Deep focus is a photographic and cinematographic technique using a large depth of field. Depth of field is the front-to-back range of focus in an image, or how much of it appears sharp and clear. In deep focus, the foreground, middle ground, and background are all in focus.
Diagram of decreasing apertures, that is, increasing f-numbers, in one-stop increments; each aperture has half the light gathering area of the previous one. The actual size of the aperture will depend on the focal length of the lens.
Deep focus is normally achieved by choosing a small aperture. Since the aperture of a camera determines how much light enters through the lens, achieving deep focus requires a bright scene or long exposure. A wide-angle lens also makes a larger portion of the image appear sharp.
It is also possible to achieve the illusion of deep focus with optical tricks (split-focus diopter) or by compositing two or more images together.
The opposite of deep focus is shallow focus, in which the plane of the image that is in focus is very shallow.[1] For example, the foreground might be in focus while the middle-ground and background are out-of-focus. When avoiding deep focus is used specifically for aesthetic effect—especially when the subject is in sharp focus while the background is noticeably out-of-focus—the technique is known as bokeh.[2]
When deep focus is used, filmmakers often combine it with deep space (also called deep staging). Deep space is a part of mise-en-scène, placing significant actors and props in different planes of the picture. Directors and cinematographers may use deep space without using deep focus, being either an artistic choice or because they do not have resources to create a deep focus look, or both.
For French film critic André Bazin, deep-focus visual style was central to his theory of realism in film. He elaborated in an analysis of how deep focus functions in a scene from Wyler's The Best Years of Our Lives:
The action in the foreground is secondary, although interesting and peculiar enough to require our keen attention since it occupies a privileged place and surface on the screen. Paradoxically, the true action, the one that constitutes at this precise moment a turning point in the story, develops almost clandestinely in a tiny rectangle at the back of the room—in the left corner of the screen.... Thus the viewer is induced actively to participate in the drama planned by the director.[3]
Deep focus and different formats
The choice of shooting format affects how easy it would be to achieve a deep focus look. This is because the size of the sensor or film gauge dictates what particular lensfocal length would be used in order to achieve a desired viewing angle. Smaller sensors or film gauges will require an overall range of shorter focal lengths to achieve any desired viewing angle than larger sensors or film gauges. Because depth of field is a characteristic of lens focal length (in addition to aperture and focus distance setting), it is easier to achieve a deep-focus look with a smaller imaging sensor or film gauge. For example, a 40mm lens will give a 30-degree horizontal angle of view in the Super35 format. To achieve the same viewing angle with a 1/2" 16:9 sensor, you would need a 13mm lens. A 13mm lens inherently has much more depth-of-field than a 40mm lens. To achieve the same depth of field with a 40mm lens would require a very small aperture, which in turn would require far more light, and therefore time and expense.
Some filmmakers make deliberate use of the deep-focus capabilities of digital formats. Miami Vice (Michael Mann, 2006), a movie that was shot digitally early in the conversion from film to digital formats, made use of this capability. Cinematographer Dion Beebe commented:
We also decided that there were attributes of HD technology we liked and wanted to exploit, like the increased depth of field. Because of the cameras' chip size (2/3"), they have excessive depth of field that we decided not to fight, but rather utilize.[4]
Split-focus diopter
In the 1970s, directors made frequent use of the split-focus diopter. With this invention it was possible to have one plane in focus in one part of the picture and a different plane in focus in the other half of the picture. This was and still is very useful for the anamorphic widescreen format, which has less depth of field.
A split diopter is half convex glass that attaches in front of the camera's main lens to make half the lens nearsighted. The lens can focus on a plane in the background and the diopter on a foreground. A split diopter does not create real deep focus, only the illusion of this. What distinguishes it from traditional deep focus is that there is not continuous depth of field from foreground to background; the space between the two sharp objects is out of focus. Because split focus diopters only cover half the lens, shots in which they are used are characterized by a blurred line between the two planes in focus.
Starting in the 1980s, American cinema has developed a trend that film scholar David Bordwell calls intensified continuity.[5] Bordwell claims that:
The average length of each shot in a film has become shorter over the years
Scenes are built up by closer framing
More extreme focal lengths are used
The scenes include an increased number of camera moves
This trend has led to deep focus becoming less common in Hollywood movies. As mentioned in Bordwell's second point, master shots where two or more characters hold a conversation have gone out of fashion, lessening the need for deep focus. In a contemporary Hollywood movie a dialogue scene may consist only of tight close-ups, with the master shot abandoned. If more than one plane in the image contains narrative information, filmmakers switch focus ("rack focusing") instead of keeping both focal planes sharp. In addition, modern sets tend to have less lighting for more comfortable working conditions, and use of deep focus tends to require more light.
