Depth of field pro

Depth of field pro is a Blur & sharpen effect.

What it does

A depth of field blur traced through a real lens prescription. The out-of-focus shape changes across the frame and through focus as that lens’s does: cat’s eyes towards the corners, bright or soft edges either side of focus, and coloured fringes from the glass. Something near and blurred goes soft at its edges over what is behind it, which shows through, the way a real lens sees a little round it. Bright pixels are drawn as whole bokeh shapes.

Ray traced follows rays from each pixel back through every surface of the lens to where they meet the depth instead. It shows the lens’s own softness wide open and in the corners, which Lens shapes leaves out near focus. What a near thing hides is filled in from what is around it.

Pointed at the effect’s own layer, when that layer is a Precomp with 3D layers, Depth gives Ray traced the layers themselves, so what a near layer hides is still there to be seen round its edge.

Depth reads distance in metres from a Precomp with 3D layers in it, and any other layer as a depth pass from 0 to 1. On an adjustment layer with 3D layers below it, Depth pointed at the adjustment layer reads how far those layers are. Without it, the whole frame sits at Farthest (m).

Parameters

Parameter	Control	Range	Default	Unit
Depth	Layer	Any layer in the composition	None	-
Depth channel	Dropdown	Luminance · Alpha · Red · Green · Blue	Luminance	-
Invert	Checkbox	On or off	Off	-
Method	Dropdown	Lens shapes · Ray traced	Lens shapes	-
Rays	Slider, whole numbers	3 to 1024; up to 16384	96	-
Lens	Dropdown	7Artisans · 50mm F0.95 · Angenieux · DEM 180mm F2.3 APO · Canon · 50mm f1.2 (1956) · Canon · 85mm f1.5 (1952) · Canon · EF 100mm f2.8 Macro · Canon · EF 400mm f2.8L IS II · Canon · EF 70-200mm f2.8L · Canon · FD 300mm f2.8 SSC Fluorite · Leica · Elmarit 90mm F2.8 · Leica · Summilux 35mm f1.4 · Leica · Summilux-C 100mm T1.4 · Meyer Görlitz · Kino Plasmat 100mm F2 · Meyer Görlitz · Orestor 135mm F2.8 · Ross · F10 APO Process Xpres · Voigtländer · Nokton 35mm F1.2 Asph · Voigtländer · Nokton 50mm F1.0 Asph · Zeiss · Arri Master Prime T1.3 50mm · Zeiss · Biotar 50mm F1.4 · Zeiss · Tessar 100mm F4.5 · Zeiss · Ultra Prime Sonnar 135mm T1.9	Zeiss · Biotar 50mm F1.4	-
Edit lens…	Button	-	-	-
F-stop	Slider	0.95 to 22; down to 0.7 and up to 32	1.4	-
Focus distance (m)	Slider	0.3 to 100; down to 0.05 and higher	3	-
Use focus point	Checkbox	On or off	Off	-
Focus point x	Slider	0 to 3840; any value by typing	960	Pixels at composition size
Focus point y	Slider	0 to 2160; any value by typing	540	Pixels at composition size
Sensor	Dropdown	Full frame · Super 35 · APS-C · Micro Four Thirds	Full frame	-
Blur size	Slider	0 to 4; up to 16	1	-
Colour fringing	Slider	0 to 3; up to 10	1	-
Glass dirt	Slider	0 to 1	0	-
Blades	Slider, whole numbers	3 to 16	9	-
Roundness	Slider	0 to 1	0.6	-
Rotation	Dial	Any angle; snaps every 15° while a modifier is held	0°	Degrees
Highlight threshold	Slider	0 to 4; higher	0.9	-
Highlight boost	Slider	0 to 8; up to 64	1	-
Nearest (m)	Slider	0.1 to 20; down to 0.01 and higher	0.5	-
Farthest (m)	Slider	1 to 1000; down to 0.02 and higher	30	-
Display	Dropdown	Final · Depth	Final	-
Zebra	Checkbox	On or off	Off	-
Mix	Slider	0 to 100	100	Per cent
Blend	Dropdown	Normal · Darken · Multiply · Colour burn · Linear burn · Darker colour · Add · Lighten · Screen · Colour dodge · Lighter colour · Overlay · Soft light · Hard light · Linear light · Vivid light · Pin light · Hard mix · Difference · Exclusion · Subtract · Divide · Hue · Saturation · Colour · Luminosity	Normal	-
Matte	Layer	Any layer in the composition	None	-
Invert	Checkbox	On or off	Off	-
Channel	Dropdown	Luminance · Alpha · Red · Green · Blue	Luminance	-

