ATAndrian Tam

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Photographer Simulator

A car you can drive into position, a mountain-pass lay-by from morning to night, and a camera bag with seven lenses. Every photo is rendered from the 3D scene with real exposure, depth of field and motion blur.

A shoot at the pass

Loading the simulator…

Look drag the view · Shoot click, or Enter · Focus lock hold right click

Move W A S D, Shift to run · Jump Space · Crouch C · Lie flat Z

Portrait or landscape V · Tilt Q and X, L to level · Balance exposure B

Ladder E climb, R pick up or put down · Car E to get in, W S A D, Space brake, H lights

Lens 1 to 7 · Shutter scroll · Aperture Shift+scroll · ISO - = · Flash F · Time T

Left thumb: walk. Drag anywhere else to look, twist two fingers to tilt, tap the view or the round button to shoot.

Settings has lenses, exposure and the frame. ✕ minimises the game so you can see your photos.

Tilt0°
Shutter1/60
Aperturef/5.6
ISO100
1/1

Kept in this browser only.

Photos you take show up here. Open one to see it full screen with its histogram and settings.

    Export shoot guide

    A printable A4 PDF: a cover with your notes and a contact sheet, then every shot with its settings, camera position and light.

    Photos

    How the camera works

    Nothing here is faked with filters. When you press the shutter, the simulator renders the 3D scene dozens of times and averages the results, the way a sensor collects light while the shutter is open.

    • Exposure follows the real formula. The scene is lit at about EV 11.5, golden hour with the sun on the horizon. Every stop of shutter, aperture or ISO doubles or halves the light, and anything brighter than the sensor can hold blows out to white.
    • Depth of field comes from moving the camera across the lens opening for each sample while keeping the focus plane fixed. Wide apertures and long lenses give shallow focus; stopped down, the out-of-focus highlights take the shape of the aperture blades.
    • Motion blur uses your actual mouse or finger movement during the exposure. Hold still at 1/8 s, or move during a 5 s exposure and watch it smear.
    • Flash follows the inverse-square law with a guide number of 60. It fires at the start of the exposure, so it freezes what it lights even during a long shutter, and it can't sync faster than 1/250 s.
    • ISO brightens the image and adds noise that grows with the gain, as on a real sensor.
    • Time of day swaps in a real HDR sky. The sun is measured from the photo and becomes the light that casts shadows: about EV 14 mid-morning, EV 15 at noon, EV 11.5 at golden hour and EV -4 on a moonless night. At night the lay-by's street light and the car's lamps are the main light, in real units (a 28 lux pool under the lamp, 12,000 cd low beams).
    • The car drives on a simple bicycle model, steering the front wheels and turning about the rear axle, so you can park it where the light is best.

    Lenses: 16mm f/2.8, 24mm f/1.4, 35mm f/1.4, 50mm f/1.2, 85mm f/1.2, 105mm f/2.8, 200mm f/2.8, each with its own closest focusing distance and number of aperture blades. Built with three.js. Car model: based on "Subaru WRX STI" byskyfaltus (Skyborg), licensed underCC BY 4.0. Simplified for the web, with materials adjusted and lamps switched off. The skies are real HDR photos from Poly Haven (CC0): "Camdeboo Road" by Dario Barresi and Jarod Guest for the evening, and "Qwantani" mid-morning, noon and night by Greg Zaal and Jarod Guest. The ground textures are also from Poly Haven.