# Rack focus

Camera / Focus and depth / Focus change. Checked 2026-10-13.

Moves the viewer's attention from one thing to another inside one shot.

- Use when: Revealing a second person, from product to user, a quiet twist.
- Phrase: rack focus: the cup in the foreground blurs as she, sitting behind it, comes into sharp focus
- Page: https://directorchair.ai/focus/rack-focus
- JSON: https://directorchair.ai/api/focus/rack-focus.json

## Watch out

- Give the trigger and explain the term in plain words: after he sits down, the foreground blurs as the background sharpens. (practitioner; Dan Kieft (1 Sep 2026) via Director Chair field notes on video prompting)

## Prompts

### Seedance 2.5

```
Scene: [your subject] in [your setting].
Shot 1 (0:00 to 0:05): one continuous shot
Optics and camera: Rack focus: the cup in the foreground blurs as the subject, sitting behind it, comes into sharp focus.
```

### Seedance 2.0

```
Scene: [your subject] in [your setting].
Shot 1: one continuous shot
Optics and camera: Rack focus: the cup in the foreground blurs as the subject, sitting behind it, comes into sharp focus.
```

### Kling 3.0

```
[your subject]. The scene is [your setting]. Rack focus: the cup in the foreground blurs as the subject, sitting behind it, comes into sharp focus.
```

### Veo 3.1

```
Rack focus: the cup in the foreground blurs as the subject, sitting behind it, comes into sharp focus. [your subject] in [your setting]. Framing and subject stay as in the start image.
```

## Goes well with

- Shallow depth of field: https://directorchair.ai/focus/shallow-focus

## Source

Director Chair field notes on video prompting

Text CC BY 4.0, Director Chair (directorchair.ai). Reference clips and their card texts belong to their makers.