> From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of > George Sinos > > Sorry if I've said this before. > > Something I've learned from my students is the typical viewpoint on > "how things work." > > For many people, the concept of focus is limited to the "whole > picture" being fuzzy or sharp. Think of focusing a movie projector. > The image is either sharp or it isn't. The idea of selective focus > isn't even in their mental model of the world.
My experience is completely the opposite. Most people I've discussed this with are very aware of out of focus backgrounds, but don't know how to achieve them. When I had the Contax / Zeiss equipment on of the things that really drew people's attention was the quality of the out-of-focus bacground. On the other hand, they don't notice deep focus. For example, in discussing cinema they will be completely unaware of how Orson Welles, for example, used depth of field in Citizen Kane. B > Given that, teaching > someone how to focus or how to select between "spot focus" and "area > focus" is fairly meaningless. The concept of controlling depth of > field us pretty tough without selective focus. > > At the first session, I ask people to watch a tv show or a movie and > watch how the director uses light and focus to draw the viewers > attention to or away from action on the screen. The next session's > discussion almost always starts with someone saying that they had > never noticed any of that before. > > When you're describing things to the general public, I've found that > you have to start by describing the artistic effects that can be > achieved and WHY you might want to achieve them. Then describe how > those things can be done technically. > > Exposure, depth of field, etc. All of these things are just means to > the end of making a picture and guiding the viewer's eye through that > picture. > > GS -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
