cinematography

Aesthetics of Lenses

Aesthetics of Lenses “…changing lenses for the amount of information the lens gathers (its “field”) is only a partial use of a lens. Lenses have different feelings about them.

Different lenses will tell a story differently.”

- Sidney Lumet

Aesthetics of Lenses “I like to use a wider lenses than most cinematographers. I like the 27mm and 32mm for general shots and a 35mm or 40mm for closer work. I suppose these choices feel more “real” to me and I certainly like the feeling they give of being close to the subject….I do like to keep within a certain range of lenses on a particular scene and really dislike the sloppy way some directors will shoot a wide angle and long lens close shots at the same time.

It’s easy to make a pretty picture in color and it is even easier to make a pretty picture on a long lens in color but that’s not what it is really about.”

- Roger Deakins https://vimeo.com/24937742 (from 2:13) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoLVqtU7QeA (1:08-2:13)

Prime vs. Zoom Lenses

● Prime Lenses ● Zoom Lenses

Lenses - Focal Length

● Wide - broader field of view, exaggerate depth (objects seem further apart) (18mm, 25mm, 35mm) ● Normal - what the human eye sees as normal spatial representation (50mm) ● Long (Telephoto) - Compress space, shallower depth of field (85mm, 100mm, 135mm) ● Prime vs Zoom lenses

* Keep in mind the above focal lengths correspond to Full Frame 35 mm format

Long lenses: The Graduate (1967) Extreme Wide lenses: Homecoming (short, 2017)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRBNA27N0ts

Wide (short-focal-length) lenses

(starts at 12.5mm)

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Kubrick, 1964)

“Hitchcock’s Rule”

Using "Hitchcock's Rule," the size of an object in the frame should equal its importance in the scene at that moment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdqFT7hFZ2U&t=5269s

Long focal length lenses (85-500mm)

Barry Lyndon (Kubrick, 1975)

The long lens makes subjects appear closer together than they do in real life. It compresses space. Effective for making a crowd seem denser.

Lensing in 12 Angry Men (Lumet, 1957) “…changing lenses for the amount of information the lens gathers (its “field”) is only a partial use of a lens. Lenses have different feelings about them.

Different lenses will tell a story differently.”

- Sidney Lumet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrEzH1rwpfE

Depth of Field

Depth of Field

Depth of Field

Depth of field is the area in front of the camera that appears sharp in the frame. Determined by three factors:

● Aperture ● Focal length ● Focus distance

Shallow Focus: Her (2013) Deep Focus: Citizen Kane (1941)

Shallow Focus: Her (2013)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RISgjGPkA0 (from 7:54): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7T858LEExE, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAHaRDlUrLw

Aperture / F-stop The aperture is the factor that most influences depth of field. The wider the aperture is, the

shallower depth of field will be. A low f-number such as f/2.8 will likely render an image

with some soft focus. Conversely, the narrower the aperture is, the deeper depth of field

will be.

Aperture

Focal Length Next to the aperture, the second factor that most affects depth of field is focal length. The longer the lens, the shallower depth of field is. A wide angle lens (a short lens), for instance, would render an image with more depth of field than one with a telephoto lens (a long lens). Study the figure below and notice that the f-number is the same while focal length changes:

Focal Distance Focus distance is the last factor to determine depth of field. The closer the focus distance is to the camera, the less depth of field you have.

Critical Focus

The area that is sharpest in focus is called critical focus. Note that you always have more

depth of field behind your plain of critical focus than in front of it.

Circle of Confusion

Circle of Confusion

Focus Distance

Rack Focus

Racking focus is changing the focal plane within the shot to deliberately guide the viewer’s

attention to what is important in the frame. It should be motivated by the beats of the

scene.

The Young Victoria (2009)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRMUbjI3grY

Bokeh

The aesthetic quality of the blur produced in the out-of-focus parts of an image produced by a lens (parts of the scene that lie outside the depth of field).

Differences in lens aberrations and aperture shape cause some lens designs to blur the image in a way that is pleasing to the eye, while others produce blurring that is unpleasant or distracting ("good" and "bad" bokeh).

Bokeh

Anamorphic Lenses

● Spherical Lens ● Anamorphic Lens

Grand Budapest Hotel (Anderson, 2014)

Moonlight (Jenkins, 2016)

Anamorphic 2:35 format

● Softness around the characters - Jenkins says the film “is dictated by the consciousness of the character and not the linearity of the plot. So there are some times when Chiron is disoriented and the audience is disoriented as well”

● “rich soft/sharp balancing of the image that announces the aesthetic project of the film, one of textured beauty and blackness” (Gillespie, 52)

● Depicting the expanse, big sky of Miami – “Chiron has the freedom to move left and right in the frame but he almost chooses not to as he begins to retreat and retract into himself until the edges become very blurred” (Jenkins, in Gillespie, 55)

Lenses and Movement Zoom vs Moving the Camera

● The difference between a zoom & moving the camera (e.g. dolly move) - zoom changes the perspective from wide angle (deep focus) to long lens (compressed background, smaller field of view), and changes the depth of field. With zoom your basic POV stays the same, but with dolly, the camera moves in relation to your subject (background moves behind the subject), adding a sense of motion.

● Hide the zoom, in a dolly move or pan (The Graduate) or with a move by actors. Can help create more pronounced moves in tight spaces.

● Zolly - dolly in while zooming out, or visa versa. The image size stays the same, but there is a dramatic change of perspective and background - feeling of disorientation. Examples: Jaws, Goodfellas

Zolly

Jaws: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW23RsUTb2Y

Goodfellas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWRncNMEhLw

Close-up Photography

● Macro Lenses ● Diopters

Lens Selection Lenses are a key storytelling tool. In making decisions as to where to allocate your budget, often wisest to put toward good set of lenses. Things to factor in:

● Budget ● Shooting conditions - do you need “fast” lenses? ● Zooms vs primes - will you be moving quickly (documentary), will you be zooming in the shot? ● Anamorphic ● Sharpness ● Bokeh, flares ● Camera sensor size ● Specialty lenses - e.g. tilt shift lenses

* Remember that different camera sensor sizes will determine what are wide, normal and long focal lengths of lenses (see following chart)

Focal lengths & Sensor size

Aperture as a function of Exposure Control

Exposure * Double / Half Principle

● ISO - 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400

● Aperture (Iris) – F-stop

● Shutter Angle

● Frame Rate

The Exposure Triangle

Exposure is controlled through the intersection of

these three elements:

● ISO – the measure of a digital camera sensor’s sensitivity to light

● Shutter Speed – the amount of time that the shutter is open

● Aperture – the size of the opening in the lens when a picture is taken * affects Depth of Field

Each of the three aspects of the triangle relate to

light and how it enters and interacts with the

camera.

Focal Lengths & Lenses

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMdb70ShnkI