Picture composition (2)

Background setting

Placing a person in an appropriate background can greatly affect their apparent integrity. Dress them in a white coat, put them in a laboratory and most people will believe they are intelligent and trustworthy.

Use of different focal lengths

You can change the perceived size of two people by changing the focal length of the lens.

If two people are in a scene together and you shoot them with a tight lens from a fair distance, they appear a similar size on screen. Alternatively, a wider lens can be used and the camera moved closer to the front performer. She is the same size on screen as before, but the background person now appears much smaller, or more distant.

Viewpoint

If we shoot from a low angle ...

Get Basic Studio Directing now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.