Lenses and Depth of Field
Prepared by Behzad Sajadi
Borrowed from Frdo Durands
Lectures at MIT
3 major type of issues
Diffraction
ripples when aperture is small
Third-order/spherical aberrations
Rays dont focus
Also coma, astigmatism,
field curvature
Chromatic aberration
Focus depends on wavelength
References
Links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromatic_aberration
http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/key=chromatic+aberration
http://hyperphysics.phy-
astr.gsu.edu/hbase/geoopt/aberrcon.html#c1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spherical_aberration
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lens_(optics)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_coating
http://www.vanwalree.com/optics.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aberration_in_optical_systems
http://www.imatest.com/docs/iqf.html
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-
series/understanding-mtf.shtml
Other quality
issues
Flare
From "The Manual of Photography" Jacobson et al
Example of flare "bug"
Some of the first copies of the Canon 24-105 L had
big flare problems
http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-
EF-24-105mm-f-4-L-IS-USM-Lens-Review.aspx
Flare and Ghosting
source: canon red book
Flare/ghosting special to digital
source: canon red book
Use a hood! (and a good one)
Flare ray
Hood is to short
Flare
Good hood
Adapted from Ray's Applied Photographic Optics
Lens hood
From Ray's Applied Photographic Optics
Coating
Use destructive interferences
Optimized for one wavelength
From "The Manual of Photography" Jacobson et al
Coating for digital
source: canon red book
Vignetting
The periphery does not get as much light
source: canon red book
Vignetting
http://www.photozone.de/3Technology/lenstec3.htm
Lens design
Optimization software
Has revolutionized lens design
E.g. zooms are good now
From Hecht's Optics
Lens design, ray tracing
source: canon red book
Optimization
Free parameters
Lens curvature, width, position, type of glass
Some can be fixed, other vary with focal length, focus (e.g.
floating elements)
Multiplied by number of lens elements
Energy/merit function
MTF, etc.
Black art of massaging the merit function
Optimize for
All image locations
All wavelengths
All apertures
All focusing distances
All focal lengths (zoom only)
Usually uses simulated annealing
Floating elements
Move with focus to optimize response
(but are not responsible for focusing)
source: canon red book
Image
stabilization
Image stabilization
source: canon red book
Image stabilization
source: canon red book
Image stabilization
source: canon red book
1000mm, 1/100s, monopod, IS
Different versions
Canon, Nikon: in the lens
Panasonic, Konica/Minolta: move sensor
6.088 Digital and Computational Photography
6.882 Advanced Computational Photography
Focus and Depth of Field
Frdo Durand
MIT - EECS
Focusing
Move film/sensor 1 +1 =1
Thin-lens formula D D f
D D
f
In practice, its a little more complex
Various lens elements
can move
inside the lens
Here in blue
Source: Canon red book.
Defocus &
Depth of field
Circle of confusion
circle of confusion
From Basic Photographic Materials and Processes, Stroebel et al.
Depth of focus
From Basic Photographic Materials and Processes, Stroebel et al.
Size of permissible circle?
Assumption on print size, viewing distance, human
vision
Typically for 35mm film: diameter = 0.02mm
Film/sensor resolution
(8 photosites for high-end SLR )
Best lenses are around 60 lp/mm
Diffraction limit
Depth of field: Object space
Simplistic view: double cone
Only tells you about the value of one pixel
Things are in fact a little more complicated to asses
circles of confusion across the image
We're missing the magnification factor
(proportional to 1/distance and focal length)
sensor
Point in focus
lens Object with texture
Depth of field: more accurate view
Backproject the image onto the plane in focus
Backproject circle of confusion
Depends on magnification factor
Depth of field is slightly asymmetrical
Conjugate of
circle of confusion
Point in focus
lens Depth of field
DoF & aperture
http://www.juzaphoto.com/eng/articles/depth_of_field.htm
f/2.8 f/32
Depth of field and focusing distance
Quadratic (bad news for macro)
(but careful, our simplifications
are not accurate for macro)
f/N CD/f
d1 d2
Double cone perspective
Seems to say that relationship is linear
But if you add the magnification factor, it's actually
quadratic
Point in focus
sensor lens
Depth of field & focusing distance
From Photography, London et al.
