The importance of focus could be easily assumed by saying that an image out of focus doesn't work. This is partially true, depending of course on the type of scene you shooting and the objective of it. Sticking with the obvious and most common which is having your shot properly on focus, there are ways of making sure you are doing it right and avoid making easy mistakes. I decided to do some research on focusing, mainly because I will be zooming and focus quite a lot, plus filming from far away and some up really close, so I need to make sure I understand what to do in which situation to keep control of the focus which can be very easily lost if not knowing exactly what to do. Based on the research I have been doing on focus, I have found out that there are three main aspects about it that will be exploring. The first one is how to properly use focus on the camera in order too keep control of it and make sure that you are truly on focus. The second one is on how focus could change your film for good or bad and how adjusting focus on an image can actually change what the scene is telling you. The last and third one was more of a personal reflection regarding using the zoom and N/D filter while focusing both on internal and external locations, which includes understanding depth of field.
Based on the first point and doing some research on how to focus properly and making sure that I was doing the right thing, I came across with some very interesting information and a very useful video. One of the biggest issues for beginners or people that haven't really shot or have had experienced with a professional camera, is using the focus properly and the tools integrated in the camera in order to help you with it. Some very minor mistakes could dramatically change your shot. Here is a nice video about it:
On this video we can see who the focus on giving some very simple tips and the use of expanded focus, which can become lifesavers and even more important, should become part of the 1, 2, 3 when setting up a camera in any shoot. The expanded focus is great feature that a lot of amateurs are not really aware of or are just not sure how it works and what is is used for. This video explains it quite simple and how to use it, but as a personal experience I believe that is way more than that and will leave here my opinion on it and how this has helped me with my shoot a lot. Expanded focus is used to make sure that your shot is really on focus and not just guide yourself with what you normally see on the camera screen. A lot of the times a shot might seem in focus on the camera but when put on a computer or a TV for example, it might be not. This is usually the main reason why expanded focus is so important, because it literally expands your shot around 10x more than usual, so you can make sure that your object or the eyes of a person are really on focus. The reason why this is useful as well is because usually a lot of the things you see on a small screen can look different on big one and is simply because the resolution of the screen changes meaning the size of your shot does as well. If you are shooting in a 1920x1080 format, you know that that shot up to a 1080p resolution will look good, but it will always still look fine on a small screen because its easier to spot mistakes on a full screen mode on a computer than on the spot on a small camera screen.
I had this issue a couple times when things seemed in focus but after using the expanded focus there were not and this really helped a lot. One thing that happens a lot as well which is what I have learned is probably the most important job of a cinematographer, is to look everything through the camera lens and not just through your eyes. A lot elements change naturally all the time, specially on low budget production, meaning natural light changes, an actor moves an inch or something just changes in your shot and if you are not constantly looking at it, you will most likely not notice. The director can't notice because they are focused on another task, but yours is to make sure that the shoot looks how it's meant to look and if something changes you notify the director because they are trusting you. I had moments when light kept changing, the actors moved a bit just naturally and changed the focus on their faces and all this stuff is something that needs checking every other second because once again, minor stuff might look fine on the small screen, but on the big one it will definitely come up. Sadly one of my biggest issues in the shoot of Sunday League was actually the focus due to vary reasons and this made a lot of my shots soft, which prevented me from using.
Another thing I came across with during my research, was the importance of focusing. Whether you are focusing on a person, and object or even an animal, changing the focus on something even if its not moving, can give your shot a meaning and a bit of drama to it. I came across with some nice information about this from Tommy Penner, who is an online camera supporter and states:
Shifting focus from a nearby object to a faraway object within the same shot is called “racking focus” and is commonly used to bring the audience’s attention from one subject to another. Professionals and amateurs alike do this by using something called a follow focus, and you can build one yourself to make racking focus much easier!
Here’s a quick example of how racking the focus can add a little bit of drama and tell a story, all within one shot:
As a cinematographer, this was actually a very useful tool and I wanted to put it in practice for our show, but it was hard because we are not really a big drama or action packed one, meaning that is harder to fit this is. After going through the script over and over I wanted to find a way to include this in and I actually found a small window of opportunity in which I could use it, in a scene towards the end where Don appears in the pitch and no one notices him:
Scene 21, Page 28
"We see a man approaching. Don. He strolls over to the pitch, but isn’t spotted by the team."
I thought at this point it would be a good idea to include this effect which is when I started elaborating it. We would start seeing Ollie tired and hopeless, being the main focus on the camera. As he bends doing showing how tired he really is and almost giving up on everything, he reveals Don behind him, which allowed me to change focus and make give him a big entrance. In order to achieve this, I had to work with N/D filter, which I set to 1 on a scale from 0-2. What this does is reduces the amount of light coming through the camera, but creates a bigger depth of field, allowing me to actually change focus on something based on how depth of field works. Sadly it wasn't a very sunny day, which only allowed me to go to N/D filter 1 instead of 2, but I believe that although the focus could have been better with more light, the objective of it was fulfilled which was to give a bit of drama to his entrance and tell something through focusing and not words.
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| Out of focus |
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| In focus |
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