---
title: "Post Processing Effects: Depth of Field"
content_type: tutorial
url: "https://learn.unity.com/tutorial/post-processing-effects-depth-of-field-2019-3?language=en"
language: en
difficulty: beginner
duration_minutes: 10
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last_updated: "2026-08-04T14:21:38.000Z"
---

# Post Processing Effects: Depth of Field

Understand how the Depth of Field post-processing effect simulates camera focus and distance-based blur cues.

Depth of Field is a common post-processing effect that simulates the focus properties of a camera lens. In real-world applications, camera lenses can sharply focus only on a specific object or distance. Objects nearer or farther from the camera will be out of focus or blurred. The blurring helps give a visual cue to the viewer about the object’s distance.

## 1. Post-Processing Effects: Depth of Field

 This tutorial has been verified using _Unity 2019 LTS_ and _Post-Processing 2.3.0_ [https://learn.unity.com/tutorial/post-processing-effects-depth-of-field-2019-3](https://learn.unity.com/tutorial/post-processing-effects-depth-of-field-2019-3)

[Video](https://connect-mediagw.unity.com/h1/20191007/videos/b22b3663-c855-4786-bfa6-92715d2c65a6_Post_Processing_Effects___Depth_of_Field.mp4)

Depth of Field is a common post-processing effect that simulates the focus properties of a camera lens. In real-world applications, camera lenses can sharply focus only on a specific object or distance. Objects nearer or farther from the camera will be out of focus or blurred. The blurring helps give a visual cue to the viewer about the object’s distance. Depth of Field helps simulate these aspects of real-world cameras and can help draw the viewer’s eye to a specific object in the scene; it also has the side effect of creating _bokeh_, the Japanese term for pleasing visual artifacts that appear around bright areas of an image when it falls out of focus.

![Figure 01: Scene without Depth of Field](https://connect-mediagw.unity.com/h1/20210301/learn/images/aae9c512-529a-423c-9305-4fc2b76d17ca_image3.png)

![Figure 02: Scene with Depth of Field](https://connect-mediagw.unity.com/h1/20210301/learn/images/76fb62c3-2a26-4fee-af1e-6faa383c4f6b_image1.png)

## 2. Adding Depth of Field to Your Scene

To add Depth of Field to your Scene, open the Post-processing Volume Profile in your Project window.

1\. If Depth of Field is not already in your list, add it by clicking
**Add Effect** > **Unity**> **Depth of Field**.

2\. Once it’s in the list, make sure it’s enabled and expand the category to reveal the settings. (**Figure 03**)

![Figure 03: Depth of Field properties](https://connect-mediagw.unity.com/h1/20210301/learn/images/102b19cb-3713-4f03-9ffa-b9bba1b760e5_image2.png)

## 3. Depth of Field Properties

- **Focus Distance**: This changes the distance of the point of focus.
- **Aperture**: This is the ratio of the aperture. The smaller the value, the shallower the depth of field.
- **Focal Length**: This determines the distance between the lens and the camera. The larger the value, the shallower the depth of field.
- **Max Blur Size**: This determines the size of the _bokeh_ filter, which determines the maximum radius of the _bokeh_. Higher values will affect performance on lower-end platforms. The options are Small, Medium, Large, and Very Large.

## 4. Conclusion

If you want to simulate how the human eye sees things, or emulate a camera lens, Depth of Field is a great tool. You can also find creative uses for Depth of Field, like in action sequences or complicated scenes where you want to draw the viewer's eye to a certain object or focal point. Much like any post-processing effect, it can have an impact on performance, so use it with care.