ENDA Episode 101→ The time when ENDA shares the importance of depth of field (Part 2)

In a previous episode, we saw how Depth of Field (DoF) can help integrate better the elements in a comp (or give away their fakeness).

But how do we shape it when we’re dropping CG into a plate or rebuilding a clean plate? Let’s start with the first two levers in the cinematographer’s kit-bag.

𝗙𝗼𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝘁𝗵
Wide lenses (24 mm, 35 mm) gives you more DoF and a bigger focus range (the area in focus), which gives more elements in focus. While telephoto lenses (85 mm, 135 mm) slims the focus range and gives less elements to focus. In other words, the longer the lens, the shallower the DoF.

𝗔𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲
Then comes the iris. Open it wide—f /1.4, f /2.8—and you flood the sensor with light while squeezing the focus range into a thin slice. Stop down to f /16 or f /22 and the focus sheet thickens; more of the frame sits in acceptable sharpness.

Watch the GIF below: the focus hugs the foreground character while the background and the second actor melt away. When our protagonist steps back, she drifts into softness—proof that DoF isn’t a hard line but a gradual fade from sharp to blur.

These two factors (lens length + aperture) dance together on set, and we need to match their result in comp. Get them wrong and even a perfect key feels pasted on.

But we’ve only covered half the equation. Subject distance and sensor size still influence the DoF, but that’s for another episode.

The journey continues…