In this project, we simulated a camera by applying shifting and averaging operations on a set of images to mimic effects, like depth refocusing and aperture adjustment.

A light field camera captures a scene from multiple positions. Objects that are further away from the camera don't move as much as objects that are closer to the camera. A simple average over all the images outputs an image where the focus is on objects that aren't close to the camera, which can be seen in the second image below. We can also shift the images to a center image by finding the difference between the center image's camera position with the other images' camera positions. We multiply this difference by a constant scalar and shift the image by this result. Then, we can just take the average of these shifted images. Using different scalars will refocus the image at a different point in the image. I used scalars between [-0.625, 0.625].

Single Tarot Cards Image

All Tarot Cards Images Averaged Together

Tarot Cards with Depth Refocusing

We can simulate a small aperture by just using one image, the center image. Averaging together more images simulates increasing aperture size.

Radius 0 from Center Image

Radius 2 from Center Image

Radius 4 from Center Image

Radius 6 from Center Image

Radius 8 from Center Image

Tarort Cards with Aperture Adjustments

It was super rad learning about how we can use such simple operations to create cool effects on images!