Depth of Field Quotes

I became interested in photography when I found my own sketching was inadequate.

Photography is the simplest thing in the world, but it is incredibly complicated to make it really work.

Cinema is a matter of what's in the frame and what's out.

I love the luxury of the camera. The camera does so much for you. I like the secrets a camera can tell.

I'm not a photographer, so I didn't get into F-stops or ND filters or background, foreground, cross-light, all that stuff. But I was interested in the camera and the lenses. That's the world that I'm moving in, in terms of acting and giving a performance.

The things that are close to you are the things you can photograph the best.

Photography has always been a passion of mine, but I began to study light field photography when I was in the Ph.D. program at Stanford University.

The lens is a tyranny.

The less the camera is able to capture what you're seeing in a scene, the more editing it needs.

A small lens gives you a very specific look. You don't have a shallow depth of field.

I am a big fan of photography, more of being behind the camera - so when I get the opportunity to work with such great photographers, I always try and learn from their technique.

When a regular camera focuses physically, what the regular camera is doing is adjusting the lens relative to the sensor to bring different parts of the scene into focus.

If I have to point to something specific with the way I move my camera, I love to do it with a wide lens. I like to show you as much of the space as I can, even if I'm following a character.

The art of photography is all about directing the attention of the viewer.

I take it very seriously, the photographic craft.

I always think, 'What does this picture mean? What's the best place to put my camera? Do I have anything extra in the picture, things in the background that will distract? Am I in the basic position that will give the essential things for this picture but not too much?'

Most people think of cinematographers as choosing subjects of an epic nature to show off what they do - big, sweeping images of war or pageantry.

I'm not an expert when it comes to technology, but what changed things for me was autofocus. I used to have to throw away half my pictures because it was so difficult to get the focus right.

If your pictures are not good enough, it’s because you are not close enough.

I seldom think when I take a picture. My eyes and fingers react - click. But first, it's most important to decide on the angle at which your photograph is to be taken.

Basically, with a regular camera, you have to take time or allow the camera to focus before you take the shot.

I think most of our eyes are trained to background being completely out of focus, but you can't do that with an iPhone unless you manipulate it quite a lot in post. You have to accept the fact that your film is going to look a little different on the big screen. Even though the resolution holds up, it does have something very different about it.

If you look at classic Hollywood films, they tend to shoot close-ups on quite long lenses and the background it out of focus. You know, it's just a mush.

The first light-field camera array I saw at Stanford had a bunch of applications, like to do special effects like you see in 'The Matrix,' where you spin the camera around in frozen motion. It took up an entire room.

For a cinematographer, every frame has to be important.