How Did They Do This?

F

Fidelio

Active member
Hello,

I have a cinematography related question. I've seen in various music videos (refer to below) an effect in which the camera is focused on one particular area in a single plane (objects are same distance from camera, but only one part of it is in focus), as opposed to the typical depth of field focus (foreground object in focus while background blurred, vice versa).

How did they do this?

I have below some examples on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yIq3M14qlk (Everyday, Bon Jovi)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66N5hUZf1OQ (Harrowdown Hill, Thom Yorke)

Thanks,

Fidelio
 
David, you are right, that was shot with tilt lens.
Fidelio, it's just like using a 4 x5 or 8x10inch still camera while tilting the lenses axis with the bellows.
Who ever shot this did an excellent job of hitting their focus/tilting marks, or panning the focus area into place.
 
tilt shift... yes... you can also achieve this in AE too... won't be as clean though... but will pass to the un-trained eye.
 
Oh wow, thanks guys, guess you learn something new everyday.

And oh, one more question: from my understanding, the tilt shift can narrow depth of field to one particular area, but in terms of the out of focus/blurred areas... does it always have to be the top and bottom blurred, or are there adjustments to make the left and right blur instead?

Can all four sides blur too, except the center? And is there a way to control the degree of blur?

Thanks,

Fidelio
 
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with Tilt and Shift you can only affect focus in top and bottom of focus plane. If you needed to impair focus in side portion of the same frame you'd need to be able to Swing the lens left and right... this is typical Still View Camera technique.
Once I tried something very simple to a beautiful effect... on the optical glass in front of the lens put a Scotch tape in the area you'd like to appear out of focus.... You might be surprised! (work on wide open aperture as to minimize Depth of Fiels... and on longest Lens possible)
 
Hmm... does it really work that well? I'm looking for a consistency in its aesthetics, and though I haven't tried the vaseline technique yet, I'm somewhat dubious of its consistency.

Any thoughts? I'm essentially looking for an effect in which the middle portion of the len is focused, and it is blurred gradually on all sides. Any special lenses like that?
 
I have no idea, but it looks great. I was confused to even what was going on for a little but, it's pretty cool.
 
In the still photography world they make a lens call a "lensbaby" (takes the place of your regular lens)
http://lensbabies.com/
Now they are camera specific for still cameras and I don't if they could be adapted for a video like a 35mm adapter but I think anything is possible

I used one on my digi still camera and love the effect
 
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