DEEP FOCUS

Those of you who have done courses in film history might be familiar with the cinematography of Greg Toland, particularly his work in Citizen Kane. Deep Focus is a technique associated with the film. It typically uses a wide angle lens with sufficient lighting to provide a wide depth of field, everything sharp and focused from the near foreground, to the middleground and the background. Big expression filled faces are squeezed up against the screen with figures or forms looming behind them as clearly as if the camera was focusing everywhere at once.

In digital photography we can get something similar. It may not always be appropriate to have everything in focus though nowadays if your digital camera is not an SLR it will most likely present everything sharp (scores of Photoshop books can explain to you how to fake a blurred background or component). Still, deep focus is there if you want it and can be friend or foe. In the case of Stripe Photos the foreground can prove useful not only for objects and people but for the recurring motif of your own feet or shadow. This is the "I was there' part of the picture. Here is a Manchester Stone Sculpture and a pair of feet: