If you’ve ever been confused about the concept of Depth of Field (DOF) and achieving a shallow depth of field cinematic look, you gotta see this.

The purpose for using a shallow depth of field, is to isolate or draw attention to specific things (in focus) while excluding other stuff (out of focus) – this is a great way to direct your viewer’s attention, and also to hide stuff in the background that either doesn’t belong (e.g. anachronistic) or would be distracting.

If you don’t have a camera yet, DSLRs offer great control of your depth of field, whereas prosumer camcorders like my HVX200 require a 35mm adapter, or, like this video shows a simple trick (provided you have enough room for it).Or, in post, you can use After Effects to rotoscope the person/subject, and apply a lens blur effect to the background. I did this in my romantic short, Perseverance, which is almost out.

Camcorders, of course, have everything you need built-in, including audio, to make a film. DSLRs need external audio.

So, without further ado, here’s the video:

DoF Demystified from Videopia on Vimeo.