DAZ Depth of Field Settings- A General Starting Point?

unknownmystery445

Scott Livingston said:

You have 1 and 2 correct for the most part. Keep in mind that with DOF on, there are two planes...one for the front (everything in front of this plane will be more out of focus) and one for the back (everything behind this plane will be more out of focus).

Different people might have different advice about point 3...I'd suggest you start with the default value for focal length (65) and f/stop (22) and adjust focal distance. Once you're familiar with how focal distance works, then move on to f/stop, and finally focal length.

For 3b...I don't think this is really possible with depth of field, unless the elements at the edges are closer to the camera than the main subject (or further from it). You could do it in postwork, though.

For 3c, you'd just decrease focal distance in order to move that front plane away from the person's nose until it reaches the foreground objects. And you'll probably have to increase your f/stop (expanding the area between the front and rear DOF plane) to keep the person in focus. There are other methods which would involve adjusting the focal length.

Personally I prefer to do full test renders (if you need more speed, adjust shading rate and/or turn off the lights, or hide the hair) instead of spot renders. I like to see the full frame.

I'm not an expert in depth of field, but hopefully this is enough to move you past being stuck! Let me know if you have any questions.

Edited to add: one more important thing...the position of the camera has a huge impact on how DOF works, which is why you can't really plug in a set of values taken from one scene and expect the same results in a different scene.

How do you increase the "blurness"? And what does lens thickness do specifically?

BeeMKay

The lower the fstop number, the thinner the "slice" of "sharp space", and the higher the blurriness.