By Ben Harris

Camera Shots and Angles

Extreme Long Shot: A wider frame value in which subjects in the frame are small; a building, cityscape.

Extreme Close-Up: a certain feature, such as someone's head, takes up the whole frame. The shot is so tight that only a detail of the subject, such as someone's eyes, can be seen.

Long shot: Includes an amount of picture within the frame which roughly corresponds to the audience's view of the area within the proscenium arch of the legitimate theater.

Camera Shots

Medium Long Shot: Frames the whole subject from the knees up. An intermediate shot between the long shot and the medium shot. Shows the subject in relation to the surroundings.

Full shot: A type of long shot which includes the human body in full, with the head near the top of the frame and the feet near the bottom

Close-up, Close shot: A detailed view of a person or object, usually without much context provided.

Medium full shot: A shot which cuts off at the knees and just above the head

Medium Shot: a camera shot in which the subject is in the middle distance, permitting some of the background to be seen.

Medium close shot: Falls just above the waist and just above the head

Big Close Up: This is full head height and the head takes up the entire screen. It contains little or no background. This shows the detail of the character’s face.

Head Close Up: Bottom of frame cuts of the neck and the top cuts off just above the head. Not a common shot, sometimes used in horror

High angle shot: A shot in which the subject is photographed from above. Shows the subject as having a lack of power.

Low angle shot: A shot in which the subject is photographed from below. Shows the subject as being powerful.

Canted angle: a type of camera shot where the camera is set at an angle on its roll axis so that the shot is composed with vertical lines at an angle to the side of the frame, it is often used to represent someone being drunk or in distress.

Camera Angles

Bird's eye view: A shot in which the camera photographs a scene from directly overhead.

A worm's-eye view: is a view of an object from below, as though the observer were a worm; the opposite of a bird's-eye view. A worm's eye view is used commonly for third perspective, with one vanishing point on top, one on the left, and one on the right.

Point of view: This shot shows a view from the subject's perspective. It is usually edited in such a way that it is obvious whose POV it is