Subject: DEPTH OF FIELD
From: [email-masked]
To: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 31 Oct 94 14:15:39

> I need some help on Depth of Field rendering in LW.
 > I understand that focal distance is the distance (in meters?)
 > between camera and focused area.
 > But how does the F-Stop work? is it exactly the way a real
 > camera's F-stop works? or is this number the percent of
 > "clarity falloff" from the focused area?

F-stop in a real camera defines the size of the aperture setting that regulates
the amount of light that gets onto film. Related physics also dictate that the
smaller the opening of the aperture, the more depth-of-field is available at
any given focus. The higher the f-stop, the smaller the aperture, therefore DOF
is deeper.

One thing to note about DOF in Lightwave is that unlike a real camera, the
F-stop does not affect the amount of light that is calculated, for better or
for worse. Real-world photographers are constantly juggling such variables as
f-stop, depth of field and shutter speeds to achieve their visions.

AC