April 1994
Beginner
224 pages
6h 9m
English
Close shots can show details of large objects, or provide magnified views of smaller ones. But they bring their headaches, and it is as well for the director to appreciate their limitations.
As the camera gets closer, the available depth of field diminishes. So it may not be possible to hold the subject in sharp focus overall. Instead, you can only focus on the most important plane, leaving the rest unsharp. (You can overcome this problem by taking a longer shot, or stopping the lens down, but each remedy has its drawbacks.) To focus as sharply as possible on small items, they should be held quite still, preferably resting on a firm surface at a prearranged mark.
Cameras cannot focus on subjects closer than ...
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