Focal Shift
- focus pull
- slow rack
- snap rack
- multiple rack
The focus moves from one plane to another inside the shot.
Opens a video model with the prompt in it. The price is on the page before you sign in.
What it is for
The sharp plane travels between two distances inside the shot, so the frame reveals in stages. What was a soft shape at the back becomes the subject.
Rack focus, focal shift and focus change are close relatives, and crews use the names loosely. This catalogue keeps focal shift for the move described by its distances: near plane to far plane, or the reverse.
How it works
Two focus marks, one throw between them. The lens travels from the first distance to the second at a chosen speed while the camera holds its frame.
The band of sharpness has to be thin enough that the trip is visible. That means a wide aperture, or a long lens, or a camera close enough that the two planes are genuinely far apart in focus terms.
Order is a decision. Starting far and arriving near pulls the audience toward the camera. Starting near and arriving far opens the shot outward.
Most lenses breathe. The focal length changes a little as the focus ring travels, so the framing grows or shrinks slightly during the pull. Cine lenses are built to suppress it and stills lenses usually are not, which is why a shift on a stills lens looks like a small zoom.
When to use it
Use it to reveal depth in a frame that looked flat, and to move attention between two distances that a cut would separate.
Leave it out when both planes should be readable together. A shot that has to be compared at both distances wants deep focus instead.
Told apart from its neighbours
Rack focus is the same physical move under a name that stresses the decisiveness of the throw. Focal shift is the name that stresses the two planes it travels between.
In practice they are interchangeable on a shot list. If the wording matters to you, use rack focus when the speed is the point, and focal shift when the geometry is.
The prompt
Replace the blanks, keep the rest. Then run it on a video model.
focus shifting from <near subject> to <far subject> within the shot, one going soft as the other sharpens
What goes wrong
The pull lands at random, because the model has only one plane to work with. Name both planes and which one comes first, exactly as the entry says.
The second failure is a shift with no visible change, which happens when the depth is too deep. Ask for a wide aperture and say the first plane goes soft as the second sharpens.
Leave out
fixed focus, deep focus
Watch for
Name both planes and which comes first. Otherwise the pull lands at random.
Questions
Shoot it
Pay for the one run. No subscription, and the price is on the model page before you sign in.
