A method for determining intensity distribution in the focal plane of a projection exposure arrangement, in which a large aperture imaging system is emulated and a light from a sample is represented on a local resolution detector by an emulation imaging system. A device for carrying out the method and emulated devices are also described. The invention makes it possible to improve a reproduction quality since the system apodisation is taken into consideration. The inventive method consists in includes determining the integrated amplitude distribution in an output pupil, combining the integrated amplitude distribution with a predetermined apodization correction and calculating a corrected apodization image according to the modified amplitude distribution.