Depth of field & focal length
Recall that to get the same image size,
we can double the focal length and the distance
Recall what happens to physical aperture size when
we double the focal length for the same f number?
It is doubled
24mm 50mm
Depth of field & focal length
Same image size (same magnification),
same f number DoF
Same depth of field!
Wide-angle
lens
DoF
Telephoto
lens (2x f), same aperture
DoF & Focal length
http://www.juzaphoto.com/eng/articles/depth_of_fiel
d.htm
50mm f/4.8 200mm f/4.8
(from 4 times farther)
See also http://luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/dof2.shtml
Important conclusion
For a given image size and a given f number, the
depth of field (in object space) is the same.
Might be counter intuitive.
Very useful for macro where DoF is critical. You
can change your working distance without affecting
depth of field
Now what happens to the background blur far far
away?
Sensor size
Depth of field
Its all about the size of the lens aperture
Point in focus
sensor lens Object with texture
lens
sensor Point in focus
Object with texture
Equation
Smaller sensor
smaller C
smaller f
But the effect of f is quadratic
Sensor size
http://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/dof/index.htm
The coolest depth of field solution
http://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/dof/index.htm
Use two optical systems
lens
sensor Point in focus
lens Object
diffuser
with
texture
The coolest depth of field solution
http://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/dof/index.htm
lens
sensor Point in focus
diffuser lens Object
with
texture
Seeing through
occlusion
Seeing beyond occlusion
Photo taken through zoo bars
Telephoto at full aperture
The bars are so blurry
that they are invisible
Synthetic aperture
Stanford Camera array (Willburn et al.
http://graphics.stanford.edu/papers/CameraArray/)
Autofocus
How would you build an Auto Focus?
Polaroid Ultrasound (Active AF)
Time of flight (sonar principle)
Limited range, stopped by glass
Paved the way for use in robotics
http://www.acroname.com/robotics/info/articles/sonar/sonar.html
http://www.uoxray.uoregon.edu/polamod/
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/autofocus2.htm
http://www.uoxray.uoregon.edu/polamod/
From Rays Applied Photographic Optics
Infrared (Active AF)
Intensity of reflected IR is assumed to be
proportional to distance
There are a number of obvious limitations
Advantage: works in the dark
This is different from Flash assistant for AF where
the IR only provides enough contrast so that
standard passive AF can operate
Triangulation
Rotating mirror sweeps the
scene until the image is aligned
with fixed image from mirror M
pretty much stereovision and
window correlation)
From The Manual of Photography
Different types of autofocus
From The Manual of Photography
Contrast
Focus = highest contrast
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/autofocus3.htm
Phase detection focusing
Used e.g. in SLRs
From The Manual of Photography From the Canon red book
Phase detection focusing
Stereo vision from two portions of the lens on the
periphery In focus Detector
Not at the equivalent
film plane but farther phase
can distinguish
too far and too close Too close
Look at the phase
difference between
the two images Too far
From The Manual of Photography
compute phase difference,
deduce distance
Fake Depth of
Field
Photoshop
Using layers:
One sharp layer, one blurry layer (using Gaussian
blur)
Input
Layer
(sharp mask
layer) selects focus
Blurred layer
Mask of blurry layer) Result
Photoshop
Problem: halo around edges
Photoshop lens blur
Reverse-engineered algorithm: average over circle
Size of circle depends on pseudo depth
Discard pixels that are too much closer
Depth map (painted manually)
Input
Photoshop lens blur
Filter>Blur>Lens blur
Input Depth map (painted manually)
Result
