How To Pull Focus Cinematography

A key part of any successful cinematographer is his or her ability to pull focus. An easy way to understand how to do this is by thinking about how your own eyes work. When you look away from something, it takes some time for your eye to stop focusing on that thing and instead focus somewhere else.

When shooting a movie, there are often times where the camera will remain still while the actors perform. This is called static filming. To keep our example going, say someone is walking towards the camera slowly with their hands in their pocket. The person walking can be you, an actor performing a scene, or even the director!

The trick is being able to hold your gaze as long as possible on one place before moving on to the next. This is what it’s like when we wake up in the morning and don’t move until lunchtime- we spend most of the day staring at the same spot. It helps us start the day on good foot and ourselves as people who are very focused.

There are three main types of pull focus used in filmmaking. They are known as hand-held, dolly forward, and crane shots. Each type requires different ways of pulling off the effect but they all use the same concept: starting out with no background content.

This article will go into more detail about each type and how to achieve them.

Find your perfect lighting setup

A soft, ambient light is ideal for most still life pictures. The setting sun works well in this style of photography.

Using off-camera lights or using reflectors to brighten up the space can add depth and dimension to your photo. By doing this, you do not have to worry about getting warm shadows under the skin of the object being photographed.

A key part of pulling focus cinematographically is having a camera with enough megapixels to allow for some digital manipulation. This way, you can slightly blur out parts of the photograph to create the pull focus effect!

General tips: when shooting a still life, remember to be careful with all of your gear. Make sure everything is safe and locked away so that no one could accidentally touch it or move it without permission. Also, make sure nothing is left behind! You do not want to miss anything important because something was lost during transport.

Use reflectors

A very common way to pull focus is using a bounce-back light or reflection device. This can be done with regular old white paper, bright objects such as a mirror, or more advanced products like softboxes and panel lights.

A bounce-back light creates a brighter area of light by bouncing some rays back towards the source. In this case, the source is you (the photographer), so it helps make your image look more in shape and proportion.

Using a mirror is one of the most basic types of bounce-back light because anyone has them! You can use clear glass or silver foil lined cardboard boxes as mirrors. Simply position the mirror so that the sun bounces off of it and onto another object or person.

Using an angled mirror is another way to create additional depth for your photos. It’s easier to understand than describe, just search ‘how to use an angle mirror in photography’ online. 🙂

The difference in tone and intensity between both ends of the beam are what really makes this type of light work well. Bouncing the light off of a non-transparent surface removes any haze from the light, which sometimes gets lost when it hits a darker area.

These two points alone make bounce-backs worth experimenting with! If you are ever struggling to find ways to do this, try looking through our student accounts to see if anything jumps out - we probably have something laying around the studio we could give away :).

Use a green screen

A pull focus is when part of the background or scenery is removed, leaving only your subject in frame. This gives the effect as if the scene you are watching was you versus the rest of the world, creating an interesting dynamic.

To create a pull focus in Photoshop, first make sure that the file size is below 2GB. Then open up a new document and name it something like ‘Green Screen Test’. Now, go into Image\Adjustments\Levels and drag Normalize down until all three boxes are fully completed.

Next, go back into Camera\Lens and resize the Lens Width slightly so there is no box at 100%. Once done, go into Background Settings and choose Tile Reflection. Make this layer very thin (about 5 pixels) and position it behind the Subject Layer.

Use a gradient background

A focus-losing element is when the setting of the scene shifts and becomes less prominent as it recedes into the distance. This is typically done with a natural light source or off camera light that fades as it is covered up by either the subject or the surrounding scenery.

A common way to use this in cinematography is to have an empty, white backdrop with some ambient lighting. This setting can be replicated in everyday life; for example, if you are reading this article then there is a very important part where I drop the ball and lose my focus. When I get back online, I will reacquire my focus by looking at the settings around me.

There’s a whole genre of photography called landscape photography which revolves around using such neutral backgrounds and indirect sunlight to gain your respect as a photographer. Landscape photographers are known for their ability to pull out all the stops to achieve a beautiful shot, but their luscious shots were not accidental - they spent lots of time planning the picture!

Landscapes are notoriously difficult to take because you need perfect weather, a good amount of sun, and a wide open area beyond the subjects for a nice soft light. If any one of these isn’t present, then the photograph is probably going to look weird.

Use a different background

A few tips about using backgrounds as a way to pull focus are adding some blur, changing up the tone or color of the background, and moving or replacing the foreground element that is in focus.

The first two ideas mentioned above have been covered already so we will look at the third one now. This one seems pretty simple but it can be very powerful when used correctly.

What you want to do is move or replace the main focal point of your image. In this case, it is the person in the frame with the eye looking down into the camera. By choosing a new background, they get drawn away from the lens creating an effect like someone pulling focus.

This can work for several reasons. For example, if the person has something important to tell us then they could shift the focus onto what they have to say. Or maybe they just wanted a break from talking!

In either case, you got their attention (focus)! You also gave yourself some creative leeway to shoot whatever you wanted because you changed the background.

Tell your friends about pull focus

A pull focus is when the camera directly faces someone or something, but an object (or person) comes into frame later. It’s usually done for dramatic effect, like when a gun is pulled out or someone gets hit with a baseball bat.

The concept of pull focus was first used in filmmaking back in 1902 by George Albert Smith. He would put his subject close to the lens and then move the camera away from them so that it became increasingly wider. This was one of the very first examples of what we now know as panning.

In recent years, filmmakers have incorporated pull focus more frequently. Some use it for creating eye-catching visuals and/or enhancing the suspense of a scene. There are many ways to do this!

And while most people associate pull focus with having a closer subject, you can also have an object come forward for a pull focus shot. For example, if a person is sitting at a table talking, they could get up and walk around the edge, bringing them closer to the lens and thus using pull focus.

There are several types of pull focuses, such as vertical, horizontal, circular, and even triangle. Each one has its own unique look and feel, which makes creative thinking about how to use it appropriate.

Use a wide lens

A pull focus is when the camera actively or naturally focuses onto someone, something, or both. This can be done with a wider lens!
A wider angle lens will have you start shooting more close up. It’ll feel natural and easy to use because of this.

There are two main reasons to use a wide-angle shot. The first is scale. When photographing people, things become easier if you use a wide lens. You can get closer for sharper pictures and it looks good!

The second is emphasis. By having a wider lens, what you put in the frame becomes bigger. So instead of having only your friend as the focus, they and the rest of the scene comes together as one entity.

Use a camera with a shallow depth of field

A key part of pulling focus in cinematography is using a device or tool that has a very short effective focal length- this means your lens must be close to your subject!

A device with an extremely long focal length can be used to create a wide, background-blurring effect, but this isn’t helpful for defining close-up shots. A device with a medium-length focal length can help pull off some cool effects, such as adding fake bokeh by moving it closer to and farther away from your subject.

However, our recommendation is to use something with a really short focal length- typically only one stop beyond what your lens was originally designed to do! This gives you much more control over how much defocusing you want to add to your images, and helps make your pictures look more aesthetically pleasing.

There are many ways to achieve this include holding a plate up next to your model, having them hold a piece of paper up against a wall, or asking them to put their face right next to the glass of a window.