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32mm @ f/1.4 + CPL - Birds & Bees (PICS)

Started Sep 27, 2018 | Discussions thread
Marco Nero
OP Marco Nero Veteran Member • Posts: 7,582
Re: About that Bokeh... (PICS)
5

Photato wrote:

The sharpness looks good but unfortunately the Bokeh is some shots looks messy, like in the first sample and some others.

Local gardens on my street. I was able to blow the background out much more than this by getting closer to the flower ...but this shot was visually more interesting to me.

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It's interesting to see what people's thoughts are on this new lens.  You're welcome to dissect any images that I post because that's why I posted them.  Everyone's opinion is welcome and valid.  What do you find "messy" about the bokeh in the image above? I'm genuinely curious as to what your thoughts are here because that first image has very smooth bokeh.  Remember that this is an f/1.4 lens with a 32mm (51mm equiv) lens which isn't really going to be pushing bokeh as far as other bright lenses are capable of. But this is a fairly extreme example of a diffused background. Bokeh balls are just one aspect of Bokeh and aren't necessary required in an image in order to claim bokeh status.
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Wikipedia has quoted other photographers here but Bokeh is defined (approximately) as the "aesthetic quality of the blur produced in the out-of-focus parts of an image produced by a lens".  You felt that this background (in the image above) isn't particularly appealing because it appears to be "messy". 
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There's an article here on good and bad bokeh which might be of interest to some: photographylife.com/what-is-bokeh 
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I'm seeing very smooth transitional detail, similar to a shot I took outdoors on a sunny day with the EOSM and the EF 135mm f/2 USM lens ... and that's a lens well respected for bokeh (one of the so-called 'Holy Trinity' of Canon Primes, if I'm not mistaken).
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A very similar bokeh produced by the EOS M + EF 135mm f/2 USM lens - a lens that is considered to be one of the best bokeh generating lenses from the Canon prime series.

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If you're referring to "messy bokeh", I'd be inclined to think you're referring to either "nervous bokeh" or something similar.
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"Bad Bokeh" is usually defined as a defocused background with sharp edges and an unattractive look to the image.  Each lens renders bokeh differently.  This 32mm lens can certainly produce bokeh balls although it readily produces "cat eye" bokeh, something that even the top Canon Bokeh lenses like the EF 85mm f/1.2 USM II lens can readily produce. 
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Elliptical and Cat-Eye bokeh from the EF 85mm f/1.2L USM II lens on a Full Frame DSLR.  This is related to the falloff at the edges of the lens at specific distances to the primary subject or focus target.

The same type of 'Cat-Eye' bokeh from the EF-M 32mm f/1.4 STM lens.

Round bokeh from the same EF-M 32mm f/1.4 STM lens.
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The bokeh from the EF-M 32mm f/1.4 STM lens is perfectly decent, if my own observations are to be taken into consideration.  Quality is going to be dependent on several factors within any given scene, but I think it's well controlled and appears to be rendering exactly the way that Canon executives expected it to.  Canon was toting this as a lens that was designed to render attractive bokeh, presumably to draw more attention to the M-series camera platform and to appeal to existing EOS M owners.

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Regards,
Marco Nero.

 Marco Nero's gear list:Marco Nero's gear list
Canon EOS M6 Canon EOS Ra Canon EOS R6 Canon EF-M 32mm F1.4 Canon RF 85mm F1.2L USM +20 more
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