Shallow DOF- Overuse?
 

In looking at a lot of 5D footage that folks are posting I seem to notice an overuse of Shallow DOF. Its probably a natural tendency given its been such a coveted look for so long. So wondering what everyone else thinks. The 5D opens up a whole new world for us videographers in terms of shot/lens selection. I know I have a lot to learn to best utilize what we now have in our hands. I find myself obsessed now when watching television taking note of when and how DOF is used and what lenses they may be using for a particular shot. Any thoughts?

Art

I have to agree, it's often abused. I notice people do the same thing with 35mm adapters. It can be very distracting.

There is a time when it works and a time when it just does not.

The posts I have seen thus far seem to emphasize the night time abilities more than anything else. My recent post in another thread had three different angles. While one angle demonstrated the DofF characteristics, that was not predominant. This camera is amazing because it pushed video to a new level, which includes low light performance and 35mm "film like" capabilities in terms of lens selection. The shallow depth of field naturally accompanies that, just as 35mm film cameras will.

I'm not sure what you are seeing is so much a reflection of "overuse," as it is a reflection that the mostly-undefeatable autoexposure program of the 5D2 most often tends to try to open the aperture up. Just take a sampling of vimeo 5D2 videos, and the great majority indoors = shallow DOF, and the great majority outside are deep DOF. You have to be actively trying to defeat the camera's program to do anything else in those environments don't you? Something that's not easily done without lots of lights indoors or lots of NDs outdoors. No?

I think it will be definitely overused if it's not already -- after many years of being stuck with infinite DOF via so many small-chip DV cameras, we finally get big CMOS chips. It's understandable that people will go a little nuts with DOF that's 1/3". Look!!!! Bokeh!!!

That said, shallow or deep DOF does not a good story make. If we can get some decent manual controls on the 5dMkII, then the OPTION to have shallow DOF will be great -- just because one CAN doesn't mean one SHOULD.

Everyone should be using Dutch Tilts instead.

I don't see any harm.

It is like when the HVX came out and every single shot had to be overcranked/slo-mo. Novelty is fun. Then it wears off and just becomes another tool in the shed.

Dutch Tilts were a bit worse. They were so overused in the 50's that no one used them for 50 years. Now they are starting to show up again, like in "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas".

You should see Fear and Loathing In the Netherlands... Dutch tilts like crazy.

LOL (I hate LOL. Let me change that to VERY FUNNY).

Slumdog.





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but...but...but... The leaves in my parent's backyard look soooooo much better at 1.4 :P </sarcasm>

What do you guys mean by Dutch shots?

A Dutch Shot is when you tilt the camera (rotate it so one side is higher than the other). When you do this and you do a cut you have to tilt the opposite direction each cut for obvious reasons. Think of a film noire detective looking at the dead body on the ground, with the picture tilted.

The original name was Deutsch Tilt because the German cinema started it in the 40's, but it got bastardized to Dutch.

Check Wikipedia.

go watch any student film ever made.

LOL! Excellent

You haven't seen anything yet. Wait till my camera gets here.

Hello to all, this is my second post here!

Me and my wife work for a short-film festival, so I get to see 400-500 short-films every year. There is people who is abusing low DOF, there are shorts that have barely anything in focus!!! ;-))

But most directors insteed are doing a good use in short-films.

In Vimeo and YouTube videos of the 5D mkII, the low DOF is used and abused, but it's normal. They do it because they CAN! ;-DD

Hey, don't knock it. Most Vimeo videos have no story. All they're left with is "this looks cool." In fact, I'm in the process of making one for the music store where my daughter works. The premise is simply, "this music store has cool stuff in it." I'll edit it to music by the owner or one of the employees. I don't have a steadycam, tracks, or a crane, so for motion I'm using lots of focus effects. It's DOF city.

You can't use DOF to distract from the story when there isn't one. :)

I wouldn't say that Dutch angles are a recent fashion, they came into fashion again over 15 years ago. They seem to be a bit out of fashion in recent years, although Slumdog has quite a few.

Shallow DOF effects came quite fashionable nearly 20 years ago in commercials etc.

These visual devices tend to go in cycles, perhaps zooms will come back in again as well.

It's the unmotivated use of them that's the problem, well thought out use helps to serve the story, unfortunately over use can be a distraction. If you're you so absorbed by the photographic effect rather than the subject matter, if there's no emotional connection other than it looks great perhaps you are over using the visual device.

;-DDD

That's exactly the point, as long as you are "experimenting", you do it with what you lacked before. But when you have something to "say", it's better to not use always 1cm of focus in all your shots!!! ;-DD