Camera Focal Length
WSC
Posts: 157
Curious if people change the camera focal length from the default 65mm and if so, under what circumstances they do.
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I always do.... 100 mm at least for portraits so you don't get beaky faces...
I do sometimes as well. It really is subjective. Lower focal lengths cause a fisheye effect whereas higher cause flatter effects. There is a more pronounced effect on Depth of Field as well when you combine the two. A longer (higher) Focal Length creates more blur at the same Aperture (F-Stop) settings, if I remember correctly.
Ok. Thinking about photography, thats a good idea.
Thanks. Trying to manage characters in a scene at different dephs.... They don't look so much like they are different dephs as oppossed to just looking taller or shorter....
It is for the envelope of what is in focus. Determining where the edges of blur are going to be surely blurry.
If you are filming a bee on a flower, you may want a narrow focal-plane. If you are filming a soccer-game, you may want a wide one. A more distant shot, zoomed-in, will look more linear and less 3D exaggerated. A closer shot with a short focal length, will look highly exaggerated and deformed.
This simulated telephoto, telescopic, standard and macro-lenses. More so, if you also use the other settings for lens-distortions.. (Thickness in mm)
In my opinion it is essential to handle iray, or any other pbr engine, as a real camera. So camera settings and tone mapping are to be understood and used correctly. Unfortunately iray can't do motion blur so it will never behave fine in animation, or to shot moving objects.
f-stop s also used for that, more so than Focal Length I would think (though Focalk Length does play a part). As you say, Focal Length is zoom - and is in fact what is adjusted using the Focal Zoom Viewport control, so people may adjust it wthoutn realising. Increasing Focal Length flattens the image and narrows the feld of view, decreasing it exaggerates perspective and increases the field of view (the fish eye effect, as mentiohed above).
I cannot ever figure out what is the "correct" focal length between softwares and an actual camera though
Carrara for example 50mm is the same as DAZ studio 65mm in framing and appearence and it differs again in other programs
that one I only know due to frequently using the same duf scene in both to get identical images dimension wise for composition
There's so many camera settings.... I wish I understood it better....
When you have the camera selected and are in the Perspective View (or any other view except the selected camera), there should be markers (lines/boxes) which show the focal plane and the focus distance boundaries. If not, you can enable them in the Camera Settings.
The F-stop would cause the near/far focal boundaires to become deeper or shallower. The Focal Distance (when DoF is on) would cause the focal plane (crosshair) to move farther or closer. The Focal Length would cause the viewbox to become larger or smaller. Enjoy playing!
It depends on the size of the sensor as well what the equivalent mm is. In Daz there is a setting to set sensor size. See if Carrara has that option.
For example in Blender you have to set the camera sensor to 64mm to match the daz studio camera. This is done by the diffeomorphic plugin when importing daz cameras. Otherwise you get a different perspective for the same focal lenght.
there is no sensor setting in Carrara native AFAIK but could be in the Octane plugin, that has a plethora of camera parameters, Carrara at least I do know how to get an identical shot.
when I go elsewhere all bets are off
DAZ doesn't have a censor size by default but it does have a frame size which is essentially clipping. It tends to have a similar effect to focal length but I think it won't impact DoF, not 100% certain on that. Censor size really is just cropping (e.g., a smaller censor will crop an image from a lens designed for full-frame images).
The DAZ Studio frame size is set at 36mm which is the size of a full frame sensor which is the industry standard 35mm film. Using a zoom lens on a smaller sensor increases the zoom range of the lens but crops the image and lowers the field of view.
https://www.slrlounge.com/workshop/crop-vs-full-frame-cameras/
Constantly.
It's always going to depend on the image i'm making.
The biggest reason is if the camera is in a wall and editing the geometry is going to be more trouble than it's worth.
But, there's also aesthetic reasons to adjust it, as others have pointed out.
I'll do my usual and suggest studying a bit of photography to get a better grasp of what the real world equivalents of the settings are.
here's a rundown of 'focal length' complements of nikon.
https://www.nikonusa.com/en/learn-and-explore/a/tips-and-techniques/understanding-focal-length.html
I go to wide angle in tight places too
and use the dolly zoom in animations
I thought that iray supports motion blur out of the box, but DAZ doesn't implement it for unkown reasons.
Circumstances Focal Length:
Relevant in Iray
A professional portrait photographer uses the focal length to add charming "distortion" to different face types - People with a over the average wide face and short nose look better with 35 - 50mm lense.... very small faces with long noses look better with zoom - aka 100 - 200mm lense...
"Perfect" faces (by model standard" are usally more on the small face type side with high cheek bones "= 85mm - 100mm....
natural distortion (human eye ) is 50mm...
Not Relevant for Iray
Most models are more relaxed when the photographer is not standing to close and gives them enough room for posing - a Zoom 100mm - 200mm is handy for that.... That's why most famouse fashion models are more in the small face lean body type "group".
(Edit = All Focal Numbers are for 35mm Film = IRAY Standard Values (36mm)).
Yes, almost always, same goes with the virtual sensor size, changing it to the same size as a 6x7 medium format camera, and then using a 'portraits' lens length, can give some exceptionally nice imagery.
This is set to look like Medium Format - https://www.deviantart.com/serefina/art/Menolly-and-her-Fire-Lizard-Queen-769788064
Shrinking it down to GoPro sized sensors and using 2 or 4 mm lens settings, gives an accurate Action Camera look too, where almost everything is in focus.
Changing it from the default of 35mm to 21mm makes it look like tha majority of consumer DSLR's, and look like Cinema film frames. I do Pre-Viz for a cinematographer, we match the sensor/film frame size to the sensor in his camera, and then build virtual sets to match location photographs, or lets us use a few lens tricks to simulate what his anamorphic lens will look like.
With the film frame set to 21mm, and then the lens set to 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm, 100mm, 135mm,... you can match the "standard" prime lense they use in films.
Why do people always mix these ones up,...
A "Lens" goes on the front of a camera. "To Lense" is taking a photo. And "Lenses" is where photographers spend too much money.
@Serefina
That's because i spent to much money on lenses and not for an english teacher
But well - That mistakes happens when native german speaking people type to fast in english - because in german it is a Linse - yep the one which goes on the front of a camera ... But i honestly appreciate if you point out my mistakes - thx
Can you shed some light on the settings used for the gopro/action-cam style?