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A surface which scatters almost all light in a chaotic, diffuse way is called a "lambertian" surface, such as the red ball on the left. Lambertian reflectance means that light falling on a surface is scattered in such a way that the apparent brightness of the surface is the same, regardless of the observer's angle of view. Or else: the surface's luminance is the same regardless of angle of view. Many rough surfaces, such as unfinished wood, exhibit lambertian reflectance.

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The render above illustrates the DOF effect - only the Zippo in the middle is in focus, while objects extending away from this point of focus get increasingly blurrier. This image is said to have a "narrow" DOF.
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Diffuse versus specular surfaces

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A surface which scatters almost all light in a chaotic, diffuse way is called a "lambertian" surface, such as the red ball below (F. 01). Lambertian reflectance means that light falling on a surface is scattered in such a way that the apparent brightness of the surface is the same, regardless of the observer's angle of view. Or else: the surface's luminance is the same regardless of angle of view. Many rough surfaces, such as unfinished wood, exhibit lambertian reflectance
It is important to note that because very smooth surfaces reflect light perfectly, they reflect much less of their own color. This is visible in the render (See above F.02), where the ball is still tinted red, but as it is a tinted mirror, its own color shows much less. There are a few exceptions however and one of them is metals. Even if a metal is very smooth, it still reflects its own color much more.

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