How to use blur effect? (New camera)

[Nic727]

Hi,

I was trying to make a blur effect inside my cockpit with the new camera feature and it wasn't working very well.
Any idea how to use that?

Thank you

 

[Alec Turner]

My attempt to explain it from another thread ...

Suteksio has already answered this but for my part ... I did a fair bit of trial and error (despite sort of understanding the principles). Basically I ended up increasing the blur practically to its maximum (which basically gives you a very small, precise depth of field, thus maximising the blur effect - in other words, only a very small part of the scene will be in focus). Then you use the focus control to set the distance to be the distance from the camera to the thing you want to be sharply in focus (in practice you don't really know this distance so it's largely trial and error, increasing and decreasing it until the thing you're interested in comes into focus). When I first did this the effect was fairly subtle but then I remembered that someone has said that increasing the zoom helped to exaggerate the effect. Not being a photographer I don't really understand this but it certainly works. So rather than moving the camera until the the thing you want to photograph is nicely framed, if you move the camera further back and then zoom in to frame the subject, the blur effect seems to be more dramatic. One other thing, once you've got the depth of field and point of focus set the way you want, if you start moving the camera around you'll notice your point of focus moves with you. I guess this isn't surprising but it is cool. For example, if you get everything set up so the nose of your your ship is in sharp focus and everything else is blurred, if you want to take a similar shot of the tail of the ship, rather than repeating the entire process again from the back, leave the blur/zoom/focus settings alone and just reposition the camera.

P.S. I'm having a lot of fun with this!

 

[DustyArne]

I noticed that its easier to blur stuff if you use it on combination with the zoom..

Edit:

Ninja'd.. with a awesome post.. lol

 

[MVous]

Pretty much what Alec said in his quote. The higher the blur percentage, the more finite the focused area will become. There is an indicator in the top right corner of your screen that will be green when your zoom is in the focus range, red when not in focus (at least from what I can tell) and a distance indicator (maximum of 250 meters while attached). Use the focus adjuster in small increments (I use a hold/release of 1 second), otherwise you'll max/min your focus if you hold the button for too long. Takes some time, but it works. Good luck!

 

[ThatRubberDuck]

it's kinda like using a real camera, it's easier to blur the background the closer the camera is to the subject, so rather than zooming to get closer then trying to blur, move the actual camera closer then use the focus and blur settings, the photo above is a good example of the effect you'll get when focusing close up

 

[Alec Turner]

it's kinda like using a real camera, it's easier to blur the background the closer the camera is to the subject, so rather than zooming to get closer then trying to blur, move the actual camera closer then use the focus and blur settings, the photo above is a good example of the effect you'll get when focusing close up

Interesting and possibly what I might have thought. In practice however it seems as if the blur effect is more pronounced if you move the camera further back and increase the zoom. I'll do some experiments and maybe try to post some comparison screenshots.

 

[Shadowdancer]

Interesting and possibly what I might have thought. In practice however it seems as if the blur effect is more pronounced if you move the camera further back and increase the zoom.

As would be the case with a real optical system. All other things being fixed, the depth of the in-focus area is determined by the focal length ("zoom", but good luck doing any calculations with that weird scale starting at "0.0×", WTH‽) and the aperture (which I guess is what the "blur" setting is trying to emulate).

Longer focal lengths (larger zoom values) or wider aperture (higher blur value) mean a shallower depth of that area.

 

[tafkabb]

They've done a fantastic job. Here's the same effect with a real camera (taken with my phone, but it's a great phone)

 

[GODofDUTY83]

The movement speed for focus needs to be a little refined. It either moves to fast or to slow, theres no in between.

 

[Alec Turner]

The movement speed for focus needs to be a little refined. It either moves to fast or to slow, theres no in between.

I agree totally. You hold it down (trying to set the distance to somewhere around 10.0) and it goes ...

0.1 ... 0.2 ... 0.3 ... 0.4 ... 0.6 ... 0.8 ... 1.2, 15.0, 40.0, 100.0, 500.0

Then you try to go back and it goes ...

499.9 ... 499.8 ... 499.7 ... 499.5 ... 495.0 ... 400.0, 200.0, 50.0, 5.0

Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! [hotas]

 

[ChaosCloud]

There is an indicator in the top right corner of your screen that will be green when your zoom is in the focus range, red when not in focus (at least from what I can tell) and a distance indicator (maximum of 250 meters while attached).

That's the camera drone signal indicator... Nothing to do at all with focus, just range.

The movement speed for focus needs to be a little refined. It either moves to fast or to slow, theres no in between.

It's sooo bad. Especially given that the 1m is useless for external shots where you start at 25m, but trying to get there is 1.01, 1.2, 1.5, 30...
The steps shouldn't increase beyond 1m or atleast take much longer than 1 second for that.


I also find the blur to be rather weak. Even at 100% the blur distance (radially from the original pixel) is TINY. Feels like they could have just as well gone ON or OFF instead of 0% - 100% :<
Also for me it stops increasing past 73%, and for being in % it's silly that it goes 68%, 73% (stops changing), 78% etc, mainly just 5% steps.

http://imgur.com/a/SYEYy can't get more than this, the first is with default zoom and that's not what I'd called blur, that's minor out-of-focus <.<
I'd want atleast 2x the blur that 4x zoom creates but for default zoom.
Like with real camera optics is the blur strength based on focus distance, only that most ships are sooo huge that you can't get even remotely close enough to them to get a strong blur AND more than 1/10 of the ship in the same shot.

 

[AcademicDust894]

I'm still getting to grips with it. This shot of the Zurara is not the best but I do like the blur effect.

 

[DustyArne]

but not only closeup blur is cool..

Im pretty happy with this picture as well.. a minor blur effect in the background, really gives you a sense of scale.

 

[Actionman2222]

Adding the blur gives images a much more natural feel to them, given that your eye naturally focuses in on the foreground or background in real life. And the depth it gives to screenshots makes them so much richer, I love it!

Funny, I didn't think of moving the camera once the focus is set. It is really really fiddly at the minute as Godofduty said. Moving the camera so the focal point moves into focus should help a lot, thanks