Need Opinions: Is Short DOF Better in 3D Rendering?

Question

Photoshop's 3D rendering offers us the ability to create imagery that's virtually perfect.
It even allows us to specify the depth of field, from infinite, to reasonably short.
My question to you is this:  Does shortening the depth of field increase or reduce the visual impact of a rendering?
I offer these examples for you to judge:
I can't quite decide which I like better.  The one that's sharp edge-to-edge seems a bit more like eye candy, but the one with the short DOF seems maybe more realistic.  On the other hand, blurring things always feels a bit like hiding imperfection, when in this case it's hiding perfection.
What do you think?
-Noel

Answer 1

You just need to visit any 3D/ VFX or filmmaking forums/ blogs to get that answered - or not. Some people go out of their way to add shallow DOF, others shun it like the devil. As someone doing technical visualization a lot I'm leaning toward the latter, as obviously retaining detail is important. Wouldn't wanna get bashed by some marketing guy or engineer just because the most important nuts and bolts on a machine disappeear in a blurry mist. Others might think differently about the matter, but DOF in CG is often overused, mostly exaggerated and physically implausible. You just need to watch a few older films or do some basic testing with your own photo camera to realize that the excessive amounts of DOF and Bokeh used in some CG never could happen. On the other hand of course that macro-photo feel has its charme. So in the end, it's mostly matter of artistic expression and preference and what you do the rendering for. It's generally a good idea to stick with your instincts and experience from the real world to sell the illusion, though. In your example only a reasonably long focal length with the camera some distance away would produce an image where the camera itself would not reflect and those lenses have very little DOF, so on some level your second image makes more sense. For your other image a shorter lens would be used, but then you'd have a different FOV and more curvature and some vignetting...
Mylenium