If you lean on f/1.8 blur every time you want depth, you are missing what actually makes an image feel three-dimensional. This video shows how to build that depth so your frames feel like spaces you could stand inside instead of flat postcards.
Coming to you from Max Kent, this thoughtful video starts with a familiar habit: shooting everything wide open and calling it “cinematic.” Kent admits he did the same thing until studying cinematography forced him to notice that real movies rarely rely on extreme blur to feel immersive. Instead, he points out how depth in film often comes from the way light and shadow play across faces, walls, and objects in the scene. You see that separation between subject and background is not only about aperture, but about how much of the subject sits in light compared with shade. Kent uses that as a bridge between motion work and still images so you can start applying the same ideas any time you pick up a camera.
Kent then focuses on “layers of light” as one of the main tools you can control. He breaks down a portrait where the part of the subject closest to the camera is in shadow, followed by light, then shadow again, then another patch of light, and finally the softer ambient light of the background. Even at something like f/4 or f/5.6, the image feels deep because your eye walks through these layers one at a time instead of sliding over a flat surface. Kent also shows how his own talking head setup uses a key light, a darker far side of his face, and small accents and shadows behind him to create depth even when he is not using a very shallow depth of field. Once you see those light layers in his examples, you start noticing them in everyday scenes on the street or in your home.
From there, Kent moves into spatial layers: foreground, midground, and background. In a midday scene from Sorrento, with harsh overhead sun and very little helpful shadow, he shows how a busy harbor and car in the foreground, the sea in the middle, and Mount Vesuvius in the distance still create a strong sense of depth. He then takes you to a classic Golden Gate Bridge shot where foreground elements frame the bridge and give you an entry point into the image instead of leaving you floating above the scene. A desert window photograph pushes the idea further, with the window frame and curtain placing you inside the room, looking out at the landscape rather than staring at a plain vista. Kent also talks about using out-of-focus foreground chunks at the edge of the frame, like a bridge wall or a strip of negative space, to partially obscure the scene and build tension along with depth. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Kent.
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