Fascinating. Thanks for sharing that Mark! "All the Presidents Men" is definitely in my top dozen favorite films, but I was unaware of that technique before. Interestingly, there are two Android apps that include doing calculations for split diopters, which might make the necessity of the "calibrated bar" obsolete today: Filmcalculator and Pocket AC.
On Mon, Jun 29, 2015 at 6:37 PM, John <[email protected]> wrote: > 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. > > -- > Science - Questions we may never find answers for. > Religion - Answers we must never question. > > > -- > 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. -- Life is too short to put up with bad bokeh. -- 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.
