Deep focus

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Deep focus is a photographic and cinematographic technique incorporating a large depth-of-field. Depth-of-field is the front-to-back range of focus in an image ? that is, how much of it appears sharp and clear. Consequently, in deep focus the foreground, middle-ground and background are all in focus.

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The opposite of deep focus is shallow focus, in which only one plane of the image is in focus.

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In the cinema, Orson Welles and his cinematographer Gregg Toland were the two individuals most responsible for popularizing deep focus. Their film, Citizen Kane (1941), is a textbook of possible uses of the technique.

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However, cinematic deep focus did not originate with Welles or end with him. Film-makers such as Erich von Stroheim and Jean Renoir experimented with the technique in the 1920s and 1930s. And director William Wyler also favored deep focus in the late 1940s and 1950s ? as can be seen in his post-World War II drama, The Best Years of Our Lives, from 1946. French film critic Andr? Bazin championed deep focus as a major advance in the realism of the cinema and singled out The Best Years of Our Lives for analysis in his influential collection of essays, What Is Cinema?

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Depth-of-field: In optics, particularly film and photography, the depth of field (DOF) is the distance in front of and behind the subject which appears to be in focus. For any given lens setting, there is only one distance at which a subject is precisely in focus, but focus falls off gradually on either side of tha...

Orson Welles: George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) is generally considered one of Hollywood's greatest directors, as well as a fine actor, broadcaster and screenwriter. His first feature film, Citizen Kane (1941), is universally acknowledged as an important step in the history of cinema and ...

Gregg Toland: Gregg Toland (May 29, 1904 – September 26, 1948) was an extremely accomplished and highly influential American cinematographer, noted for his innovative use of lighting and techniques such as deep focus, an example of which can be found in his work on Orson Welles' Citizen_Kane....

Deep focus related Images and Photos (experimental)

Focus	Focus	Deep Red	Deep Blue
Deep South	Deep Cover (DVD)	Deep Valley	Deep Impact
Deep Rising	Deep Rising	Deep Purple	Deep Throat