Shallow focus: Shallow focus is a cinematographic technique incorporating a small depth of field. In shallow focus, one plane of the scene is in focus while the rest is out of focus. Shallow focus is typically used to emphasize one part of the image over another. For example in the movie Red Lights, this character (Tom Buckley) is in focus and the main attention, while the background is blurred indicating the audiences focus onto him.

Deep focus: Deep focus is a cinematographic technique using a large depth of field. Depth of field is the front-to-back range of focus in an image, or how much of it appears sharp and clear. In deep focus, the foreground, middle ground, and background are all in focus.