5 ms·

As a photographer, I gotta say I really love the name. :) For those who aren't photography nerds, "bokeh" is a Japanese word that means the out-of-focus areas

by beat 13y ago

As a photographer, I gotta say I really love the name. :) For those who aren't photography nerds, "bokeh" is a Japanese word that means the out-of-focus areas in a photograph. Different lenses have different kinds of bokeh, and beautiful or ugly bokeh is an important dividing line between good and bad lenses.

Osmium 13y ago
I didn't realise "bokeh" was a Japanese word. That's really cool. Seems like it uses this kanji 暈 [1] meaning "corona" or "halo" (in turn made up of the "sun" kanji, "car" kanji and "crown" radical–I'm not sure if there's a historical reason for this but it makes it easy to remember at least). [1] http://jisho.org/kanji/details/暈 http://jisho.org/kanji/details/暈
- cvb386 13y ago
  Boke (meaning blur) is from a combination of kanji 暈 (bo) and hiragana け (ke). You'll notice that "bokeh" doesn't look like usual romaji (Japanese romanization) spelling, since it would normally be transliterated as boke. It was spelled bokeh with the extra 'h' to avoid accidental pronunciation like poke. [1] http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/bokeh.shtml http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/bokeh.shtml
  - Osmium 13y ago
    Thanks for the info. I just realised too (thanks to a friend) that the kanji might originate because "corona" sounds similar to "kuruma" (meaning "car"), and that's why the "bo" kanji has the "car" kanji in it.
slantyyz 13y ago
As someone who likes photography and analytics, I disagree about the name. As you say, bokeh is about out-of-focus blur. That's sort of the opposite impression you want to present in a tool that's intended to give you "clarity" via its visualizations.
- vph 13y ago
  As someone who likes photography, I have to disagree about your reasoning. The clarity of your subject is as much about how much it is in focus as how much irrelevant things are out of focus. Portrait photos are often beautiful when the lens has good bokeh characteristics.
  - slantyyz 13y ago
    >> The clarity of your subject is as much about how much it is in focus as how much irrelevant things are out of focus. If you actually look at the sample output of the library, there's nothing out of focus, at least from the perspective of depth of field. In my opinion (and it is just an opinion), calling all de-emphasized data bokeh is a stretch at best. Blurring and de-emphasis using color and size are two different things. >> Portrait photos are often beautiful when the lens has good bokeh characteristics. Let's be clear -- while bokeh can enhance the beauty of a portrait, it doesn't make a portrait beautiful. Most people don't know the difference between good bokeh and bad bokeh (pwang's definition of bokeh in his response to me is very good), but they can usually identify a blurred background vs. a sharp background. Many people tend to prefer a sharp subject against a blurred background, and that's usually enough for most people to consider a portrait beautiful even if the bokeh is quite ugly. Without getting into a long drawn out discussion of bokeh, you have to remember that there's also more to a beautiful portrait than the novelty of a blurred background.
    - pwang 13y ago
      > If you actually look at the sample output of the library, there's nothing out of focus, We are working on the semantic downsampling and perceptual integration aspects of visualizing large data. This currently lives in its own repo: https://github.com/JosephCottam/AbstractRendering https://github.com/JosephCottam/AbstractRendering > calling all de-emphasized data bokeh is a stretch at best It's really just meant to be an evocative metaphor... :-)
      - slantyyz 13y ago
mkr-hn 13y ago
I thought bokeh was the aesthetic quality of the out of focus area, not the area itself.

by beat 13y ago

Osmium 13y ago

I didn't realise "bokeh" was a Japanese word. That's really cool. Seems like it uses this kanji 暈 [1] meaning "corona" or "halo" (in turn made up of the "sun" kanji, "car" kanji and "crown" radical–I'm not sure if there's a historical reason for this but it makes it easy to remember at least). [1] http://jisho.org/kanji/details/暈 http://jisho.org/kanji/details/暈

cvb386 13y ago
Boke (meaning blur) is from a combination of kanji 暈 (bo) and hiragana け (ke). You'll notice that "bokeh" doesn't look like usual romaji (Japanese romanization) spelling, since it would normally be transliterated as boke. It was spelled bokeh with the extra 'h' to avoid accidental pronunciation like poke. [1] http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/bokeh.shtml http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/bokeh.shtml
- Osmium 13y ago
  Thanks for the info. I just realised too (thanks to a friend) that the kanji might originate because "corona" sounds similar to "kuruma" (meaning "car"), and that's why the "bo" kanji has the "car" kanji in it.

slantyyz 13y ago

As someone who likes photography and analytics, I disagree about the name. As you say, bokeh is about out-of-focus blur. That's sort of the opposite impression you want to present in a tool that's intended to give you "clarity" via its visualizations.

vph 13y ago
As someone who likes photography, I have to disagree about your reasoning. The clarity of your subject is as much about how much it is in focus as how much irrelevant things are out of focus. Portrait photos are often beautiful when the lens has good bokeh characteristics.
- slantyyz 13y ago
  >> The clarity of your subject is as much about how much it is in focus as how much irrelevant things are out of focus. If you actually look at the sample output of the library, there's nothing out of focus, at least from the perspective of depth of field. In my opinion (and it is just an opinion), calling all de-emphasized data bokeh is a stretch at best. Blurring and de-emphasis using color and size are two different things. >> Portrait photos are often beautiful when the lens has good bokeh characteristics. Let's be clear -- while bokeh can enhance the beauty of a portrait, it doesn't make a portrait beautiful. Most people don't know the difference between good bokeh and bad bokeh (pwang's definition of bokeh in his response to me is very good), but they can usually identify a blurred background vs. a sharp background. Many people tend to prefer a sharp subject against a blurred background, and that's usually enough for most people to consider a portrait beautiful even if the bokeh is quite ugly. Without getting into a long drawn out discussion of bokeh, you have to remember that there's also more to a beautiful portrait than the novelty of a blurred background.
  - pwang 13y ago
    > If you actually look at the sample output of the library, there's nothing out of focus, We are working on the semantic downsampling and perceptual integration aspects of visualizing large data. This currently lives in its own repo: https://github.com/JosephCottam/AbstractRendering https://github.com/JosephCottam/AbstractRendering > calling all de-emphasized data bokeh is a stretch at best It's really just meant to be an evocative metaphor... :-)
    - slantyyz 13y ago

mkr-hn 13y ago

I thought bokeh was the aesthetic quality of the out of focus area, not the area itself.