Shallow depth of field question

ramkuma

ramkuma

Well-known member
In the "Depth of Field" section of Barry's book it states: "...the more telephoto the shot, the shallower the depth of field will appear to be.." What does he mean by "telephoto"? Does this mean zoomed in?

Also, when you open the iris all the way up to achieve a shallow depth of field, and employ the ND filter to compensate for the wider opening of the iris, doesn't the ND filter reduce the aperature/f-stop in the lens--thus working at cross purposes for what you are trying to achieve? Or is the ND filter not associated with the aperature?
 
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From the best of my knowledge, I can answer the second question. The ND filter is not associated with the aperature -- it's simply the same as having a 4x4 ND filter in front of the camera. Hope that answers it.
 
ramkuma said:
In the "Depth of Field" section of Barry's book it states: "...the more telephoto the shot, the shallower the depth of field will appear to be.." What does he mean by "telephoto"? Does this mean zoomed in?
Click to expand...

Yes. For shallow focus with the HMC150 lens on a talking head -- back the camera about fifteen feet away from the subject and zoom in on your subject. As long as there is some distance between your subject and the background you'll get a "bokeh" that certainly looks better than edge to edge sharpness. I've done this numerous times when I had the luxury of being able to position things.

Does it look as good as a Letus Ultimate with a fast prime on it? Hell no. But it looks a world better than standard video camera corner to corner sharpness, and some professionals who saw the footage assumed I was using a lens adapter.

This tactic is ideal for producers on a tight budget. The problem with this tactic is that you need to be able to completely control the situation -- and that's fine for an indie short -- but very dificult when you've got a 12 minute interview with the Secretary of Defense.
 
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