Can I see "bad" bokeh...

[Pablito]

The power of bokeh: Any thread with that word in the title is guaranteed to go on for pages and pages.

 

[grapejohnson]

I wonder how many non photographers (or viewers of but not makers of) think about bokeh? Is it only something we notice and care about?

I showed some pictures to a friend who knows nothing about photography the other day, and she commented on how much she liked "the out of focus girl in the background" on a picture I took with a Pentax K 50/1.4 indoors in low light.
I think some people notice it more than we'd expect, but it's sort of like musicians who can "hear" all the instruments separately and can explain what they like/dislike about production in a song compared to people who just listen to music and can't describe what they like about it or separate the instruments.