Not all bokeh is made the same. Some are clearly superior to others in the way that the bourgeoisie snubs their nose at the proletariat. Of course, I’m kidding about that. It’s all personal preference. But objectively speaking, there are many different types of bokeh out there. Luckily, we’ve studied and used the most lenses in real-world environments of any website out there. So we dove into our Reviews Index to look at bokeh shapes. Are there more? There could be, but these are more than sufficient for the modern photographer.

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Swirly Bokeh

Swirly bokeh is a fascinating one! I really, honestly wish was available in more lenses. Of all the types of bokeh, it’s often the most unique. It’s typically associated with petzval style lenses. In a highly condensed nutshell, it’s making the center very sharp and making the outer edges less in focus. So if you’re shooting with this style of lens, you can’t expect the edges to be in focus at all. Instead, you’ll have to always center your subject. It works best at wider open apertures. The more you stop down, the lessened the effect becomes.

Because of this, swirly bokeh is one of those types of bokeh that will primarily appeal to portrait photographers. Combine it with some sort of sepia preset, and you’ll get an old-timey look.

How to Get the Look

Some of the best ways to get it are to reach for a Lomography Petzval lens or a Lensbaby Twist for less than $200 for just the optic. Lomography’s Petzval lenses can be had easily on eBay. Various vintage optics can do this, like some from Helios.

Shaped Bokeh

Shaped bokeh is different. It takes the bokeh and literally turns it into a shape. Ever seen Scott Pilgrim vs. the world? It’s used often there. It’s an amusing look to use, but it can also be very limiting. You need to use a very wide-open aperture at all times to really get the results to pop. They’re fun to use for portraiture. And they’ll be fantastic with modern lenses as they’re super sharp wide open.

How to Get the Look

Years ago, SLRMagic used to make this lens called the Bokehmorphic. I can’t even find it anymore for the record, and it was hard to use but fun. But you can also score these little stencils to put over your lens and to shape the bokeh.

Onion Bokeh

For many, many years, this was just known as bokeh. Of all the types of bokeh, this is one of the weirdest ones to me. It’s so odd because of just how it came to be called this. Basically, onion bokeh is when you look at a bokeh ball, and there are little circles in it. It happens with the vast majority of optics before 2018. Someone, somewhere on the internet, decided that it was awful because they were pixel-peeping. Sony hyper-inflated it out of control. It was a problem if you want to call it that, with the way the optics were polished. And now, manufacturers have changed the polishing technique so that the optics are much more smooth.

Personally speaking, I liked the onion bokeh look. It made the bokeh balls pop out a lot more and gave images a more fascinating look.

How to Get the Look

Basically, pick up any lens from before 2018. It’s bound to have onion bokeh. Make sure there are bright bokeh balls behind your subject. That’s it. It’s that simple.

Smooth Bokeh

Continuing from the onion bokeh trend, smooth bokeh is just when the optics are polished differently. The bokeh balls are smooth and don’t have an onion character. It’s bound to make you not cry if you can’t handle a bit of heat in the kitchen.

How to Get the Look

Sony G Master lenses are enormous on this look. Lots of Canon modern RF L lenses and Nikon Z S lenses are big on it too.

Donut Bokeh

Donut bokeh is some of my favorite. If you’re not a fan of onions, maybe you’ll enjoy the sweet eye ca...