technique · 2 recipes
Rack Focus (Focus Pull)
A rack focus deliberately transfers sharpness between two distances during a continuous shot while the composition remains stable.
Selected recipe
Focus Change
Focus Change is a variant of Rack Focus. It retains its own complete execution recipe.
Free short AI video prompt
A starter line you can copy. The full timed recipe, still-image and production prompts are on the shot card.
Prompt rule: Keep both targets visible at distinct, stable depths; change focus between their marked planes in one continuous shot. Preserve camera position, focal length and object geometry; timing may be smooth or rapid.
Rack Focus: A rack focus deliberately transfers sharpness between two distances during a continuous shot while the composition remains stable. Keep the subject readable; motivate camera and light.
Technique guide
- When to use
- First let the audience see the close-up of the developing clip or wedding ring, then make the distant character's reaction the new information.
- How it works
- Place the near object and the distant eye on opposite sides of the frame, with both present from the first frame and without moving forward or backward. Establish a pause with the near part clear and the distant part blurred, then complete a unidirectional focus shift at the speed specified by the variant. After the distant eye comes into focus, hold it and check that the near area has indeed softened rather than the entire frame sharpening together.
- Common mistakes
- The character moves toward the camera, creating changes in apparent sharpness. Only the first and last images or two layers of dissolve cannot prove a focus pull.
How to read this page
Rack Focus (Focus Pull) is one technique in Focus & Depth. The definition states the single mechanism the frame has to show. The technique guide covers when to use it, the steps, the usual mistakes, how it differs from the neighbors, and what a successful take looks like.
The clip above is one reading, made with a third-party video model. Another model, or the same model on another day, can land on a different frame. It is an example, not a promise that a prompt will match it.
The free short prompt is a starter sentence. The shot card is the timed recipe: scene, start and end frames, action, light, and color. Three sample cards are free on the site. The rest are part of GrokCine Pro. A second name for the same shot keeps its own URL and points back at this definition.
When you write a prompt, keep the one mechanism in the definition, then name the subject, the motion, and why the light is there. Do not stack a neighboring technique into the same sentence. If the name or the example is wrong, send this page's URL from the contact page.
Prompt versions
Same technique, different prompts. Version A is the latest prompt; older versions are the exact prompts that kept clips were made from. Each version shows every model that used it.
Version A · latest：Tea taster · steaming kettle in foreground
Version A · Scene of this version (English, verbatim)
A tea-taster in a linen jacket sits 2.5 m back at a tasting table; a steaming kettle stands 0.7 m from the lens at lower left. Both are in frame from the first frame and nobody else is present.
The full prompt of every version comes with the member recipe.
sha256 ddf581f39af2
Recipe
8 seconds · single take
A tea-taster in a linen jacket sits 2.5 m back at a tasting table; a steaming kettle stands 0.7 m from the lens at lower left. Both are in frame from the first frame and nobody else is present.
Shot cards
The full recipe for Focus Change is a shot card
The full recipe for Focus Change is a shot card. The start and end frames, timed action, lighting and color specs, a camera parameter table, copy-ready still-image and video prompts and negatives are open to GrokCine Pro members on the web.
Related families
- Deep Focus (Deep Depth of Field)
Deep Focus (Deep Depth of Field)Deep focus keeps a substantial continuous range of distances legibly sharp within one shot. - Shallow Focus (Shallow Depth of Field)
Shallow Focus (Shallow Depth of Field)Shallow focus restricts the sharp depth range around a chosen subject while nearer and farther distances become soft. - Split Diopter
Split DiopterA split-field close-up attachment focuses one image region nearer while the uncovered region retains a farther focus distance. - Bokeh
BokehBokeh describes the character of defocused detail, including highlight shape and transition edges, rather than merely shallow focus. - Lens Flare
Lens FlareStray light inside the imaging optics creates source-dependent ghosts or veiling glare that changes when the source is blocked. - Double Exposure
Double ExposureTwo image records coexist within the same frame through a controlled blend, instead of trading places as a transition. - Split Screen
Split ScreenTwo separately photographed or generated image fields are visible at the same time within one composed frame.
More in Focus & Depth
References
Sources we studied for this technique. External links; we don't embed them.
Articles & definitions
- Wikipedia: Focus pulling
Wikipedia · Web
Changing focus distance during a shot; rack focus moves attention between subjects.
Videos
- Jurassic Park: triple rack focus with crane and dolly
@vashikoo · 2019-08-29 · X
Jurassic Park triple rack focus.
- The Graduate: a long focus pull
@thethanstephens · 2019-05-05 · X
The Graduate focus pull between Benjamin and Elaine.
- Spielberg/Kaminski withhold the rack focus
@SadHillDevan · 2022-12-30 · X
Spielberg/Kaminski deliberately do not rack to the compositional focal point — focus as storytelling.
- RRR: rack focus shots
@PerfectShotsTFI · 2022-05-21 · X
Rack focus shots in RRR (2022), focus puller Vasa Srinu.
- Hailuo AI: rack focus text-to-video test
@koldo2k · 2024-11-12 · X
Testing rack focus in Hailuo text-to-video, static and moving.