Garden Variety Bokeh
Leica CL + Leica Summicron-C 40mm f2
Work has resumed this week, and I was editing a pattern beside the window - when I saw this nice reflection. I took a photo and noticed the bokeh. Then I remembered reading reviews of the Summicron-C lens which described its bokeh as ‘questionable.’ So I decided to take a break and go out into the garden to hunt for more, just to see how questionable it was.
A disclaimer: I am not actually interested in bokeh. I enjoy seeing it in other people’s photos, but it isn’t something I find to be relevant or desirable for the types of photos I normally take. So it would never in a million years occur to me to purchase - or not purchase - a lens based on its bokeh qualities. Nevertheless, all the ‘good bokeh’/ ‘bad bokeh’ talk with respect to the Summicron-C made me curious, so I decided to have a look.
My garden has some truly bokehlicious spots scattered throughout. I started slow, creeping up on them so to speak. Here you can see the bokeh appear in the distance, through the tree branches on the top right. What can I say about it?… It looks approximately round to me. Alas I am lacking in the proper vocabulary comparing it to donuts and bagels and such, so I am not sure what kind of round.
I was about to move on from this spot, when I noticed some weirdness in the window frame of the enclosed porch. I believe those are big balls of bokeh where the frames criss-cross? I am not sure that I find this aesthetically appealing, but it’s an interestingly geometric effect.
Additional, messy bokeh can be spotted all over the top left, and also along the edges of the out-of-focus vines in the centre. Is this ‘bad bokeh’? Or perchance even the dreaded ‘pig vomit bokeh’? I suspect it might be!
And what about this one… Looks like a sort of layered bokeh, as if it is multiplying uncontrollably?
Same scene from a slightly different angle. An overabundance of bokeh.
I tried to reign it in here. But basically anywhere you see sky through the tree branches {top left}, it seems to cluster wildly. I am probably describing this very badly.
Less sky visible, more sharply differentiated circles {centre}. More sky, wild clustering {top right}.
I even managed a naturally occurring heart-shaped bokeh! And perhaps some weird kind of micro-bokeh on the left?..
Alas, after a few minutes of this I had to get back to work. But the bokeh-hunting was great fun, and I can’t believe I’d never done this before.
All photos taken at f2, in fairly bleak light. A bokeh connoisseur I am not, so anybody viewing the pictures can decide for themselves whether it is good, bad, or questionable!
