Depth of Field - any tricks to speed up render?

FifthElement

Dartanbeck said:

For example, while everybody says "never use Ambient feature", yeah... screw that!

I actually use it all the time, usually keep it low though, when I want to quickly show my models (animated or not) I use Ambient Occlusion only with it (no other lights or SkyLight), with a right combination of high ambient like 75(!) and indirect light on like 150 and proper occlusion radius it can look pretty good, example below.

DesertDude

Cool FifthElement, thanks for the info!

PhilW

Ambient on its own looks dreadful (IMHO), washing out a scene with as much light down a crevice as on an open surface.  More or less the ONLY time that you should use it is together with the Ambient Occlusion mode, when it is a faster alternative to using Full Indirect Lighting, and it can then produce some fast and good looking renders.

Dartanbeck

I use it and AO quite a bit too

but this is one awesome result!

Very Cool!