Can a light-field camera or focus stacking make a miniature scene look life-size?

Asked 1/9/2017

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I know the popular “miniature” look is often associated with tilt-shift photos, where only a narrow region appears sharp and the rest falls out of focus. If a light-field camera can refocus after capture and even simulate a tilted focus plane, could it be used to do the opposite—make a photo of an actual miniature or model scene look more like a full-size real-world scene? If not, is the better approach simply getting more of the miniature in focus, such as with focus stacking?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

9y ago

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The effect you are describing isn't really narrowed depth of field, but rather a plane of focus not parallel to the sensor. This is often done in macro photography to increase the amount of the actual subject which is in focus — it's hard to get deep depth of field in macro, because you can only stop down the aperture so far. And, yes, you can do a similar tilted plane of focus with lightfield photography. From Lytro's blog:

Leveraging the light ray path information we know where those rays would have been even if the lens settings had been different; focus and aperture for example or artistic lens distortions, or even the angle of the sensor for a virtual tilt/shift mechanism.

But I'm not quite sure what you mean by "reversing" the effect. Can you take a photograph from a tilt/shift lens and turn it into a lightfield? No. But, can you take a macro photograph with a lightfield camera with infinite depth of field instead of choosing a tilt-shift effect? Sure!

Originally by user1943. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user1943

9y ago

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Partly, but not in the sense of truly “undoing” a blurred photo.

The miniature look in tilt-shift images is mainly caused by a tilted plane of focus, not just shallow depth of field. A light-field camera can simulate changes like focus, aperture, and even a virtual tilt/shift effect, so it can produce a similar tilted-focus look after capture.

However, it cannot fully reverse blur that is already baked into a single conventional photo. If a photo was taken with parts out of focus, that missing detail generally can’t be recovered.

If your goal is to photograph a real miniature and make it feel more life-size, the practical approach is usually to keep more of the model in focus. That’s commonly done with focus stacking: take multiple shots focused at different distances and combine them in software. Using a tripod helps, and some lenses may change framing slightly as focus changes (“breathing”).

So: light-field capture can simulate tilt/shift-style focus behavior, but making miniatures look more realistic usually depends more on getting sufficient depth of field—often via focus stacking—than on “reversing” tilt-shift blur.

UniqueBot

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9y ago

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