From the course: Learning Cinematography: 3 Hands On Techniques
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Tools and testing: Circle of confusion
From the course: Learning Cinematography: 3 Hands On Techniques
Tools and testing: Circle of confusion
- There are times when decisions exist that only the cinematographer can make. Focus often comes down to the cinematographer. Someone has to decide whether a given part of the frame is sharp as it should be, or as soft as it should be. This is as subjective as it is technical. What medium are you shooting? What kind of film is it? No one else in the film has the technical knowledge and story understanding to make these decisions for you. So, we're going to describe the factors involved into this decision-making process and offer some choices in how to decide. Now, we delegate the act of focus pulling to the first camera assistant. But focus is a fundamental element of composition, even in paintings. An example is this painting by Gustave Caillebotte. If you look at the grill in the foreground, it's more contrasty than the scene beyond it. That's a way of painting in depth of field, so that the foreground has more prominence than the background. What's out of focus may be just as…
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