[RESOLVED] DOF in Post - DOF Pro

[cjwidd]

Looking for hot takes about DOF Pro for doing zdepth-based DOF in post as opposed to in-camera. The only other alternative I know of for PS DOF in post is Lenscare (Frischluft), but the usability and feature set is decidedly lesser.

I ask because I recently needed to do some artistic DOF (i.e. not physically based) and the quickest option was to rely on a PS / z-depth approach.

[burnin]

Artistically speaking you're simply playing/layering/blending/mixing... amount of blur. So you only need to manipulate or paint your 'depth masks'.
Or is there something deeper you were thinking of?
 ;)

[cjwidd]

Looking more for a review from someone that has used the plugin(?)

[Bormax]

VFB+ gives possibility to play with DOF like in post inside the Max. It automatically transfers stopped rendered picture in to it and then you can start to work with DOF. Functionality is not so wide, but it's built-in solution and it's free

[burnin]

Looking more for a review from someone that has used the plugin(?)

I tested/tried long time ago...
Never managed to get same results as when simulated/rendered in camera.
While for artistic control, nothing really comes close to skill set gained with experience.
IMHO, those plugins are basically shortcuts to simply work faster during post pro.

And, since it's been a long time I even used PS, any other oppinnion would be highly appreciated tho, I still think it's best to get experienced for yourself.


Have a good time.

[romullus]

Me as well, used DOF PRO 10-15 years ago, back in the days when rendering true DOF was unthinkable. Even though i liked its results, novadays i wouldn't even consider fake DOF, unless you're rendering animation, or for some specific reason really need to make it in post.

P.S. keep in mind that for the best results, you need to render aliased z-depth pass, at least that was requirement when i used the plugin in the past.

[cjwidd]

Me as well, used DOF PRO 10-15 years ago, back in the days when rendering true DOF was unthinkable. Even though i liked its results, novadays i wouldn't even consider fake DOF, unless you're rendering animation, or for some specific reason really need to make it in post.

P.S. keep in mind that for the best results, you need to render aliased z-depth pass, at least that was requirement when i used the plugin in the past.

DOF Pro is >10yrs old? The YouTube tuts were released last year(?)

Regarding bespoke / artistic DOF effects, I was trying to blur the background elements but not the foreground - I've seen this comment appear a few times on the forum. I don't think there is a way to do that in camera if the point of focus is somewhere between a foreground and background object, i.e. the center object (focus target) will appear in focus, but the background and foreground objects will appear blurred, as they should be.

[romullus]

I don't know anything about its YT channel, but the website remains virtually unchanged since all those years, only additional info about new features has been added.

Regarding bespoke / artistic DOF effects, I was trying to blur the background elements but not the foreground - I've seen this comment appear a few times on the forum. I don't think there is a way to do that in camera if the point of focus is somewhere between a foreground and background object, i.e. the center object (focus target) will appear in focus, but the background and foreground objects will appear blurred, as they should be.

I usually use DOF calculator and try to figure best combo of camera focal length and aperture. The possible DOF range is very large and flexible, you can achieve almost any result with true DOF, especially in CG world, where you are not limited by real world cameras technical limitations. On the other hand, i'm not sure if with DOF pro plugin things are radically different - you still need to choose focus point and DOF range. I'm not sure if you can explicitly turn off foreground, or background blurring. The main advantage of the plugin is speed and non-destructive workflow, if you're willing to pay the price of inevitable artifacts.

[Juraj]

With these plugins you can manipulate the Zdepth Channel to create unrealistic (un-linked) focus planes.
I remember Vlado once mentioning that is something that would be very hard to create in 3D.

I liked Frisluft, used it almost decade ago on animation :- ). It worked great for stronger DOF, but very poorly on subtle one. I believe Dof Pro was something far older only mentioned by Alex Roman and that was it.

I would probably use it again today for animation just to get around the noise from true rendered DOF.

[jms.lwly]

I've never had great success recreating DOF in Photoshop, but there are many more plugins available for After Effects or Fusion.

The added bonus being that it's also easier to animate the effect directly in those apps too - the below was created in Fusion, it's by far from perfect, but it was quite effective in the scheme of the whole animation (created from a single still image)...

Edit: not sure if that gif loads properly here, doesn't for me... but if you right click and open the source image you can see

[cjwidd]

Yeah Fusion is a great software for these types of things, although I have been reluctant to make the switch