The Bokeh filter in Analog Efex is really rather remarkable. Who needs AI?

DxO calls it a Bokeh filter when really it’s a blur and bokeh filter combined. Many of the presets in Analog Efex use this Bokeh filter, but if you want to properly explore what it can do you can use it on its own via the Filter panel in Analog Efex’s left sidebar.

The Bokeh filter is a pretty simple tool with just two main options – an elliptical blur effect for highlighting your main subject and a horizontal blur effect to simulate a narrow plane of sharp focus. This can be really effective at creating a miniature ‘diorama’ effect with real world scenes shot from above from the top of a building, for example, a bridge, or the deck of a ship.

Now Lightroom users will know that Lightroom has a Lens Blur tool that’s altogether more sophisticated, using AI to identify and mask the main subject and progressively blur nearer and farther areas of the scene.

The Bokeh filter in Analog Efex is not like that. It’s much simpler. It can’t replicated real optical blur in the same way that Lightroom can but, used with skill on the right subjects, it comes close enough to create a very convincing ‘look’.

That’s the point about this filter. The options are straightforward, and all the finesse lies in how you position the bokeh gadget and settings you choose. It’s also important to understand how optical blur would work in a real-life scene so that you can replicate it with this tool.

The image used here has been created with the horizontal bokeh option. The aim was to make this harbourside scene in Norway look like a model, and this technique uses a special optical trick. We associate shallow depth of field with close-ups, so that when we see it applied to a scene like this it fools our eyes into thinking we’re looking at a model.

The clever part about the Analog Efex Bokeh filter is that the on-screen bokeh gadget has two outlines. The inner outline defines the area of the image that will stay fully sharp, the outer outline defines the point where the blur effect reaches its maximum (there’s a Blur Strength slider for this) and the area in between is where the blur is applied progressively to mimic diminishing depth of field in real images.

I just needed to rotate the horizontal Bokeh tool to align with the line of buildings on the side of the harbour, adjust the inner and outer boundaries to define the sharp, progressively blurred and fully blurred areas, adjust the Blur Strength for maximum realism (in as far as these things can ever be completely realistic) and then balance up these adjustments until everything looked about right.

So why is this called a Bokeh filter when it is designed to create blur? Well, a lot of people treat these as the same thing these days anyway, but this filter does have bokeh settings too, where you can change the shape of the bokeh disks via the Aperture Shape option – this becomes apparent if you have defocused highlights in the background.

• Is the Analog Efex Bokeh filter genuinely realistic? If you use it the right way on the right subjects then yes, it can look perfectly convincing
• Why would you use a cruder tool like this when you’ve got Lightroom’s AI Lens Blur tool? Because the Analog Efex Bokeh filter is quick and direct and often easier to manipulate