Quote - We're not at all sure that the OP actually meant photorealism as rokket hasn't returned.

However, if you want to mimic what we're used to seeing in photos, then DoF is more than a matter of taste. Apparently you've never heard of the almost rabid quest for "bokeh" among photography enthusiasts and pros. This is the pleasing smoothness associated with the out-of-focus areas produced by the best, most expensive lenses. Google bokeh.  It's fascinating.

This is bad bokeh.

Submit this to a photography forum and you'll get slammed immediately, ten times worse than around here for lack of good shader work.

BB, being a mariner makes it hard for me to be on regularily. And since it looks like I started a big stink, perhaps I should explain what I am trying to do, and what I meant when I posted. I think photo realism was the wrong word. What I am trying to do is achieve a "look" to my renders and eventual animations that is beyond, or away if you will, from the look of other 3D animations. I don't want the cartoon look of the characters in most of the Pixar films, for instance. And I don't want the washed-out, colorless look of the Final Fantasy film.

I am not trying to get a render that looks like I took it with a camera. I am trying to get a render that looks like it has life. I believe the pose is the base for this. Which is what I am working on now. I too, have noticed a lot of renders that obviously took a lot of time, and the character looks like an expensive manequin. That's what I am trying to get beyond. So when I do start rendering animations, the characters move naturally, not stiff. Not floating.

So I think I should have titled this thread "Natural looking renders", not photo realistic.

If I had a nickle for ever time a woman told me to get lost, I could buy Manhattan.