Is this shallow-depth-of-field look natural, or created with post-processing?

Question

In the linked photo, the couple is sharp while much of the surrounding scene is heavily blurred. I’m wondering whether this blur is a natural optical effect or if it was added later in editing. Could a tilt-shift lens or field curvature cause this, or is it more likely from a stitched panorama such as the Brenizer method?

user1375 · Accepted Answer

The bokeh behind the couple looks normal, the sides seem to have had a gaussian blur applied to give a fake tilt shift effect.

The telling factor is the highlights. The light coming from the windows is much brighter and ought to have a sharp cutoff when rendered out of focus. Gaussian blur gives a soft edge to such highlights.

edit: reading the text of the image, the photographer states that this was created as a "bokeh panorama" (otherwise known as a panorama) hence the apparent shallow depth of field. This doesnt quite wash as there are elements of the background that are the same distance as the couple and hence ought to be in focus.

My guess is now that the photographer took a tele shot of the couple and a wide shot of the surround and blurred the latter to match, the blur in the corners just doesn't look like lens blur to me.

Is this shallow-depth-of-field look natural, or created with post-processing?

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