Bokeh! Got to be one of the weirdest terms in photography It is only beaten by scheimpflug (ability to get your focus plane to any angle you like on a large format camera) and mackie line (helps make your film images sharper by developing the edges more). But more to the point. What is Bokeh and why do we love it.

When looking at lens reviews you might come across the reviewer talking about the ‘buttery soft’, ‘swirly’ or even ‘donut’ bokeh. In this article we’d like to explain about it and why you might need to be interested in it – or not, for your travel photography.

Don’t stress the Bokeh stuff

Bokeh (pronounced BOH kay) is the aesthetic quality of the blur in the out-of-focus areas of your images. The narrower the depth of field (bigger the aperture), the more out of focus areas you get. So Bokeh being an aesthetic quality means that it is subjective and nothing is right or wrong. This is a big relief as it means we don’t have to get bokeh ‘right’, just ‘how we want it’. Phew….

Types of bokeh

Bokeh can be described in all sorts of creative ways so here are some of the more popular adjectives that people use to describe it:

• buttery
• donut
• swirly
• grainy
• circular or oval
• hexagonal

The type of bokeh and the smoothness of it, is a product of the construction of the lens. Both glass and the aperture blades will have an effect on the bokeh. The round look on the previous photograph is down to the blades (10) on the Leica Summicron lens I was using. More blades give you rounder out-of-focus highlights. Round blades will compensate for less blades to give more round highlights.

A mirror lens that uses mirrors rather than glass will give you extreme donut highlights.

Image with small aperture so no noticeable bokeh

When the same image is defocused the soft buttery bokeh in the out-of-focus areas complement the hexagonal bokeh highlights

What and how Bokeh does the job

So bokeh is the quality of the out of focus area. The out-of-focus bit can add so much to an image, but one of its main ‘jobs’ is to make the background appear separate from sharp foreground subjects. This could be to separate the person you photographed from a busy background, or to create a sense of depth in a cityscape or landscape. We use this technique a lot in our night photography as it allows us to create beautiful out-of-focus highlights.

Ally used an aperture of f8 on these mushrooms in Wivenhoe woods, Essex to isolate the subject while still keeping them in focus

Ally used an aperture of f4 on her portrait of Idris inside Truth Coffee in Cape Town, S Africa

On the image above, the out-of-focus lights and metals of all the steam punk paraphernalia give a beautiful backdrop to her portrait of Idris at Truth Coffee … is it the best coffee shop in the world!

To create more out-of-focus areas you need to have your subject a reasonable distance from the background and then use a wide aperture on your lens. (The smaller the aperture number, the wider the aperture is eg, f16 is a small aperture while f2.8 is wide.)

Lastly

Bokeh is a fashionable word at the moment. Sometimes people pour over images, drooling over the bokeh or criticising it at the expense of the content of the image. It is not nearly as important as lens reviewers would have you believe. The most important thing is the image – not the quality of the out-of-focus areas.

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Who doesn’t hanker after photographing crocodiles, snakes and a traditional Zulu shields maker, not to mention Zulu dancing?  If you do then you need to visit PheZulu.  Forty minutes drive inland from the City of Durban, South Africa in the green KwaZulu-Natal hills, lies an extraordinary experience. There are traditional Zulu shields makers, a crocodile farm, game park with private guided tours, a restaurant and a traditional Zulu dancing show. All in one small area.

Traditional Zulu shields made by Joseph at PheZulu

When we went in, Joseph kindly let us take some photographs of him working. We had to up the ISO slightly whilst indoors, but we got some great depth-of-field by shooting wide open with some close-ups of the parts used in the shields, and some with shields in the foreground and Joseph working out of focus in the background.

Joseph hard at work making Zulu Shields – see our post on what makes a good b&w photo

Zulu spears ready to go with the shields

The restaurant overlooks another absolutely phenomenal view and there’s a small curio shop which used to be in a beautiful rondavel – (a traditional circular African dwelling with a conical thatched roof) – near the entrance but sadly, only recently, burned down completely after being struck by lightning. This is another place where we love to do pans.

They also do Segway tours including a tour where you ride around the game park right up next to giraffes and other wild South African animals. We did the short one first and Nicole introduced us to the segways and how they work. What we didn’t expect was going up and down steep banks that would be a real effort to climb up. It was brilliant fun and she was very patient as I was a bit wobbly in places.

Valley of 1000 Hills

Valley of 1000 Hills. It sounds so gentle and not like anything that would be photography-worthy but that is not the case. In the right light it’s beautiful. The small restaurant / café is a regular haunt for us whilst we’re in Durban as it’s a short drive from Tim’s mom’s. You can have your coffee and food (at ridiculously low prices) whilst enjoying a view that never gets tiring. It  was previously called HillBillys but has changed hands and become Fern Gulley. We don’t know what happened to the last people but they used to have a restaurant training programme, a variety of animals, including pigs, birds, and a talking parakeet who only used to talk to Rachel the previous owner.

