Depth of Field Tutorial

[MGebhart]

Hi.

I put together a 14 page tutorial on how to fake Depth of Field using T2 and Photoshop. This is for newbies and others who may not know how to do it.

There are instructions all over the place but, I thought this would keep you from jumping around.

If you find errors or if there are sections that are not clear, contact me with comments and I'll update the document.

http://web.me.com/marcgebhart1/Trees/ProTrees.html

The tutorial can be downloaded at the bottom of the ProTrees page.

Marc

[inkydigit]

thanks Marc, I spotted a typo here, sorry it leapt out at me...." SummerDepthMap.jpg. My final image was names Summer.jpg. "
its a great tutorial and easy to follow.

[MGebhart]

Thank you. As I get more comments and suggestions I'll make the corrections and re-post.

Marc

[Henry Blewer]

I don't use Photoshop. But this may work in GIMP or Corel Paint X.

Nice work!

[Hannes]

Maybe you could add to the tutorial, that if you want only the closest foreground to be blurred, you need to enlarge the selection a little bit. Otherwise everything inside the selection is blurred but with razorsharp edges. When your selection is a few pixels larger, the edge of your mask is blurred too which makes it more realistic.

Example:

[Tangled-Universe]

I'm afraid I don't understand. How do you mean "enlarge selection"?
Enlarge the DOF-image in photoshop and then apply the DOF? You would have mismatches then isn't it?

[Hannes]

I have the german version of photoshop, so I didn't really know the english expression.
It's "expand"!

After you added the DOF mask as an alpha channel and have clicked on "load channel as selection" you have to use your selection in the RGB image.
Now go to the "select" tab of photoshop, then "modify", then "expand" your selection by a few pixels. THEN apply the lens blur.
You'll have to try some settings. The bigger the radius of your lens blur, the more pixels you have to expand your selection.

Sorry for the confusion

[Tangled-Universe]

Don't feel sorry, no need to
Thanks for explaining! It looks better indeed.

[reck]

You can also use Blender as a replacement for Photoshop. I know not everyone has PS and Blender is free and available for every platform.

Nice tutorial BTW, thanks a lot for making it.

[Hannes]

I found out, that EXPANDING the mask only works to a certain amount. If you expand too much, it doesn't look natural anymore.
But you can already blur your mask a little bit BEFORE you load it as selection.
It's not as good as the original, but maybe an alternative to blur the foreground until the native DOF is implemented into TG (hopefully soon! )

[MGebhart]

Hannes,

This looks great.

Marc