← Back to context

Comment by barrenko

5 years ago

Not sure but - as film e.g. captures actual photons from the scene, probably some kind of information is encoded through that.

Bokeh is a kind of of space representation, similar to how you can basically "see" through hearing a sound stage of instruments separated properly when someone has a really good sound system, or how dogs have "5.1/7.1" sense of smell.

How does one encode that I have no idea.

Look into light field photography tech. It is possible to capture a ”volume of light”, within which bokeh & more can be adjusted after the fact. Issue is the amount of data generated and complexity of tech versus getting a ”good enough for most situations” image via simpler means (regular photo). Regular + depth images (Apple LiDAR etc) with help of AI can create something vaguely similar to actual bokeh, but they’re missing a lot of source data.

In the world of 3D rendering (content created from scratch) very advanced & realistic bokeh effects are possible, as an example see http://lentil.xyz for the Arnold renderer.

  • Wow. I left the CG industry 3 years ago in a sad bout of defeat, involving both an ability to make a decent living and a realization that it would never my standards of creative engagement that were set by my lifetime love of photography and film. But, this project is very cool.