used in this post. Many thanks to Lee, and Mike for an amazing evening.

Good Morning All Last week at the club we held our monthly PDI competition, with the categories of "Objects in the Air" and "Open", there was a very high-quality entry in both competitions and judge Mike Bennett had quite a job on his hands scoring the entries. Well, done to Dave Turner for first place in the Objects in the Air and Tony Gaskins for first place in the Open. All the results are on our website. This week, Wednesday 30th September, our speaker will be Lee Dixon from Cleethorpes Camera Club showing us his natural history, Creative and many other photographs he has taken. It will be the first time Lee has shown his photographs at our club. If anyone else wants to enter PDI's in the 2027 N&EMPF Exhibition, the deadline is this Wednesday at midnight. Harry is still taking entries for the PDI competition, with the categories of "Local Straight from Camera" (unedited .jpg), and "Open", to be held on Wednesday 7th October. Regards Graham

At the meeting last night Mike Bennett judged our competition with the categories of “Objects in the Air”, and “Open”. The standard of entries was excellent, and it gave Mike a tough task of judging the images, Mike gave some very good critique of the images displayed, the feedback helps members to develop compositional skills. Dave Turner was awarded first place for his image of the “Tiger Club Display Team” in the “Objects in the Air” category. Tony Gaskins was awarded first place for his image of the “Spectacular Rustgill” in the “Open” category.

Good Morning All, Last week at the club we watched the N&EMPF PDI Exhibition for 2026, it was a very good evening viewing very high standard images from all over the East Midlands. Dave Turner and I did manage to get images accepted; there is a full report on our website. This week, Wednesday 23rd September, we will hold our monthly PDI competition, with the categories of "Objects in the Air" and "Open", please send entries to Harry by midnight tonight. Harry is also accepting images for the PDI competition, with the categories of "Local Straight out of the Camera (only resizing permitted)" and "Open". Regards Graham

Members were shown the 2026 N&EMPF PDI Exhibition video last night with all of the accepted PDI images in the first part, and after the break the awarded PDI images. There were some stunning images on view, and Louth was successful in having 3 PDI images accepted, Graham Harrison with his image of a Stonechat, and Dave Turner with his portrait of Paul Rudd, and his monochrome image of Kings Cross railway station "Going Down". Overall it was a good inspirational evening.

Good Morning All Last week at the club members had 15 minutes to show what they had done over the summer. It was a very interesting evening with eight members taking part. There were many locations on show and as usual some excellent photography. There is a full report on our blog. This week, Wednesday 16th September, we will be showing the N&EMPF exhibition, this is part one showing all the PDI's that were accepted. This is the highest standard of photography we as individuals take part in as a club. Members sent around 50 entries but only 3 were accepted. If you are inspired to enter the 2027 Exhibition after seeing the show, I send the clubs entries and I can give you more information. Closing date is the end of September. The Maximum size for N&EMPF is 1600 x 1200 3MB sRGB Harry is still taking entries for the monthly PDI competition, with the categories of "Objects in the Air" and "Open". Harry did ask about what can be accepted, and we couldn't really say as long as it's an object in the Air. The best way is to look up the definition of an object first. Harry is also accepting entries for the Local and Open competition in October. Robin is going to judge the Open competition, does anyone fancy judging the "Straight from the camera" category? Regards Graham

The Louth Photographic Society has returned after the summer break. It was an incredible return, with members providing us with some stunning images from over the summer break. A full, and varied smorgasbord of well executed photos, many of us visited Whitby, the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, and further north images from Staithes, and Sandbanks. Tony showed us his long exposure minimalist calming coastal scenes, from the Lincolnshire coast, and Whitby.. Chris brought us some beautiful photos taken of local churches, many of which many of us have never seen. Now I’ve never really seen the attraction of an expensive Leica camera, but when Mark showed his photos from his visit to the German Leica factory in Wetzlar, I now understand, camera bodies, and lenses milled from solid blocks of aluminium, hand polished, hand finished lens glass, and textured leather applied to the camera body, not a robot in sight, just craftsmen, and women making a superb photographic instrument. Sue brought us “pink” ladies driving tractors to raise money for cancer research. Last but definitely not least Richard showed his monochrome, and infrared images of trees, his compositions, and photographic eye bring these tree studies to life, we appreciate them even if some judges don’t understand. Many thanks to all of those members who contributed.

Good Morning All We spent last week on the Isle of Wight visiting many of the attractions. This week, Wednesday 9th September, we are back at the club with 15-minute PDI shows of what you did during the summer break, I have Derek Smith, Tony Gaskins, Harry Kerman, Chris Birchmore and Richard Hildred on the list, if I have missed you off, please let me know. I should be there but could be late as away playing golf. Harry is taking entries for the September PDI competition, with the categories of "Objects in the Air" and "Open". Harry will miss the October local competition but will sort the entries out for us, The competition categories will be "Local-Not Edited" and "Open". We judge this competition in house so could do with two volunteers to judge. The local competition is a .jpeg photograph taken and straight from the camera, no cropping, or post processing etc, like the old days taken no more than 25 miles from St James church. Regards Graham






