Bob, I've got to disagree. I think most people don't know depth of field. Most folks 'see' everything in-focus and never think about another option. When you take a picture and part of it is blurry and part in-focus, they can't imagine why. The world is an Ansel Adams landscape... Regards, Bob S.
On Sun, Jan 22, 2012 at 11:07 AM, Bob W <[email protected]> wrote: >> 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. -- 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.