In the Effect Controls panel:

Iris groups Blades, Roundness, Rotation, and starts closed.
Highlights groups Highlight threshold, Highlight boost, and starts closed.
Depth map groups Nearest (m), Farthest (m), and starts closed.
Focus distance (m) is editable while Use focus point is off.
Focus point x is editable while Use focus point is on.
Focus point y is editable while Use focus point is on.
Use focus point is editable while Depth names a layer.
Depth channel is editable while Depth names a layer.
Nearest (m) is editable while Depth names a layer.
Rays is editable while Method is set to Ray traced.
Blur size is editable while Method is set to Lens shapes.
Matte is an input to an effect, scaling the strength. Invert inverts the mattes for calculating strength.

What each control does

Depth is how far away each pixel is. A Precomp with 3D layers in it gives distance in metres, the effect’s own layer included. Any other layer is a depth pass, 0 at Nearest (m) and 1 at Farthest (m).
Depth channel selects the channel read as depth.
Invert reads the depth pass inverted.
Method: Lens shapes spreads each pixel by the blur shape traced for it. Ray traced follows rays from each pixel back through the lens and takes the colour where each meets the depth.
Rays is how many rays Ray traced follows for each pixel, shared between red, green and blue. The Viewer and the export use the same count.
Lens picks a bundled lens. A lens chosen in the lens window replaces it.
Edit lens… opens the lens window. See The lens window.
F-stop is the working aperture. It cannot open wider than the lens.
Focus distance (m) is where the lens is focused, in metres.
Use focus point with Focus point x and Focus point y focus on the depth under that spot.
Sensor is the sensor size the footage was shot on. A smaller sensor sees less of the lens’s edge and blurs less.
Blur size scales every blur after the optics.
Colour fringing scales how much the glass splits colour.
Glass dirt smears and specks the front glass. It shows as streaks inside the out-of-focus highlights.

The Iris group shapes the aperture:

Blades is how many straight edges the iris has.
Roundness blends the blades towards a circle.
Rotation rotates the iris.

The Highlights group:

Highlight threshold is the brightness above which a pixel is drawn as its own bokeh shape.
Highlight boost multiplies what is above the threshold.

The Depth map group:

Nearest (m) is the distance a depth of 0 means.
Farthest (m) is the distance a depth of 1 means.

Additional properties:

Display: Final is the blur, Depth the distance in metres it used.
Zebra: stripes over what blurs less than a pixel. They are part of the picture, in exports too.
Mix: how much of the result replaces the original.
Matte, Invert and Channel limit the effect to where another layer is bright.

In a node graph, Depth is a socket that takes a depth or a picture, the Depth view hands on the distance, Focus distance (m) hands out where the lens is focused, for Lens flare’s Focus distance (m) to follow, F-stop its aperture, for Lens dirt’s, and Glass curvature how far the lens’s front glass bulges, for Lens dirt’s too. With Use focus point on, the Focus distance (m) output still hands out the row’s value.

The lens window

Edit lens… opens the Lens window, the same on Depth of field pro and on Lens flare. Its list holds In this effect, Built in and, once any are saved, Your lenses. Import… opens a .lens file. A file that is not one is refused: “That file is not a lens.”

Above the open lens are its name and Focal length, 1 to 2000 mm. Below them is a cross-section: the glass, the iris in amber at the current F-stop, and 21 parallel rays, green where they reach the sensor line and red where an edge or the iris stops them.

F-stop runs from the lens’s widest to 22. Use lens writes it to the effect when it was moved and the effect’s F-stop is not keyed.
Field angle tilts the rays off the axis. It changes only the drawing.

Every surface is a row:

Column	What it is
Radius	The surface’s radius of curvature, in mm. 0 is flat. The stop row has none.
Thickness	The distance to the next surface, in mm.
Index	The refractive index of what follows the surface.
Abbe	The Abbe number of what follows the surface.
Diameter	How far from the axis the surface reaches, in mm.
Coating	0 bare, 1 single layer, 2 and up multicoat.
Stop	The iris. One row is the stop.

Add surface adds a row, up to 40. Remove surface, the cross at the end of a row, takes one away, down to three.

Cancel closes the window and changes nothing.
Use lens puts the lens on the effect. An edited or imported lens is kept in the effect and saved with the project.
Save to your lenses saves it to your own lenses, offered in every project. Bundled lenses are never changed. A save that fails says “The lens could not be saved.”