Hi all. I'm trying to describe a situation when circular blurs of light splash on glass. I wanted to use "bokeh" but I didn't know how. Is this correct? Sarah ascended the stairs, and sat at the mahogany desk in her room. There was a faint halo of light around the light bulb, casting the room with a hazy glow. The lights from the street splashed on the rain-splattered window in circular blurs, looking like a bokeh photograph. She opened the window, inhaling the scent of early autumn rain. A wispy mist hung over London, pierced by by the cars' headlights that illuminated the falling raindrops. Bare trees swayed in a breeze that carried the smell of coffee to her room. She grabbed an olive from a can, and nibbled on it, allowing her thoughts to drift.
Bokeh is a photographic effect. Sometimes we can see a similar effect, but it would be because of something filtering the light getting to our eyes, like mist or condensation on the glass or a film on the eye, maybe excessive wetness (tearing up, about to cry). But ordinarily a person wouldn't see an effect like that. I would try to avoid describing photographic effects in a story, such as a wide-angle or fisheye lens effect, unless the character is specifically looking through a lens, like maybe a peephole in a door or something. In certain situations though, like in a bathroom where somebody just took a hot shower and the air itself is cool, there could be a mist on the mirror and windows, or on a really humid/foggy day there could be a heavy mist or condensation on the house windows. Rain can do that too. It would take some setting-up to get that information across though, and it tends to make a story sound artificial, like you're trying to describe movie effects. I would try to concentrate on the kinds of things that work well in a written story. Maybe just say the windows were blurred with streaky rain or something, and maybe even mention that the lights seen through them are distorted and hazy. But I wouldn't try to get any more visually specific than that.
I wouldn't know what bokeh means but I think your description is fine without a similie. "The lights from the street splashed on the rain-splattered window in circular blurs."
Here's what I would do. I avoided any (too) crazy metaphors. I restrained myself, haha: Sarah ascended the stairs and sat at her desk. Car lights shone as dabs and blurs against the rain-splattered window. To her it was like an out of focus bokeh photograph. She opened the window, inhaled the scent of early autumn and felt the mist drizzling over London. Across the avenue bare trees swayed. A breeze carried the smell of coffee. She grabbed an olive from a can and nibbled on it, allowing her thoughts to drift. Be careful about putting an adjective on everything, and watch out for adding on a "-ing phrase" at the end of so many lines. I only left the one at the end. I chopped the bit about the light so that the image of the window glass would be all its own. Anyway, I didn't know what a bokeh photo was either. So that's where I added an adjective (compound adj, whatever). I don't mind seeing a word I don't know. I like the flavor of that sometimes, as long is it fits the genre and character's voice. I feel that nouns and verbs do the real work, so sometimes you have to let them stand on their own and prove themselves.
"The lights from the street splashed on the rain-splattered window in circular blurs, looking like a bokeh photograph." It's okay. But only photographers and photoshoppers will know this term. How about... Rain splattered against the window, blurring the reflection of light from the street into chaotic, irregular shapes that drizzled softly down the glass.
Although not correct, you could describe them as lens flares, but that may not be very identifiable either, and lens flares usually have streaks of light radiating from the circle. You could try "The lights from the street splashed on the rain-splattered window in circular blurs, like a twister board viewed through drunken eyes." Of course that may be more obscure than bokeh these days, especially in England. Maybe "The lights from the street splashed on the rain-splattered window in circular blurs, like Autumn leaves floating in a stagnant pond."
I tend to think Ginger had the right of this, the simile isn't needed. "Droplets of light splashed on the rain wet window"
