Foreground bokeh

The weather has been rather bad. This image was really just a messing around with foreground bokeh. Why?

Pentax lenses are usually better in the foreground bokeh department than background one...

Poppy Flower Wonder

This image is taken by Voigtlander 40mm f2 SL

This picture reminds me of a time that I would not buy any lens but voigtlander. That was a period where I was addicted to the build quality of Voigtlander lenses and their image rendering characteristics.

Yes, the brand is not all perfect and its own lens production line had been taken over by Cosina in Japan. The lenses are just so good to hold in my hands... Truely addictive.
Speaking of the bokeh, I used to have a set of criteria for assessing them. Then I looked at this image taken almost 3 years ago. I had second thoughts.

How on earth do I like the harsh edge bokeh with distracting specular highlights? I guess I have a growing up period with photography in general. Now this pair of critical eyes are very hard to please. I dreaded the day I would become even more grumpy and critical when I got even older. God helps me.

Glass bokeh

This is a photograph of the handle at the front entrance of Gothic style cathedral near Melbourne CBD. Somehow the day light was dull and there were no many interesting themes in the city streets.

So f1.2 aperture wide open with Nikor 50mm. Surprisingly the rear bokeh is supposed to be harsh and ugly. The result was acceptable.

Street window

Off Bourke St

Love to test out 24mm f1.4 bokeh. Still nice to play bokeh shot again

Colourful bokeh at night, Birrarung Marr

 

Another El Nina gonna hit Australia and this will be the third one in the past 10 months. This means the continuous wet weather will make my regular photo walk a bit more challenging to do so in the coming months.

When I took this shot, I kind of hope no one was going to rob me from behind...

Sony A7RIV

FE 50mm f1.2 GM

Bokeh shots

Beach plant

58mm. Creamy bokeh. That gives a ooze of colour ice cream.

Lake Sanitarium, Mount Macedon, Victoria, Australia

 

A stroll in the woods. Refreshing to see a mushroom. Shallow depth of field is nice too. 

Sony A7RIV

FE 24mm f1.4 GM

Bokeh

Colour Study: Red vs Green

This image is taken by Pentax Fa 77mm f1.8 limited

Some friends of mine have asked me about the applications of colours. Use of colours in photography is very important. Usuaully the colour profile of an image series creates a signature style of a photographer.

Sometimes the colour choice helps to protrays a desirable context to influence a viewer's mental state.

The most interesting and utilised choice of colour combination is Red vs Green, These two colours are equally weighted towards each other in terms of impact. A visual balance of these two colours is in 1 : 1 ratio. Therefore, a variation of proportion from these two colours will help a photographer to determine where the intended focus of any image shall be. Increasing the proportion of the red colour in an image will diminish the importance of the red itself, helping the viewer to look for the colour green subconsciously. Vice versa. This is a crucial knowledge to bear in mind during composition of any image.

The colour "Red" is the most ancient colour ever used in human history. In fact, the intensity of the red resets the brightness of a photograph to a medium dark overall. Most of the time, Red is avoided simply because the colour can be too dark, brooding and distracting if the subject of interest is not in red...
Very often, Red can only be a "host" colour in the image rather than a "guest" colour. Colour red has several effects on people. For example, normal red neck ties signifies ambience while burgundy red signifies classical or tradition. Intense Ferrari Red often denotes a flamboyant, progressive kind of message. Whenever an attention is needed, red colour helps to direct a confused and tired viewer to the desirable area of an image in order to perceive a certain message by the photographer.

No matter how bright red the colour is, colour red is considered to posess "darkening" effect. To compliment red, green is a must. However, green is considered even darker than red in general unless a choice of light olive green is considered. In general, light green is "no match" for any kind of red. Under such circumstances, the light green will be ignored by our higher centre of colour differentiation since light green is too "weak".
When Red is used, it shortens the viewer to the image distance in perception. Therefore, Colour red is not helpful in grandeous type of landscape images. Usually a dot or two of red is more than enough in most landscape if the scene is supposed to be vast and of huge scale. For moody, sentimental, sad, melanholy type of images, red or orange hue will be an ideal choice.
The choice of Green will hit hard in the visual cone cells of the human retina against the colour Red. Hence the impact is usually great enough to "elicit" certain type of emotion depending on one's upbringing experiences. This colour arrangment lasts visually even when the eyes are turned away from this particular colour combo.

Red and Green does cast great impact on viewing experience of many. But a port folio of images using only red vs green is not wise. This type of colour choice usually fatiques human vision. Hence tiring and exhausting for viewers. Therefore, this colour combination needs to be carefully planned out in a photography exhibition.
Lastly, the image I posted here obviously has the red leaf in the centre surrounded by the background bokeh, mixing red and green with variation of colour intensity. The colour choice is really these two colour where the intensity helps to create the sentiment. The rest is up to the viewer to interpret the red leaf...

Hope this article of colour red versus green will help many of my friends :)

Williamstown

This image is taken by Tokina 11-16mm f2.8

Yes, another day of freedom to waste. Strolling along the Williamstown port where there are many restaurants open and Gelatti shops for enjoyment.

The ship museum is as old as it can be with nothing new added to the actual diel engine ship. HMAS Castlemain. Amazed how this ancient piece of crap survived WWI at all...

Oh yes. I felt so patriotic after seeing the flag. That really works for me.

This piece of artefact is not child proof. In a time frame of 30 min, I saw two kids being hurt after the whole set spinning around by some other children. Kids and weapons are a no no combination.

This man was over enthusiastic about reliving the days of WWI. It was funny to see that everyone has a story to tell.

I just cannot resist to do some bokeh shot. Lacking meaning but love the ambiguity of the background blurr.

What a day. It was time to get some Chinese dumplings :)

Shoes hung up high in laneway, Melbourne CBD

 

I love shallow depth of field at one stage. It was what a lens geek would do. I have tons of shots on the shoes hung up in the laneway of Melbourne. I never quite understood why this was done first place.

My pals tell me it was a way to mark the sales point for weeds. Or it was a mysterious way to play a game. 

Olympus 150mm f2

This is linking Bokeh shots

Maple leaves

Love the bokeh against the backdrop of the Buddhism temple. Autumn feel.

Barn Swallow Cranbourne for Saturday Critter

 

I think the distracting bokeh takes away the focus of the swallow

Sony A7RV + FE 200-600mm f5.6-6.3

Linking Saturday Critter

Car lights

Car lights. Nice bokeh. 150mm f2

Rosalind Park Tulip, Bendigo

Fujifilm 23mm f1.4 renders quite a nice bokeh.

Leaf

Creamy bokeh with beautiful leaf colour

Turtle bronze head

Taken in Beijing China. Nice bokeh there.

Garden variety

I miss the bokeh from 50mm f1.2 against green backgrounds

Bee for Saturday Critter

 

A bee or wasp. I cannot tell exactly what it is either. I just like the green bokeh. 

It was a late night yesterday. My pal and myself went searching for the sweet spots taking the gorgeous surfer's paradise sunset. It was not a disappointing experience. Persian Dinner at the nearby location too. 

Pentax A 200mm f4 macro

Linking Saturday Critter

Beetle in boutique shop, Flinders lane, Melbourne

This was a snap shot outside a boutique store in Flinders lane, Melbourne. The bokeh was all I am after here which showed up as neutral disc shaped. Still, it has that festive feel...

Taken by Canon 24mm f1.4

Subway

Quite harsh bokeh behind her