An Introduction to Film

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Rack focusIn this shot from Guillermo del Toro’s The Devil’s

Backbone(2001; cinematographer: Guillermo Navarro), the

camera uses depth of filed to guide our attention from one

subject to another. When the shot begins, the lens is focused on

the background where the villainous Jacinto (Eduardo Noriega)

scans the orphanage courtyard for stray witnesses [1]. The lens

then shifts focus to the foreground so that Jacinto’s elusive

prey, the orphan Jamie (Ìñìgo Garcés), snaps into sharp relief [2].

Type of Lens Characteristics of Images Produced by Aperture,

Focal Length, and Depth of Field

Prime lenses

Short-focal-length lens • Produces wide-angle views.

(wide-angle lens) • Makes subjects appear farther apart than they actually are.

• Through its nearly complete depth of field, renders almost all
  objects in the frame in focus.

Long-focal-length lens • Produces deep-angle views.

(telephoto lens) • Brings distant objects close.

• Flattens space and depth.


• Makes subjects look closer together than they actually are.


• Narrow depth of field leaves most of the background and fore-
  ground of the in-focus objects dramatically out of focus.

Middle-focal-length lens • Produces images that correspond to our day-to-day experience of

(normal lens) depth and perspective.

• Keeps all subjects in a normal sense of focus.

Zoom

Zoom lens • Produces images that simulate the effect of movement of the

(variable-focal-length lens) camera toward or away from the subject.

• Rather than actually moving through space, merely magnifies the
  image.


• Can make a shot seem artificial to an audience.

TABLE 6.1 Types of Images Produced by Different Lenses

CINEMATOGRAPHIC PROPERTIES OF THE SHOT 247