Weird Bokeh

[Loupey]

I've been posting recent stuff over in the Nature and Wildlife forum and just noticed this weird bokeh (looks like oil rings or posterazation).

At first, I thought is was just some combination of post processing effects. But the original RAW image shows this as well. The in-camera settings are all set to default (none) settings.

This is the first time I've noticed it. I've been using the same rig, CF, and body for some time now.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

[drg]

This photo DOES have water in it, and are you seeing this in photos that do not have water?
At this scale I'm not seeing any posterization at all. There is a strange reflection in the water; that seems though to be not the fault of equipment in this case.

I'll look at the N&W forum for your posts and see if I notice anything definite. Do you have any specific examples other than this one? This looks to me like a bad meeting of light and water.

[another view]

This looks to me like a bad meeting of light and water.

I agree with this. Light and water can lead to strange effects sometimes!

[Loupey]

Thanks, guys. Here is the bad section blown up a little. Like I said before, I had not noticed this before. This shot is just one of 20 or 30 taken from the same spot, at the same angle, at the same settings, and with the same lens. Naturally, this is my favorite of the bunch and it does this

[drg]

Looks a lot like ripples over submerged rock or something in the water at a shutter speed that is just slow enough to cause some odd edge effect.

Digital pics will display some really bizarre artifacting at times. Again, looks like a it comes from the angle of the light, the water, and in this case what is just under the surface. If I squint real hard, it looks like it might even be a frog just under the surface swiming off to the right. A little blur tool and no one will ever notice.

[OldSchool]

Hi L,

I don't think that's Bokeh. Bokeh comes from the out-of-focus areas of the image. It looks like you've got them weird circles in the focal plane too. I would expect the bokeh to be much smaller -- like those highlights in the foreground.

I found this page to be good...

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/bokeh.shtml

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/bokeh.htm

Cheers,
Tim

[another view]

"What's That" is very strange, never seen something show up like that myself. I have to agree again that it's something below the surface causing a ripple that must have just recorded in this strange way for some reason. If you look in the middle of the areas you circled, you can see a rock or something just below the surface. That will create a ripple on the surface as some of the water goes over it and some around it. Very strange though, does it happen often?

And yes, this isn't bokeh (or boke, whichever).

[Loupey]

OK, here is the same section of the very next shot (taken 42 seconds later at the same 1/90s, f/11).

This images doesn't show the pronounced effect (although there is very little on the right side).

Here is my theory: The wind that day was strong and irregular. The pond is small and there was other activity going on. Some rocks in this section are just below the surface. So if the waves hit these rocks with just enough motion at the particular shutter speed I was using at the time, the imaging sensor is going to record this "island of water tension" as it throbs.

That's how I am going to take it. At least now I know about this effect to take precautionary measures in the future.

[yogestee]

Hi Loupey,,what it looks like to me is a ripple on the water frozen by the 90th sec shutter speed..Waves do strange things as water depth decreases..What happens is the wave (or ripple in this case) hits a shallow bed or rock the bottom of the wave slows down due to friction with the sea bed,,the top of the wave keeps moving and eventually breaks..Depending on the shape of the bottom weird wave shapes can occur..
I reckon you have just captured a weird wave shape.

Jurgen (exsurfer)
Australia