{
 "slug": "shallow-focus",
 "name": "Shallow depth of field",
 "category": "focus",
 "group": "Depth of field",
 "media": [
  "image",
  "video"
 ],
 "checked": "2026-10-13",
 "effect": "Isolates the subject from a soft background; attention goes exactly where you want.",
 "use_when": "Portraits, product hero shots, interviews.",
 "phrase": "shallow depth of field, her eyes sharp, the café behind her a soft blur of shapes and lights",
 "pitfalls": [
  {
   "text": "For stills, practitioners write a full capture line with an aperture (35mm, f/1.8); a 2025 study for Midjourney found f-stops ignored and plain words (blurred background) working. Plain words first, the number as support.",
   "evidence": "practitioner",
   "source": "Dan Kieft (1 Sep 2026) via Director Chair field notes on image prompting; Midjourney mapping in our own notes (2025, to audit)"
  }
 ],
 "per_model": [
  {
   "model": "nano-banana-pro",
   "phrase": "Employ a wide aperture of f/1.8 to create a shallow depth of field, rendering the background in soft, creamy bokeh while keeping the subject razor-sharp.",
   "evidence": "unverified",
   "checked": "2025-12-08"
  }
 ],
 "external_refs": [],
 "licensed": [],
 "site_names": [],
 "related": [
  "deep-focus",
  "bokeh",
  "portrait-lens"
 ],
 "rights": "own-work",
 "evidence": "film-craft",
 "source": {
  "url": null,
  "note": "The first Director Chair spec, own words"
 },
 "body": "",
 "shown_with": null,
 "url": "https://directorchair.ai/focus/shallow-focus",
 "markdown": "https://directorchair.ai/focus/shallow-focus.md",
 "prompts": {
  "nano-banana-pro": "[your subject] in [your setting].\nCapture: Employ a wide aperture of f/1.8 to create a shallow depth of field, rendering the background in soft, creamy bokeh while keeping the subject razor-sharp",
  "nano-banana-2": "[your subject] in [your setting].\nCapture: Employ a wide aperture of f/1.8 to create a shallow depth of field, rendering the background in soft, creamy bokeh while keeping the subject razor-sharp",
  "gpt-image": "A photograph of [your subject] in [your setting].\nDetails: shallow depth of field, the subject's eyes sharp, the café behind the subject a soft blur of shapes and lights\nExclusions: no extra text, no watermark, no logo.",
  "seedream-5": "[your subject] in [your setting].\nCapture: shallow depth of field, the subject's eyes sharp, the café behind the subject a soft blur of shapes and lights",
  "seedance-2.5": "Scene: [your subject] in [your setting].\nShot 1 (0:00 to 0:05): one continuous shot\nOptics and camera: Shallow depth of field, the subject's eyes sharp, the café behind the subject a soft blur of shapes and lights.",
  "seedance-2.0": "Scene: [your subject] in [your setting].\nShot 1: one continuous shot\nOptics and camera: Shallow depth of field, the subject's eyes sharp, the café behind the subject a soft blur of shapes and lights.",
  "kling-3": "[your subject]. The scene is [your setting]. Shallow depth of field, the subject's eyes sharp, the café behind the subject a soft blur of shapes and lights.",
  "veo-3.1": "Shallow depth of field, the subject's eyes sharp, the café behind the subject a soft blur of shapes and lights. [your subject] in [your setting]. Framing and subject stay as in the start image."
 },
 "licence": {
  "code": "MIT",
  "text": "CC BY 4.0",
  "third_party": "Clips and card texts inside a \"licensed\" block belong to their makers and are shown with permission and credit."
 }
}