Comments

Chienworks wrote on 1/15/2004, 8:32 PM
Yes, but it's not easy. One way would be to place the video on two tracks lined up one above the other, then create a mask around the subject (much easier if the subject is much brighter or darker than the background). You can then add blur to the track showing the background video while leaving the track showing the subject sharp. Chances are with most typical videos it will be very difficult to do this with an automatically generated mask. You'll probably have to do lots of manual tweaking with keyframes.

On the other hand, if you're going for an artsy look you may end up with something more interesting than you had planned on anyway.
musman wrote on 1/16/2004, 12:41 AM
I bought DVFilmmaker which claims to add this to footage I believe. The software is indended for deinterlacing and some other things, but I have found quality loss when I apply it. Of course my footage was crazy with velosity envelopes and undersampling, so maybe this causes problems. Anyway, I always seemed to have noticably blocky/artifact laiden blacks when I made DVDs from material that I used DVFilmmaker on.
But try the free demo for yourself. Maybe you won't have the same issues.
farss wrote on 1/16/2004, 1:28 AM
Apart from difficulties in doing it as pointed out above, depth of field isn't really just two planes, one in focus and the other blurred. If there is a big distance between them you might get away with such a simple approach but otherwise it could look 'interesting' but not natural.
There are many things that really cannot be done after the light hits the CCDs. Guess it depends how realistic you want them to look.
sek0910 wrote on 1/18/2004, 9:37 AM
I have a consumer miniDV cam. How do you go about videotaping with depth of field? Would a very fast shutter speed (which I can adjust) result in a larger lens opening which, I believe, creates the depth of field (background not in focus)?
filmy wrote on 1/18/2004, 9:48 AM
About the only thing you can try is to shoot zoomed all the way in - in other words place a subject standing with tress or cars or whatever in the background. Now move far away from them and zoom in so they are in either a medium or close up. Now the background will be out of focus.

Or you can go over to DVinfo site and read the thread on making a DOF adapter out o a CD spindle and a 50mm camera lens. It is a hell of a long thread with lots of great ideas but it will take a while to read through it all.
farss wrote on 1/19/2004, 4:13 AM
A neutral density filter may give you what you want.
This will force the camera to open the iris hence rducing depth of field. That's assuming the camera will not let you manually control the iris.
You'll prbably need a set of filters to cope with different situations although you could get by by also by combining them. Just how to mount them on a consumer camera can be a problem.
MUTTLEY wrote on 1/19/2004, 11:32 AM
At least with mine you need a pretty generous amount of light to pull off the ND trick. With neutral density on, anything less than " Bright As Hell " to start with and it it will be dark.

- Ray

www.undergroundplanet.com