Focal lengths and camera angle theory

[Martin Von M]

Any good articles on the web or book with a focal lengths and camera angle theory in practice? Let's say i want to shoot close up or extreme close up, simple dialogue scene or a fight scene and etc. What distance should i keep from a subject and what focal lengths are essential for certain scenes with a APS-C (1.6 crop factor) sensor.

Thanks

 

[David Mullen ASC]

There are examples of different shot sizes being done on different focal lengths -- close-ups done on wide-angle lenses and wide shots done on telephoto lenses. You could even do both close-ups and wide shots on the same focal length lens. There aren't really any rules per se, it's more of a stylistic issue and a practicality issue. You can look on field of view charts to see what sort of shot sizes you get at different distances with different focal lengths.

When you are talking about shooting action, keep in mind that wide-angle lenses increase the sense of forward/backward (in and out) motion during a tracking shot and telephoto lenses increase the sense of sideways motion during a pan. A good example of this is the scene near the end of "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" when Eli Wallach searches the cemetery for the grave with the gold buried in it -- the cemetery is arranged in a circle and he runs around the circle starting from the center and working his way to the outer rings, so as the sequence builds, the shots panning him around in a 360 degree arc use increasingly longer and longer lenses, so the shots get more and more abstracted with motion blur.

I'm going to make a wild guess here, but let's say that Leone was using a 25-250mm Ang. zoom for this scene and the wide shot was at 25mm (probably wider than that but let's just say that for now):

Maybe this was around 100mm:

And this was around 250mm:

 

[Richard Foster]

Start with looking at some classic old films shot on the LS, MS, CU formula using 25, 50, 75 mm lenses from the same camera position. Consider their framing choices and observe the results. Then contrast that with the modern constantly moving camera whether on a technocrane or steadicam or other combination and observe that rationale. Then make your own judgements and decisions.

Also remember that lens focal length is simply the magnification factor for any given camera placement. Where you see from determines distortion or lack of it and emotional impact. The focal length determines at what size you see the image.

And also remember that this is just a small piece of the puzzle. Look at great paintings and great photographs and great films. Then decide what will tell your story the best. There is no single right answer.

 

[Antony M]

Very interesting article in the June 2010 issue of American Cinematographer magazine, where Jean-Pierre Jeunet jokes "My telephoto lens is a 35mm!"

Because his style involves using very wide lenses for almost everything/