We were given time to carry out further exploration and investigation on areas we wish to pursue to for our final assessment.

A fellow classmate and I decided to carry out some experiments and play around with different depth of field and how to achieve the nice bokeh around the subject. There were quite a number of variables, type of shot, focal length, camera zoom, as well as getting the right exposure. We had to maintain a constant and just play around with 1 variable, ie. a same shot with different focal lengths. Hence we tried several set ups as follows.

  1. Close up shot, Long focal length, camera lens zoomed in
  2. Close up shot, short focal length, camera lens zoomed out
  3. Close up shot, long focal length, camera lens zoomed out (we decided to skip this, as it would mean the shot would become a wide shot)
  4. Close up shot, short focal length, camera lens zoomed in (we skipped this set up as well, as it would have become an extreme close up on the subject)

So obviously, with different variables, we have different outcomes. After transferring the footage into my computer and going through them in post, the results turns out that in set up #1, we have a very nice blur of the surrounding around the subject, which is actually what we aimed from the beginning. However as we pulled out the zoom from the camera, and have a shorter focal length, there seem to have more detail on the surroundings, and they appear to be more in focus as compared to the first set up.

This concludes that in order to have a nice bokeh look around the subject as most cinematographers would like their shots to have more texture and layers, they would have to set up their camera further away from their subject and zoom in on them from the camera. The aperture should be kept constant to achieve the right exposure, however, if need be, the scene should be lighted up if there isn’t enough light entering the camera.

While I was going through the footage, I decided to grade them as well to see how the colours could be enhanced in an objective point of view. I understand that colour grading can be really subjective depending on the mood of the scene or the director’s wishes, but I tried to be as neutral as possible to bring out the colours a little more and balancing the contrast between highlights and shadows, blacks and whites. I did not want to dive into applying too much colour or over do it, as it would be how I would want it to be and no longer and objective standpoint. Decided to sweep through the before and after grading to show the contrast and how much colour could be enhanced to make a shot more aesthetic. My next step to aim for would be experimenting adding different colours into the highlights, mid tones, and shadows, and see how the image would turn out from there.