The development of intensified continuity may be due to directors' desire to capture the action or dialogue from many different angles and views. Getting these shots is called coverage. The U.S. film critic Dave Kehr explains it this way:
If there is a single word that sums up the difference between filmmaking at the middle of the 20th century and the filmmaking of today, it is "coverage". Derived from television, it refers to the increasingly common practice of using multiple cameras for a scene (just as television would cover a football game).[6]
To stage a whole scene in one shot is no longer common. Director Steven Soderbergh claims:
That kind of staging is a lost art, which is too bad. The reason they no longer work that way is because it means making choices, real choices, and sticking to them. (...) That's not what people do now. They want all the options they can get in the editing room.[6]
An extreme case of filming in one-shot is the feature-length film, Russian Ark (2002), recorded in one take.
Notable uses
The following films and television programs contain notable examples of deep-focus photography:
^Bordwell, David; Kristin Thompson (2003). Film Art: An Introduction (7th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
^Merklinger, Harold. . luminous-landscape.com. Archived from the original on 9 April 2013. Retrieved July 3, 2009.
^Bazin, André (1997). "William Wyler, or the Jansenist of Directing". In Cardullo, Bert (ed.). Bazin at Work: Major Essays & Reviews from the Forties & Fifties. New York: Routledge. pp. 14–15. ISBN978-0-415-90018-8.
^Holben, Jay: "Partners in Crime", American Cinematographer, August 2006.
^Bordell, David (2002). "Intensified Continuity: Visual Style in Contemporary American Film", in Film Quarterly, vol. 55, no. 3.
^ abKehr, David (2006-11-12). . The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2012-03-20.
^Mertens, Jacob (28 November 2013). "3:10 to Yuma (1957)". Film International: Thinking Film Since 1973. Retrieved 17 April 2017.
Further reading
Bordwell, David; Kristin Thompson (2003). Film Art: An Introduction (Seventh ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
March 13, 2023
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Deep focus is a photographic and cinematographic technique using a large depth of field Depth of field is the front to back range of focus in an image or how much of it appears sharp and clear In deep focus the foreground middle ground and background are all in focus Diagram of decreasing apertures that is increasing f numbers in one stop increments each aperture has half the light gathering area of the previous one The actual size of the aperture will depend on the focal length of the lens Deep focus is normally achieved by choosing a small aperture Since the aperture of a camera determines how much light enters through the lens achieving deep focus requires a bright scene or long exposure A wide angle lens also makes a larger portion of the image appear sharp It is also possible to achieve the illusion of deep focus with optical tricks split focus diopter or by compositing two or more images together The opposite of deep focus is shallow focus in which the plane of the image that is in focus is very shallow 1 For example the foreground might be in focus while the middle ground and background are out of focus When avoiding deep focus is used specifically for aesthetic effect especially when the subject is in sharp focus while the background is noticeably out of focus the technique is known as bokeh 2 Contents 1 Deep focus and deep space 2 Deep focus and different formats 3 Split focus diopter 4 Use in modern films 5 Notable uses 5 1 Black and white 5 2 Color 6 See also 7 References 8 Further readingDeep focus and deep space EditWhen deep focus is used filmmakers often combine it with deep space also called deep staging Deep space is a part of mise en scene placing significant actors and props in different planes of the picture Directors and cinematographers may use deep space without using deep focus being either an artistic choice or because they do not have resources to create a deep focus look or both Directors may use deep focus in only some scenes or even just some shots Other auteurs choose to use it consistently throughout the movie either as a stylistic choice or because they believe it represents reality better Filmmakers such as Akira Kurosawa Stanley Kubrick Kenji Mizoguchi Orson Welles Masahiro Shinoda Akio Jissoji Terry Gilliam Jean Renoir Jacques Tati James Wong Howe and Gregg Toland all used deep focus as part of their signature style For French film critic Andre Bazin deep focus visual style was central to his theory of realism in film He