Much -- rather too much -- has been posted here on the topic of lens focal lengths. Allow me the vanity of a suggestion, or maybe a call-to-arms ... for it is us, brothers and sisters, that lead this charge and if there is to be change let it begin here:
As a producer, I make choices on what sort of equipment a production will be shot with. These choices are informed by my understanding of what sort of shots will be required, and what the budget will allow.
As a director, I make choices about how a shot will be taken -- what distance from the subject(s), what angle of view, what range of focus I'd like.
As a dop I balance the constraints the producer has inevitably placed on me, and the demands the director makes -- using the tools at my disposal I deliver as best I can the vision the director has presented.
In truth, most of us here find the roles collide: We are producer/director/dop in one. And so our knowledge as dop informs our vision as director with the nagging producer having packed the kit bag in the first place. So what is this call I make? Please, abandon the description of 'focal length' as the starting place for so many discussions.
Almost invariably, what we are looking for is 'angle of view' or perhaps 'field of view'. The first describes the pie-slice that starts from the camera & extends to infinity (or a wall ...) the second picks a point in that pie slice and measures the width -- from a camera position ten feet from the subject I need a shot eight feet wide. It is only when performing the role of dop that such details as what focal length lens matched to which imaging chip/film size that the details of the lens required comes into play.
So I link here a chart that spells out in simplest terms the angle of view and invite you good readers to at a minimum preface your description with a reference to that value. "I'm working in a tight space and need a healthy angle of view -- something like 85 degrees would get the job done." "I want the sense of calm control in my medium shot that comes from a ten foot distance from camera on a seated subject, something in the 15 to 18 degree range I think." From those universal descriptors we can establish what focal length lens will be appropriate to our imaging system ... and we can allow ourselves to speak like directors, leaving our inner dop to do the math.
Perhaps if we make this modest adjustment to our phraseology, we will encourage all those -- both noobs and curmudgeons alike -- to anchor a firmer grasp of the science of optics in their understanding of the tools we work with. To start a description of shot by naming a lens focal length is to join the narrative mid-way -- describe the shot, identify the imaging device, and the focal length will inevitably follow.
Peace out,
Geoff Baker
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/images/Angles-02z.jpg
As a producer, I make choices on what sort of equipment a production will be shot with. These choices are informed by my understanding of what sort of shots will be required, and what the budget will allow.
As a director, I make choices about how a shot will be taken -- what distance from the subject(s), what angle of view, what range of focus I'd like.
As a dop I balance the constraints the producer has inevitably placed on me, and the demands the director makes -- using the tools at my disposal I deliver as best I can the vision the director has presented.
In truth, most of us here find the roles collide: We are producer/director/dop in one. And so our knowledge as dop informs our vision as director with the nagging producer having packed the kit bag in the first place. So what is this call I make? Please, abandon the description of 'focal length' as the starting place for so many discussions.
Almost invariably, what we are looking for is 'angle of view' or perhaps 'field of view'. The first describes the pie-slice that starts from the camera & extends to infinity (or a wall ...) the second picks a point in that pie slice and measures the width -- from a camera position ten feet from the subject I need a shot eight feet wide. It is only when performing the role of dop that such details as what focal length lens matched to which imaging chip/film size that the details of the lens required comes into play.
So I link here a chart that spells out in simplest terms the angle of view and invite you good readers to at a minimum preface your description with a reference to that value. "I'm working in a tight space and need a healthy angle of view -- something like 85 degrees would get the job done." "I want the sense of calm control in my medium shot that comes from a ten foot distance from camera on a seated subject, something in the 15 to 18 degree range I think." From those universal descriptors we can establish what focal length lens will be appropriate to our imaging system ... and we can allow ourselves to speak like directors, leaving our inner dop to do the math.
Perhaps if we make this modest adjustment to our phraseology, we will encourage all those -- both noobs and curmudgeons alike -- to anchor a firmer grasp of the science of optics in their understanding of the tools we work with. To start a description of shot by naming a lens focal length is to join the narrative mid-way -- describe the shot, identify the imaging device, and the focal length will inevitably follow.
Peace out,
Geoff Baker
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/images/Angles-02z.jpg
