We propose a novel far-field characterization method that provides a simple and fast measurement of three-dimensional (3D) light field display (LFD) performance. Using both experimental and theoretical approaches, we quantitatively compare far-field and near-field optical performances. Through the analysis of an integral imaging-based 3D LFD prototype, we show that far-field behavior of the reconstructed light field influences the 3D image resolution. Furthermore, we show that optimizing far-field performance improves the uniformity of the 3D image resolution across the angular field of view. The results underscore that the far-field analysis method is an effective and practical approach for assessing and optimizing the optical performance of 3D LFDs.