Depth Map

[Doug Nelson]

Use the Lens Blur filter in Photoshop CS with a depth map to realistically simulate depth-of-field [details]

[Flora]

Thanks for a great, clear, easy Tutorial on a procedure I've always have tried in other ways but have never been completely satisfied with my results!!!

[BigAl]

Good one Doug. I wonder if I'll be able to tweak this so as not to use the Lens Blur Filter (so that it's not PS specific)?

[Doug Nelson]

I suspect it's VERY CS (or CS2) specific.

[Flora]

Hi Doug,

I've been 'playing' with your Tutorial and it works just great!

One question .... is there a particular reason for creating a gradient Layer first and copying it into a new alpha channel?

I'm asking this because I tried the gradient directly on a new alpha channel (eliminating the gradient Layer step) and it seemed to work perfectly ....

[Doug Nelson]

The only real reason is that so the two masks could later be combined using the blend mode. Plus, it's hard to paint a mask based on an image on it's channel. But other than that, working directly on a channel is fine.

[Flora]

Got it!!!

Thanks Doug!

[Ken Fournelle]

Very nice Doug, this will come in very handy!

k

[vinniesworld]

Great job Doug, played around with combining the masks with blend mode, a lot of possibilities.

[Stroker]

Lens Blur is also a pretty decent way of doing DOF for 3d. Do a regular render and z-depth render. Then use Lens Blur.
Definitely a lot faster than having your renderer render the DOF.
Well, if the DOF that you want isn't terribly critical.

I'm not sure, but you might even be able to trick Lens Blur into doing motion blur (also render heavy).