How do you use depth of field to blur background?

[amysterling]

Hi All,

I'm a new C4D + Octane user learning to make neuroscience renders to showcase the cells our lab reconstructs. I've recently been playing around with more artistic pieces and have somewhat managed some depth of field; however, I can't seem to get the background to blur, only the foreground. Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

I also can't seem to autofocus for DoF. Even when I drag the orange frame dots around the field of view it doesn't seem to change. I end up having to put in a bunch of different depths until one sort of looks right. Is there a way to click on a point or set a point and have the camera auto-focus there?

Thanks - I've attached a reference image as well

Using R20 + latest Octane

Amy

[niestudio]

Is there a way to click on a point or set a point and have the camera auto-focus there?

In your live view there is a focus picker

focus_picker.JPG (8.98 KiB) Viewed 3355 times

Use that to pick your focus point (just make sure auto focus is disabled in your camera tag)
You can also use a null object as the focus point by dragging it into the focus object on your main camera object.

[amysterling]

thank you!