1. A computer-implemented method comprising: accessing a design of a plenoptic imaging system; improving the design of the plenoptic imaging system by iteratively: modeling an operation of the plenoptic imaging system based on the design, the operation of the plenoptic imaging system producing plenoptic images of objects, the operation of the plenoptic imaging system modeled by a pupil image function (PIF) that relates an object to the plenoptic image formed by that object; modeling reconstructions of the objects from the plenoptic images, said modeling based on applying a PIF inversion process to the plenoptic images; calculating a metric from the object reconstructions, the metric related to a spatial resolution of the object reconstructions; and modifying the design of the plenoptic imaging system, such modification improving the calculated metric in a manner that improves the spatial resolution of the object reconstructions.