elaborated in an analysis of how deep focus functions in a scene from Wyler s The Best Years of Our Lives The action in the foreground is secondary although interesting and peculiar enough to require our keen attention since it occupies a privileged place and surface on the screen Paradoxically the true action the one that constitutes at this precise moment a turning point in the story develops almost clandestinely in a tiny rectangle at the back of the room in the left corner of the screen Thus the viewer is induced actively to participate in the drama planned by the director 3 Deep focus and different formats EditThe choice of shooting format affects how easy it would be to achieve a deep focus look This is because the size of the sensor or film gauge dictates what particular lens focal length would be used in order to achieve a desired viewing angle Smaller sensors or film gauges will require an overall range of shorter focal lengths to achieve any desired viewing angle than larger sensors or film gauges Because depth of field is a characteristic of lens focal length in addition to aperture and focus distance setting it is easier to achieve a deep focus look with a smaller imaging sensor or film gauge For example a 40mm lens will give a 30 degree horizontal angle of view in the Super35 format To achieve the same viewing angle with a 1 2 16 9 sensor you would need a 13mm lens A 13mm lens inherently has much more depth of field than a 40mm lens To achieve the same depth of field with a 40mm lens would require a very small aperture which in turn would require far more light and therefore time and expense Some filmmakers make deliberate use of the deep focus capabilities of digital formats Miami Vice Michael Mann 2006 a movie that was shot digitally early in the conversion from film to digital formats made use of this capability Cinematographer Dion Beebe commented We also decided that there were attributes of HD technology we liked and wanted to exploit like the increased depth of field Because of the cameras chip size 2 3 they have excessive depth of field that we decided not to fight but rather utilize 4 Split focus diopter EditIn the 1970s directors made frequent use of the split focus diopter With this invention it was possible to have one plane in focus in one part of the picture and a different plane in focus in the other half of the picture This was and still is very useful for the anamorphic widescreen format which has less depth of field A split diopter is half convex glass that attaches in front of the camera s main lens to make half the lens nearsighted The lens can focus on a plane in the background and the diopter on a foreground A split diopter does not create real deep focus only the illusion of this What distinguishes it from traditional deep focus is that there is not continuous depth of field from foreground to background the space between the two sharp objects is out of focus Because split focus diopters only cover half the lens shots in which they are used are characterized by a blurred line between the two planes in focus The diopter gave the opportunity for spectacular deep focus compositions that would have been impossible to achieve otherwise In the American New Wave director Brian De Palma explored the possibilities of the split focus diopter extensively as did other 70s films such as Robert Wise s The Andromeda Strain and Star Trek The Motion Picture Use in modern films EditStarting in the 1980s American cinema has developed a trend that film scholar David Bordwell calls intensified continuity 5 Bordwell claims that The average length of each shot in a film has become shorter over the years Scenes are built up by closer framing More extreme focal lengths are used The scenes include an increased number of camera movesThis trend has led to deep focus becoming less common in Hollywood movies As mentioned in Bordwell s second point master shots where two or more characters hold a conversation have gone out of fashion lessening the need for deep focus In a contemporary Hollywood movie a dialogue scene may consist only of tight close ups with the master shot abandoned If more than one plane in the image contains narrative information filmmakers switch focus rack focusing instead of keeping both focal planes sharp In addition modern sets tend to have less lighting for more comfortable working conditions and use of deep focus tends to require more light The development of intensified continuity may be due to directors desire to capture the action or dialogue from many different angles and views Getting these shots is called coverage The U S film critic Dave Kehr explains it this way If there is a single word that sums up the difference