Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
ing the opacity of the layer with the headlights to give them a more fogged or tinted feel, as you will see
shortly.
Let's start by adding the camera focus to the image. For this, you will use the Depth Output layer in con-
junction with the Lens Blur effect under the Filter menu in Photoshop. If you have ever used this blur effect
on its own, you probably noticed that unlike the Gaussian blur, it features a more lens-shaped blur (espe-
cially noticeable in small, bright areas) and some additional features such as adding a bloomlike effect to
bright spots and adding some noise to simulate grain. The real power of the Lens Blur effect comes when
there is a grayscale depth channel that is used to define the area of focus. To use Depth Output with Lens
Blur, the layer needs to be a channel:
1.
Select and copy the depth layer. Then go to the Channels tab, make a new channel, and paste the
copied layer into this channel.
2.
If you have made multiple layers to edit colors and other properties from the previous section, it is
best to get a flattened version to work with at this point. This can be done by simply selecting the entire
canvas and copying the merged layers (Ctrl/Command+Shift+C).
3.
Then paste the merged copy layers on top of the others. Select the merged copy layer and run Lens
Blur.
4.
Set the Depth Map Source to the newly created depth channel (Alpha 1 if you did not rename it).
5.
Now you can simply click an area in the preview window to set that as the area of focus. In
Figure
12-34
,
the focus is set around the windshield wipers and a slight Smart Sharpen was added (set to 125%
and a radius of 0.5 pixels).
Figure 12-34:
Adding depth of field with the Lens Blur tool can save a lot of render time and gives you the
ability to adjust the focus quickly and easily.
