Setting the DOF in Reality 3 for Poser

Depth Of Field, or DOF, is the ability of a camera to restrict its focus to an certain area. Anythingoutside that are will be progressively out of focus. Using a shallow DOF allows us to bring theattention of the viewer to a part of the frame while blurring the rest. This technique mimics whathappens in our eye and it's used all the time in photography. It can really enhance our renders.

Both Poser and Lux provide support for DOF and Reality reads the DOF data from Poser to set therender in Lux. So, it's important to know how to set the DOF in Poser if we want to take advantage ofthis technique in Reality and Lux.

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Enable the focus targetStart by enabling the Distance Guide in Poser. The focus target appears in the scene showing uswhere the Poser camera is focusing. It is possible that the focus target doesn't appear because it isplaced behind an object. Let's not worry about this for now.

Take note of what camera is selected in the viewport

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Now select the same camera in the Parameters panel

Adjust the focus lengthUse the focus Distance to move the focus target

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Adjust the focus length, step 2As we change the value for ther focus target the target moves and shows us its position. We wantthe focus point to be exactly at the same level with the iris. Make sure that you are inside the eye alittle bit because, if the DOF is really shallow, even focusing on the cornea, instead of the iris, couldresult in eyes that are slightly out of focus.

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Reality for PoserIn Reality you will notice that the same Focal distance is reported. Enable the DOF checkbox tomake Lux render with shallow DOF. Select an f-stop for the DOF. Please note that this f-stop isseparate and indipendent from the one used for the exposure.

ConclusionsThat's all there is to it! Render the image and you will see the image having the eyes of thecharacters in sharp focus while anything before or after will gradually blur.

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