Known Participant

Weird halo using Lens Blur depth map

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
August 28, 2023
18 replies
7649 views

Is there a way to get rid of this weird halo that appears when I use Lens Blur Filter with a Depth Map?
The sharp areas should be in focus at the edges, but they show a strange halo, like if I'm using a fog lens.
Even if the Z map has a good contrast between dark an white areas, the halo appears at the edges as if the subject was out if focus.

Error or problem

cuppaCoffee

Participant

Novice user... I'm passing this along in the hopes it might help somebody. I found this free plug-in by way of a tutorial that used the matte ability of this plug-in for zdepth fog, but it seems to also work well for zdepth camera blur: https://www.videocopilot.net/blog/2014/05/new-plug-in-color-vibrance/

Video Copilot's - Color Vibrance

Alexander Rott

Known Participant

All of the upvotes: "I don't understand why After Effects Team keeps releasing new features while olders filters still don't work well."

NewtVAuthor

Known Participant

I've tried many settings, but none of them worked.
I don't understand why After Effects Team keeps releasing new features while olders filters still don't work well. And the most intriguing is if Photoshop Lens Blur filter works so well, why After Effects Team doesn't ask Photoshop Team how to do it.

Alexander Rott

Known Participant

Did a bit of playing around in Davinci Fusion as well. I seem to get the same resulting halo effect. It seems like getting the Frischluft plugin might be the only option as of now to achieve the results you are looking for. I'd be curious to see if widening the range of white and black values on your Z-pass would change anything? Or instead of having a such a stark transition on the edges would make any difference? Not neccessarily blurring them but having something in the background so the Z value isn't 1.0.

NewtVAuthor

Known Participant

Didn't worked for me. In fact, the halo became stronger

M

marco_py

Participant

My workaround for now is to add a fast box blur with a radius of 15 to the depth map layer, sort of softens it up.

Then in the Camera lens blur effect I change the Blur Map layer to Effects & Masks so it's applied.

Alexander Rott

Known Participant

100% agree

NewtVAuthor

Known Participant

Thank you for your answer, but it's outrageous to have to pay $239 to replace a native plugin that should work seamlessly, especially given our existing (not cheap) monthly Adobe subscription.

Alexander Rott

Known Participant

Not sure if you've checked this plugin out, but I've used it in the past at a different agency and it worked a lot better than AE's built in filter. Specifically on not giving me that halo effect you described. Personally, I don't think Adobe will ever change this.

https://www.frischluft.com/lenscare/index.php

M

marco_py

Participant

This has been a problem for over 10 years and there still isn't a solution