The new owners have done wonderful things with the café and it is more inviting with a small gift shop. The views is one of our favourites – I (Ally) took one of my first digital pans with our old Kodak DCS – one of our first digital SLRs and a print of it still has pride of place on our lounge wall.

Valley of 1000 hills South Africa, made up of multiple images and put together in Adobe Photoshop

Before you get to the cafe there are small rondavels which are rented by small businesses. There’s a mixture of jewellery, beadwork, leather goods, trinkets, clothing and bags, as well as the Puzzle Place which has been there for years – think wooden puzzles that drive you crazy! Amazing stuff!

Bracketing and Pans

We sat in the restaurant one evening towards sunset with tea and our cameras poised. Whilst we were admiring the view and in-between Tim’s swearing at his scratchy eye as he’s getting used to contact lenses (don’t get me started on how long it takes to put them in!), we were noticing how the light and the shadows were changing. We knew the haze over the top of the hills would be quite heavy although the way the light models the closer hills, fantastic, but with the fabulous dehaze filter in Photoshop we knew this wouldn’t be a problem. There were cattle grazing in the foreground so we made sure we got those in some of the images to add to the rural feel. I tend to bracket more when shooting skies, but Tim doesn’t, or if he does, he does it manually. I prefer the bracketing function as it means you are more likely to shoot exactly the same image, rather than move the camera a bit whilst you adjust the exposure settings. This showed up when we got back and Tim had only 3gb to download and I had 6gb!! See our top 10 favourite Photoshop Shortcuts.

Wait for the landscape to reveal itself

There is so much to photograph in Natal, not just Zulu shields, and so easy to miss when driving around seeing green hill after green hill, but sit down at a coffee shop, watch the world go by and wait for the sun to get lower and the beautiful landscape will come to life in front of your eyes as the hills reveal themselves.

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Very often people will ask us, “what’s the best camera for travel photography?” So, we’ve decided to write a post to cover a few of those questions.

Whilst it has been quoted, “The best camera, is the one that you have with you” there are a variety of points to bear in mind which we will look at.

It is the photographer’s vision

The possible options we have for the best camera for travel photography, range from using the camera on your phone, through to seriously expensive pro-gear. All these devices can be used to create beautiful photos. Also, remember that a camera is just a tool for taking photographs. No more, no less. So, there are several different issues we need to address! It is the photographer’s vision, not the equipment, that creates the stunning image. That said, some tools make photographing easier, and give better results than others.

Ally with her best camera for travel photography

Things you need to consider when buying a camera

How are you going to use your camera when travelling?

• What do you want to photograph? Landscapes / portraits / architecture …
• Do you want a good zoom facility?
• Do you want to be able to get great depth of field?
• Will you want to do selfies?
• Will you have low light situations?
• Will there be high contrast situations?
• Do you want to carry it on you always?
• Do you need to quickly upload to Social Media?
• Do you need to be able to photograph moving subjects easily?
• Will you want an adjustable back so you can hand-hold above your head?

Cost

Think about your budget, not just for the body of the camera (assuming you’re wanting to buy a camera with interchangeable lenses), but for all the things that go with it, like various lenses, filters, hand-grips, straps, memory cards, flash, tripods … Suddenly that reasonably price camera body takes on a whole new expense.

Weight

As gorgeous as that new pro Nikon or Canon feels in your hand in the shop, will it still feel so lovely when you’re halfway up a mountain and need to stop because your back aches from the weight? At that point, you won’t be thinking it’s the best camera for travel photography! On some flights, you are very limited with hand luggage weight and this could cause a problem.

Portability

Are you going to want to be able to move freely without lots of kit?
Would you like to be able to pop your camera in your bag? You can feel like you’ve missed so many photographic opportunities to shoot because your camera didn’t give you enough freedom to get to the scene.

Durability

Will there be times when you are out in the rain with your camera? You may need to consider one that is weather proof, or even waterproof. Does it need to be shock-proof?

Some for and against comparisons:

Smartphone

Mid-range fixed lens cameras

DSLR or Mirrorless Full Frame

So which one should you use?

There’s no hard and fast rule for this. Use whichever camera suits your style of photography. I (Ally) travel with a full frame Nikon DSLR and Tim with a full frame mirrorless Sony, but we try to have our cake and eat it by limiting the kit to a body with a zoom lens and a travel tripod.  We also take a small underwater point and shoot Nikon with us for when we’re in the water.

Tim can often be found laying on the floor to get a great shot!

This was the image he was going for

In summary – when looking for the best camera for travel photography, list the main and most important things you want it for. Then find a camera (and lens/lenses) that fits that bill as well as your budget when you consider all the extras. One that isn’t going to weigh you down and stop you from photographic opportunities.

For technical specifications of cameras, impartial reviews and comparisons, check out DPReview.com. This is our ‘go to’ website whenever we’re looking into cameras or equipment. Enjoy your travel photography!

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