Bokeh

Bokeh (from the Japanese word "boke," meaning blur or haze) describes the aesthetic quality of the out-of-focus areas in an image — specifically, the way a lens renders points of light and background detail when they're outside the focal plane. Good bokeh appears as smooth, rounded, pleasing blurs that separate the subject cleanly from the background. Poor bokeh appears as harsh, busy, or geometrically rigid blur patterns that compete with the subject rather than recede behind it. Lens design, aperture shape, and focal length all influence the character of a lens's bokeh.

Bokeh is produced by shooting with a shallow depth of field — using a wide aperture (low f-stop number like f/1.4 or f/1.8), a longer focal length, or both. When the background is significantly out of focus, any points of light — window highlights, lamps, outdoor foliage — blur into soft circles or shapes that give an image the distinctive "cinematic" look that viewers associate with professional production. Portrait lenses in the 85mm–135mm range are prized specifically for producing creamy, non-distracting bokeh.

In B2B video, bokeh is a practical tool for context without distraction. A product manager filmed against a busy open office becomes instantly more watchable when the background is gently blurred into abstract shapes — the environment communicates "this is a real company" without pulling attention away from the speaker. The pitfall is using extreme bokeh inappropriately: if the background is so blurred that it's unidentifiable, you lose the environmental context entirely. Aim for a bokeh level that softens without erasing.