Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Camera Types
Camera Types
Shot size
● Wide shot/long shot: It’s used to focus on the subject while still
showing the scene the subject is in.
● Medium shot: This shot shows the subject from the knees up, and is
often referred to as the 3/4 shot.
● Medium close-up shot: The subject fills the frame with this shot, and
it is somewhere between a medium close-up and close-up.
● Close up shot: This shot shows emotions and detailed reactions, with
the subject filling the entire frame.
● Choker shot: A typical choker shot shows the subject’s face from just
above the eyebrows to just below their mouth and is between a close-
up and extreme close-up.
● Extreme close-up shot: This shot shows the detail of an object, such
as one a character is handling, or person, such as just their eyes or
moving lips.
● Full shot: A full shot is similar to a wide shot except that it focuses on
the character in the frame, showing them from head to toe.
● Cowboy shot: This is similar to the medium shot except that the
character is shown from the hips or waist up.
● Establishing shot: This is a long shot at the beginning of a scene that
shows objects, buildings, and other elements of a setting from a
distance to establish where the next sequence of events takes place.
Shot framing
● Lead room: the amount of space between the character and the sides
of the frame.
● Head room: the amount of space between the head of the character
and the top of the frame.
Depth of field
● Focus pull, where you focus the lens to keep the subject within an
acceptable focus range.
● Rack focus, where the focus is more aggressively shifted from subject
A to subject B.
● Tilt-shift, where parts of the image are in focus while other parts are
out of focus. Usually done with a tilt-shift lens.
● Deep focus, when both the subject and the environment are in focus.
● Shallow focus, where the subject is crisp and in focus while the
background is out of focus.
Camera placement
● Eye-level shot: This is when the camera is placed at the same height
as the eyes of characters.
● Low angle shot: This shot frames the subject from a low height, often
used to emphasize differences in power between characters.
● High angle shot: This is when the subject is framed with the camera
looking down at them.
● Birds-eye-view shot/overhead shot: This is a shot taken from way
above the subject, usually including a significant amount of the
surrounding environment to create a sense of scale or movement.
● Aerial shot/helicopter shot: Taken from way up high, this shot is
usually done from a drone or helicopter to establish the expanse of the
surrounding landscape.
● Cut-in shot: This type of shot cuts into the action on the screen to
offer a different view of something happening in this main scene.
● Cutaway shot: As shot that cuts away from the main action on the
screen, it’s used to focus on secondary action and add more
information for greater understanding for the audience.
● Master shot: A long shot that captures most or all of the action
happening in a scene.
● Deep focus: A shot that keeps everything in the screen in sharp
focus, including the foreground, background, and middle ground.
● Locked-down shot: With this shot, the camera is fixed in one position
and the action continues off-screen.
● Library shot: Pre-existing film of a location that’s pulled from a library.
● Matte shot: A shot that incorporates action in the foreground with a
background that is created on a computer.
● Money shot: An expensive shot that is designed to startle or wow the
audience.
● Top shot: A shot that looks directly down at a scene. Also known as a
birds-eye-view shot.
Camera movement
● Zoom Shot, which involves changing the focal length of the lens to
zoom in or out during filming.
● Pan shot, which involves moving the camera from side to side to show
something to the audience or help them better follow the sequence of
events.
● Tilt shot, similar to a pan shot, except moving the camera up and
down.
● Dolly shot, where the camera is attached to a dolly that moves on
tracks and can possibly move up and down.
● Truck shot, where you move the entire camera on a fixed point and
the motion goes from side to side.
● Pedestal shot, where the entire camera is moved vertically, not just
the angle of view, and is often combined with panning and/or tilting.
Camera mechanisms
Source: Types of Film Shots: 80+ Shots You Must Know - NFI