Deep Focus
Everything from foreground to horizon is sharp. Lets action play out on several planes at once instead of directing the eye by focus.
What it does to the frame
Everything from foreground to horizon is sharp. Lets action play out on several planes at once instead of directing the eye by focus.
- Reads as
- Dramatic, Documentary
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Runs in
- Keyframe · Director · Infinitum
The control it moves in PREVIZ
- LensKeyframe · Director
Zeiss Supreme Prime
Clinically sharp with controlled flare. Clean modern look with subtle personality.
circular bokeh · subtle flare · clinical
Best for: High-end cinema, VFX, Clean imagery
Picking the technique sets these controls; it does not paste text into a prompt. The setting can be re-run, checked against the settings beside it, and carried into the next shot.
Never with
These contradict Deep Focus on a physical dimension; the library refuses the pair rather than letting one silently win.
- Shallow FocusBasic · Cinematic, Romantic
- Only a thin slice of the scene is sharp. Isolates the subject from its surroundings and is most of what makes an image read as 'cinematic'.
Also in composition
What the glass does to the frame: how much of it is sharp, how wide it reads, what the edges do.
- AnamorphicIntermediate · Cinematic
- Squeezed capture that yields a very wide frame, oval bokeh and horizontal blue flares. The most recognisable 'big film' signature there is.
- Vintage GlassIntermediate · Nostalgic, Romantic
- Older uncoated lenses: lower contrast, swirling backgrounds and flares that bloom easily. Imperfection used deliberately.
- Tilt-ShiftAdvanced · Artistic
- The focus plane is tilted off perpendicular, leaving a narrow band sharp across the frame. On a wide view it makes real places look like models.
- Split DiopterAdvanced · Dramatic
- Half the lens carries a close-up element, so a near face and a far face are both sharp with a visible seam between them.
Reads the same way
Other techniques that read as dramatic or documentary — a light or a lens to pair with this move.
- Low AngleBasic · Dramatic, Cinematic
- The camera sits below the subject and looks up. Reach for it when someone should read as powerful, imposing, or in control of the room.
- High AngleBasic · Dramatic
- The camera looks down on the subject. The inverse of a low angle — it diminishes, and is the standard way to make someone read as vulnerable.
- Steep OverheadIntermediate · Dramatic, Artistic
- Steeply down but not fully vertical. Keeps faces readable while a true bird's eye loses them — the usual choice when you want the detachment but still need performance.
- Profile ShotBasic · Artistic, Dramatic
- Dead side-on, ninety degrees to the subject's facing. Reads as formal and observational — you are watching rather than being addressed.
- Three-Quarter AngleBasic · Cinematic, Documentary
- Between straight-on and profile. The default flattering angle for faces — it gives the head volume that a square-on shot loses.
- Behind the SubjectIntermediate · Cinematic, Dramatic
- Directly behind, seeing what they see. Puts the viewer at the character's shoulder and makes the environment ahead the subject of the shot.
- Over-the-ShoulderBasic · Cinematic, Dramatic
- From behind and to one side, with the near shoulder in frame. The workhorse of dialogue coverage — it fixes who is looking at whom.
- Extreme Close-UpBasic · Dramatic, Horror
- A detail filling the frame — eyes, hands, an object. Removes all context, which is exactly why it reads as intense or claustrophobic.
- Close-UpBasic · Dramatic, Cinematic
- Head and shoulders. The standard shot for performance — close enough that the face carries the scene.
- Medium ShotBasic · Documentary, Cinematic
- Waist up. Holds the figure and enough of the room to read body language — the neutral shot most scenes are built from.
- Dolly ZoomAdvanced · Horror, Dramatic
- Track in while zooming out (or the reverse). The subject stays the same size while the background rushes — the standard visual for dread or realisation.
- Push InBasic · Dramatic, Cinematic
- The camera moves steadily toward the subject. The most reliable way to tell an audience that this moment matters.
- Steadicam FloatIntermediate · Cinematic, Documentary
- Smooth walking movement with none of the jitter of true handheld. Follows a subject through space without calling attention to itself.
- HandheldBasic · Documentary, Action
- Visible operator movement. Reads as immediate and unstaged — the reason news and vérité look the way they do.
- Rack FocusAdvanced · Dramatic, Cinematic
- Focus shifts from one plane to another mid-shot. Redirects the viewer's attention without moving the camera or cutting.
- Dutch AngleBasic · Horror, Dramatic
- The horizon is tilted. Signals that something is wrong — the most legible unease cue in the language.
- SnorricamAdvanced · Horror, Dramatic
- The camera is rigged to the actor, so they stay locked in frame while the world lurches behind them. Disorientation, or dissociation.
- Locked OffBasic · Artistic, Documentary
- The camera does not move at all. A deliberate choice, not an absence of one — stillness reads as composure or as unsettling patience.
- ChiaroscuroAdvanced · Dramatic, Artistic
- Extreme contrast between light and dark with very little in between. Borrowed from Baroque painting; the darkness does as much work as the light.
- Rembrandt LightingIntermediate · Dramatic, Cinematic
- Key light high and to one side, leaving a small triangle of light on the shadowed cheek. The classical portrait setup.
- Split LightingIntermediate · Dramatic, Horror
- The light comes from ninety degrees to the side, so half the face is lit and half is in shadow. Reads as division or duplicity.
- Rim LightBasic · Cinematic, Dramatic
- Light from behind that traces a bright edge around the subject, separating them from the background. Almost every night exterior uses it.
- SilhouetteIntermediate · Artistic, Dramatic
- The subject is unlit against a bright background, reduced to outline. Identity withheld — shape carries the whole shot.
- Harsh NoonIntermediate · Documentary, Dramatic
- Overhead midday sun. Short hard shadows and blown highlights — usually avoided, which is exactly why it reads as unglamorous and real.
- Practical LightIntermediate · Cinematic, Documentary
- The scene is lit by lamps, screens and signs that are visible in the shot. Motivated light — the viewer can see where it comes from.
- High KeyBasic · Romantic, Documentary
- Bright and evenly lit with almost no shadow. The look of comedy, commercials and daytime television — nothing is hidden.
- Bleach BypassAdvanced · Dramatic, Action
- Skipping the bleach step leaves silver in the print: contrast climbs, colour drains, grain hardens. Harsh and metallic.
- Film GrainBasic · Nostalgic, Documentary
- Visible photochemical texture. Reads as film rather than video, and hides the plastic smoothness generated images tend toward.