Tip: How to Use Depth of Field.

Depth of Field[DOF] can be a very useful tool for adding realism and defining scale of digital scenes, but it is often used improperly, sometimes giving scenes a bad sense of scale, hopefully this post can teach you how to properly use DOF on both large and small scenes.

  In this computer render, DOF is used improperly, the chairs look miniature, as though they were dollhouse furniture.
  The DOF makes the scene go from blurry to clear to blurry again as you get further from the camera, however the clear point is several feet from the lens, try to avoid this.
   In general it might be best to avoid staying away from DOF in large scenes, however there are instances where you can use DOF correctly in large scenes.


 
In this photograph, you can tell that the leaves in the background are quite a distance away from the subject in the foreground, the scene does not appear as though it could fit in a dollhouse. The focus is very near to the camera, and the amount of focus on objects far from the camera does not change very much with distance.

 You can also do the reverse of the above image, where objects close to the camera are blurry, and objects further out are clear.












I hope this post helps you achieve better results with your renders, feel free to leave comments or suggestions!

Thanks for reading!