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Only professionals and enthusiasts care about bokeh. And I say that as someone that shoots my 50mm 1.2 wide open. Previously the blur on iPhone was all softwar

by mannyv 12d ago

Only professionals and enthusiasts care about bokeh. And I say that as someone that shoots my 50mm 1.2 wide open. Previously the blur on iPhone was all software, apparently. I've set mine to do wide open with no bokeh, and i'll put it in after. But to be honest, the iPhone is the camera I have on me, so the limits are acceptable. Can I force focus it? No. Can I get the glow? No. But iPhone + zoom + crop is better in some ways than my 50mm 1.2 with bokeh.

ValentineC 12d ago
> Only professionals and enthusiasts care about bokeh. I mean, consumers would probably just know it as "nice and pleasing blurred background", versus "this blurred background isn't as nice".
qmr 12d ago
That assertion is not true at all and your comment overall just reeks of Apple apologism. The average user may not understand the technical details of bokeh but they will certainly have an opinion on what is pleasing to the eye.
- 0x457 12d ago
  I remeber photographers talking about X has "not very nice bokeh" probably since I met a first photographer when phones were monochrome and had no camera. No one beside photographer cared then, no one will care today. To most people its just blur and they don't care that it is not just blur.
  - virgilp 12d ago
    If your assertion was true, it logically leads to "camera quality doesn't matter man, only photographers care about that, to most people it's just pictures" There are details, all of these are details; but saying that "iphone5-level-cameras are good enough form most people" is both true (obviously it sold and millions were satisfied with it) and false (most people would notice today that iphone5s take worse photos than latest-gen). All the details add up to image quality that _is_ noticeable even to the laymen.
    - thewebguyd 12d ago
      > only photographers care about that, to most people it's just pictures This is largely true, when it comes to photos of other people/people they care about. I'm a wedding & family photographer part time, and at nearly every wedding I shoot, the photos the clients and their guests favorite the most from the galleries are usually the quick candid snaps where the subject has an expression they like or are doing something fun. It could be a blurry, grainy, dark mess of a photo and it will consistently be their favorite photo of the day. For most non-photographers, the subject of the photo is what matters and is all they will notice. Almost no one is making a distinction between bokeh shape, or noise (unless its so obvious as to completely ruin the photo), composition, etc. All that to say, photo quality is only one very small part of the equation.
  - OGWhales 12d ago
    Even if they don't care about bokeh per se, they can still find pictures with really bad bokeh to be ugly.
  - RankingMember 12d ago
    I'm not a photographer and I think the bokeh makes the picture look bad because the tree looks so weird that it's distracting. I'm not one who normally thinks about bokeh, but it's glaringly bad.
josephg 12d ago
> But iPhone + zoom + crop is better in some ways than my 50mm 1.2 with bokeh. Well, yeah. f1.2 is a nice gimmick but opening up so wide rarely translates into better photos. Don't get me wrong - you can get some beautiful portraits with that lens. But in practice, my 24-70 f2.8 zoom lens gets way more use than a 50mm prime. There's a reason high end phones have multiple cameras on them. It's because not every photo wants to be taken at the same focal length. I'd much rather a mirrorless camera with a 24-70 than an iphone. A mirrorless camera with just a 50mm prime will take some beautiful photos. And some photos you won't be able to capture at all.
criddell 12d ago
Don’t forget that bokeh doesn’t mean “blur”. Bokeh is about the quality of light in the blur. You can’t have bokeh without blur but you can have blur without bokeh.
nomel 12d ago
> Can I force focus it? Yes. There are many camera apps with manual focus. Just not the default app.

by mannyv 12d ago

ValentineC 12d ago

> Only professionals and enthusiasts care about bokeh. I mean, consumers would probably just know it as "nice and pleasing blurred background", versus "this blurred background isn't as nice".

qmr 12d ago

That assertion is not true at all and your comment overall just reeks of Apple apologism. The average user may not understand the technical details of bokeh but they will certainly have an opinion on what is pleasing to the eye.

0x457 12d ago
I remeber photographers talking about X has "not very nice bokeh" probably since I met a first photographer when phones were monochrome and had no camera. No one beside photographer cared then, no one will care today. To most people its just blur and they don't care that it is not just blur.
- virgilp 12d ago
  If your assertion was true, it logically leads to "camera quality doesn't matter man, only photographers care about that, to most people it's just pictures" There are details, all of these are details; but saying that "iphone5-level-cameras are good enough form most people" is both true (obviously it sold and millions were satisfied with it) and false (most people would notice today that iphone5s take worse photos than latest-gen). All the details add up to image quality that _is_ noticeable even to the laymen.
  - thewebguyd 12d ago
    > only photographers care about that, to most people it's just pictures This is largely true, when it comes to photos of other people/people they care about. I'm a wedding & family photographer part time, and at nearly every wedding I shoot, the photos the clients and their guests favorite the most from the galleries are usually the quick candid snaps where the subject has an expression they like or are doing something fun. It could be a blurry, grainy, dark mess of a photo and it will consistently be their favorite photo of the day. For most non-photographers, the subject of the photo is what matters and is all they will notice. Almost no one is making a distinction between bokeh shape, or noise (unless its so obvious as to completely ruin the photo), composition, etc. All that to say, photo quality is only one very small part of the equation.
- OGWhales 12d ago
  Even if they don't care about bokeh per se, they can still find pictures with really bad bokeh to be ugly.
- RankingMember 12d ago
  I'm not a photographer and I think the bokeh makes the picture look bad because the tree looks so weird that it's distracting. I'm not one who normally thinks about bokeh, but it's glaringly bad.

josephg 12d ago

> But iPhone + zoom + crop is better in some ways than my 50mm 1.2 with bokeh. Well, yeah. f1.2 is a nice gimmick but opening up so wide rarely translates into better photos. Don't get me wrong - you can get some beautiful portraits with that lens. But in practice, my 24-70 f2.8 zoom lens gets way more use than a 50mm prime. There's a reason high end phones have multiple cameras on them. It's because not every photo wants to be taken at the same focal length. I'd much rather a mirrorless camera with a 24-70 than an iphone. A mirrorless camera with just a 50mm prime will take some beautiful photos. And some photos you won't be able to capture at all.

criddell 12d ago

Don’t forget that bokeh doesn’t mean “blur”. Bokeh is about the quality of light in the blur. You can’t have bokeh without blur but you can have blur without bokeh.

nomel 12d ago

> Can I force focus it? Yes. There are many camera apps with manual focus. Just not the default app.