Here are some photos I took outside fully zoomed in at 55mm. My favorite one is the snail crawling across the wall of the garden.
Bokeh is a Japanese term for the subjective aesthetic quality of out-of-focus areas outside the main image of focus. It is the blurred area behind the main object the lens focuses on.
There are several ways to create a bokeh. One way creates a slight bokeh, while the other creates a much more blurred background.
Set your camera shutter speed to a very slow speed dependent on the amount of light on your main object. In direct sunlight, you may want to put your film speed at 200 ISO, the shutter speed at 30 and then set the aperture (f/stop) at 32 or so…if your camera allows you to go that high. Then take a photo. You may have to play around with the speed of the shutter or raise or lower your f/stop depending on the amount of light.
Here is a picture taken using a similar setting on my Pentax ist DL2. The film speed was ISO 400, shutter speed of 1/20 of a second and the f/stop (aperture) was set to f/32. Notice the area behind the flowers is not that blurry.
Now here is a picture with the same ISO of 400, but the shutter speed has been increased to 1/750 of a second and the f/stop has been lowered to f/5.6. Notice how the image behind the flowers is more blurred.
Here are two more photos doing the exact same process.
A stronger bokeh is best used in portraits and objects you want to add more emphasis to.
A weaker bokeh is good for objects you wish to have more detail which is created by adding more depth to the main object in focus. This is a great setting for photos of people when you want more detail in the objects behind and in front of them to be sharper and more noticeable.