On 6/29/2015 7:06 PM, Mark Roberts wrote:
Ever used a split diopter or, as they are sometimes called, half
diopter? It's essentially half a close-up diopter that you screw onto
the end of your lens; they cut the glass in half and leave the area in
the filter ring empty. That way you can have a very close foreground
in focus and a distant background also in focus – without stopping
down to a diffraction-inducing tiny aperture (or you can just get a
greater effective DOF than even the smallest aperture would achieve).
Generally the dividing line is out of focus enough to be invisible but
you have to be careful how you position it in the composition.
I was just reading about an amazing use of a split diopter in a motion
picture application. In the classic Robert Redford/Dustin Hoffman film
All the President's Men there's a scene where Robert Redford is
talking on the phone in the news room where the director and
cinematographer use the split diopter in an incredibly subtle yet
effective way, and one that fits thematically with what's going on in
the scene.
Here's where I read about it:
http://www.avclub.com/article/focus-key-most-subtly-powerful-moment-all-presiden-206873
Notice in the embedded video clip how on the right side of the screen
the foreground's in focus but the background is out of focus. Yet on
the left side of the screen the background is in focus and the
foreground (like the typewriter) is out of focus. I've seen this movie
several times and never noticed this.
OK. Film geek moment over. You can go about your business now. If
you've even read this far ;-)
Powerful technique.
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