between filmmaking at the middle of the 20th century and the filmmaking of today it is coverage Derived from television it refers to the increasingly common practice of using multiple cameras for a scene just as television would cover a football game 6 To stage a whole scene in one shot is no longer common Director Steven Soderbergh claims That kind of staging is a lost art which is too bad The reason they no longer work that way is because it means making choices real choices and sticking to them That s not what people do now They want all the options they can get in the editing room 6 An extreme case of filming in one shot is the feature length film Russian Ark 2002 recorded in one take Notable uses EditThe following films and television programs contain notable examples of deep focus photography Black and white Edit Foolish Wives 1922 Nosferatu 1922 Greed 1924 All Quiet on the Western Front 1930 Mad Love 1935 Dodsworth 1936 Osaka Elegy 1936 Dead End 1937 La Grande Illusion 1937 La Regle du Jeu 1939 The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1939 Rebecca 1940 Citizen Kane 1941 The Devil and Daniel Webster 1941 The Magnificent Ambersons 1942 The Stranger 1946 The Best Years of Our Lives 1946 The Lady from Shanghai 1947 Oliver Twist 1948 Macbeth 1948 Drunken Angel 1948 The Third Man 1949 All the King s Men 1949 Stray Dog 1949 Late Spring 1949 Rashomon 1950 Sunset Boulevard 1950 Strangers on a Train 1951 Detective Story 1951 Ugetsu 1953 Tokyo Story 1953 Sansho the Bailiff 1954 The Crucified Lovers 1954 Seven Samurai 1954 Mr Arkadin 1955 The Night of the Hunter 1955 The Killing 1956 Throne of Blood 1957 Tokyo Twilight 1957 12 Angry Men 1957 Paths of Glory 1957 Sweet Smell of Success 1957 3 10 to Yuma 1957 7 Touch of Evil 1958 L Avventura 1960 Psycho 1960 The Bad Sleep Well 1960 La Notte 1961 The Hustler 1961 The Innocents 1961 Yojimbo 1961 Cape Fear 1962 Knife in the Water 1962 L Eclisse 1962 Birdman of Alcatraz 1962 The Manchurian Candidate 1962 Two for the Seesaw 1962 The Trial 1962 Hud 1963 High and Low 1963 The Haunting 1963 Seven Days in May 1964 The Train 1964 Repulsion 1965 Chimes at Midnight 1965 Red Beard 1965 Nayak 1966 Cul de sac 1966 Persona 1966 Seconds 1966 Faces 1968 The Last Picture Show 1971 Paper Moon 1973 The Good German 2006 Color Edit The Man Who Knew Too Much 1956 The Bridge on the River Kwai 1957 Vertigo 1958 North by Northwest 1959 Ben Hur 1959 Floating Weeds 1959 How the West Was Won 1962 Lawrence of Arabia 1962 The Birds 1963 A Fistful of Dollars 1964 The Ipcress File 1965 For a Few Dollars More 1965 The Good the Bad and the Ugly 1966 The Appaloosa 1966 Rosemary s Baby 1968 The Wild Bunch 1969 A Clockwork Orange 1971 Macbeth 1971 The Offence 1972 Aguirre the Wrath of God 1972 Chinatown 1974 Jeanne Dielman 23 quai du Commerce 1080 Bruxelles 1975 Barry Lyndon 1975 Jaws 1975 All the President s Men 1976 The Tenant 1976 Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1977 Nosferatu the Vampyre 1979 The Shining 1980 Blow Out 1981 Fitzcarraldo 1982 Rumble Fish 1983 Brazil 1985 Full Metal Jacket 1987 Jurassic Park 1993 Casino 1995 Saving Private Ryan 1998 Eyes Wide Shut 1999 Songs from the Second Floor 2000 The Pianist 2002 Peter Pan 2003 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 2004 The New World 2005 Six Feet Under 2001 2005 The Black Dahlia 2006 The History Boys 2006 Zodiac 2007 You the Living 2007 The Ghost Writer 2010 Carnage 2011 A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence 2014 It Follows 2014 The Hateful Eight 2015 Ouija Origin of Evil 2016 Suspiria 2018 Us 2019 See also EditGroup f 64 Hyperfocal distanceReferences Edit Bordwell David Kristin Thompson 2003 Film Art An Introduction 7th ed New York McGraw Hill Merklinger Harold Understanding Boke luminous landscape com Archived from the original on 9 April 2013 Retrieved July 3 2009 Bazin Andre 1997 William Wyler or the Jansenist of Directing In Cardullo Bert ed Bazin at Work Major Essays amp Reviews from the Forties amp Fifties New York Routledge pp 14 15 ISBN 978 0 415 90018 8 Holben Jay Partners in Crime American Cinematographer August 2006 Bordell David 2002 Intensified Continuity Visual Style in Contemporary American Film in Film Quarterly vol 55 no 3 a b Kehr David 2006 11 12 You Can Make Em Like They Used To The New York Times Archived from the original on 2012 03 20 Mertens Jacob 28 November 2013 3 10 to Yuma 1957 Film International Thinking Film Since 1973 Retrieved 17 April 2017 Further reading EditBordwell David Kristin Thompson 2003 Film Art An Introduction Seventh ed New York McGraw Hill Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Deep focus amp oldid 1116655674, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
