Shallow focus is a photographic and cinematographic technique incorporating a small depth of field. In shallow focus one plane of the image is in focus while the rest is out of focus. Shallow focus is typically used to emphasize one part of the image over another. Photographers sometimes refer to the aesthetic character of the area that is out of focus as bokeh.
The opposite of shallow focus is deep focus, in which the entire image is in focus.
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The effect can be obtained by a wider aperture, a close viewpoint, or using a longer focal length lens from a greater distance. A tilt lens can be used, in the opposite way to that used to increase depth of focus. There are even adapters that allow lenses from 35mm cine cameras to be used on smaller film and digital formats.
In the film, The Rules of the Game (1939), a couple flirts in the foreground while the woman's husband enters in the background. Director Jean Renoir chooses to keep the husband out-of-focus so that his presence is hinted, but not emphasized.