Bokeh Simulator & DOF Calculator

[funkyant]

This is very cool, and will be useful for beginners like me

http://dofsimulator.net/en/

[rpcrowe]

Interesting concept and I would think that it would be good for playing with DOF.

However, BOKEH is primarily a function of the lens. Different lenses produce different looking BOKEH. As an example, the BOKEH formed by the Canon 70-200mm f/4L IS lens is far smoother and more pleasing (to me at least) than the BOKEH produced by the Canon 50mm f/1.8 Mkii lens. This is because the aperture circle formed by to 70-200mm lens is more of a perfect circle (due to additional leaves which are rounded) than the aperture circle formed by the five bladed 50mm f/1.8 Mkii lens...

[Glenn NK]

A DOF simulator can be quite useful to get the idea of its effect on an image, however, trying to emulate bokeh with software seems to be a bit of a stretch. They'd have to measure every lens made to determine its characteristic bokeh - at every f/stop, every distance to the subject, with varying types of BG - that would require an enormous data bank.

The following is the most comprehensive test I've seen on bokeh with a set of lenses; of note is the summary at the very end.

Glenn

[pnodrog]

Very impressive - certainly a great learning tool.