and I need help! :o) I've been wanting to try this for awhile because everyone else's use of it is so good. I'm not crazy about the tree in the foreground tho. Using DOF, it blurs out too much really. Is there a way to adjust for this? I've looked though all the books I've got but so far, I've not found anything that really helps out. Thanks in advance! :o)) Susan Oh, yeah....disregarding the DOF issue, does anyone have any ideas that would help this picture? I'm thinking about trying to put a rain effect in it with some overhead clouds and rain sprinkles in the water. I'm trying for a late on a rainy day feel with this. Thanks again!

I actually like it. (The DOF I mean.)

Try turning up the RPP, you may even have to do 256 and wait for a couple of weeks. :) That should help with the graininess. If it doesn't you may have to reduce the amount of DOF that you have. Did you leave it on the default setting? If so, I think that that is always waaay too much. For a nice effect, I usually use a DOF anywhere from .02 to .05. Any more than that, IMHO, can ruin the image.

Just remember that when you want to use DOF in an image, everything has to be built to scale for it to really work. But this looks nice, I can't wait to see it finished.

HTH

Mike

BTW, (sorry to keep going on like this), I don't think the rain would be a good idea. The sky that you have, (which is beautiful, by the way), it looks like the storm is already gone. I would just tone down the sunlight a little bit to give it a slightly overcast look. And maybe give a little color to the key light on the bridge. A nice orangey (is that a word?) color to match the sunlight on the clouds in the sky. Anyway, sorry to ramble. Again, I hope this helps you out, and I still can't wait to see this finished!! Mike

There is a neat alternative to Bryce's DOF which you may already know. Render your scene normally first without the DOF setting. Then save that image and make another render with the "distance mask" (I think that's what it's called)setting turned on. In photoshop load both images. On the grayscale distance mask image go to select> color range. Put the eyedropper on the area in the preview window that you want in focus and move the fuzziness slider all the way to the left. Then save that selection, load it into your normal render, and apply a blur filter for the amount that you want.

Actually, I think you have a nice effect with what you're doing but I agree that the DOF blurring is too much. It makes the image look small. Nice job

It's coming along beautifully. Composition-wise, I'm not sure I like the placement of the foreground branch. It seems to obscure the view as opposed to enhance it. Look forward to the finished version.

Susan, remember that the default "lens radius" setting (0,10) is almost always way too high and blurs the image way too much. My first pic using DOF used the default setting and the background was really a mess, even at 64rpp. So, my advice is to use a radius from 0,01 to 0,05/0,06 (this latter, IMO, being the maximum to avoid excess blurring). For the graininess, it strongly depends on what light and materials are you using. Most of the times, I find 36rpp enough, but sometimes you have to go for 64rpp (specially if there are shiny mats involved). I never find of much use crankin up the rpp above 64. Hope this helps. Stefano

Agree with Stefano. 64 is the way to go, and .01 to .05 usually gives best results. I like the image already.

Thanks for the input everyone. That one setting was the one I wasn't sure about. It made sense to me that it was the one to adjust for the bluring but I wasn't sure which way to go. Now, if I hurry, I can get the render started before I head for work and maybe it'll be done by the time I get home! :o) Thank you, thank you!!!

Very nice.. As you probably already know, I use alot of DOF in my material too. So anything I can do to help you out, I'd be happy to. I wrote a tutorial on using DOF if your interested. But I think DC answers your specific question so I'll just say great work and keep on going!

I appreciate the offer Dash. I've looked at so many people's pictures, I had to go back to yours to remember which was which. I am soooo impressed! [And it's not that I'm just easily impressed either! :o)] I may have to take you up on your offer... I'm anxious to get home and see what's happened to my render. I'd did a couple of plop renders and it looked like .02 was going to be what I wanted in looks. I also noticed that changing that and taking the rpp down a little took the projected render time from something like 19 hours to a couple of hours. ~sigh~ Here I sit, immersed in databases, transparencies, manual formatting and other mundane things. I should be home doing Bryce! ;o)