The following are the camera elements in any scene:

• Field of View
• Camera Angle
• Camera moves
  • Panning
  • Dolly shot
  • Crane shot
  • Lenses
• Zoom Lenses and the Vertigo Effect
• Depth of Field Effects

Field of View

The Field of View (FOV) is the angle described by a cone with the vertex at the camera's position. It is determined by the camera's focal length, with the shorter the focal length the wider the FOV. For example, for a 35mm lens the FOV is 63 degrees (wide-angle), for a 50 mm lens it is 46 degrees (normal), and for a 135 mm lens it is 18 degrees (telephoto). A wide angle lens exaggerates depth while a telephoto lens minimizes depth differences.

Camera Angle

The camera angle helps to determine the point of view of the camera. This is very important since viewers have seen  much TV or film and this has conditioned them to interpret the cameras "eye level" as containing meaning. Viewers expect the camera to show a level horizon. If the camera is not then  it appears sinister to them. The cameras height above ground level and its angle in relationship to the ground should reflect real-life. A birds eye or worms eye view is unnatural and draws attention to itself. This may be all right if there's a reason. However, it may detract from the content.

For example, in a wide-angle shot the camera is usually in position of a viewer sitting down. In close-ups males are usually shown from just below eye level and females from just above eye-level. Placing a camera at the eye level of a standing person actually appears too high most of the time.

Camera moves

There are several fundamental camera moves that were developed right after the invention of motion picture cameras and are still used today.  These moves include the following:

Panning and Tilting

For both of these shots the camera is stationary and rotates in a horizontal (panning) or vertical (tilting) plane.

Panning  is used to follow a moving object or character, or to show more than can fit into a single frame, such as panning across a landscape.  It is also used as a transition between one camera position and another.

Dolly and Tracking shots

A dolly is a small wheeled vehicle, piloted by a dolly grip, that is used to move a camera around in a scene. A dolly shot is a move in and out of a scene, i.e., the movement is parallel to the camera lens axis. A tracking shot is a movement perpendicular to the camera lens axis.

Crane or Boom shot

This is when the camera moves up or down, as if it were on a physical crane.

Zoom Lenses and the Vertigo Effect

A Zoom lens has a variable focal length and so camera "moves" can be made without actually moving the camera. Professional cinematographers use the zoom very sparingly and generally prefer to move the camera. Amateurs love the zoom and can create some very nauseating motion by combining zooms and rapid pans. A zoom changes the angle of display so spatial relationships also change.

In the movie "Vertigo", Alfred Hitchcock took advantage of this feature to create a what is now known as the vertigo shot. This involves synchronizing the movement of the subject with the zoom so that the subject is always the same size, but the background changes.

Depth of Field Effects

Cameras have a depth of field, i.e., only part of the image is in focus at anyone time. The depth of field is a function of the lens length with short lenses (wide-angle) having a large depth of field and telephoto lenses have a small depth of field.

One way to change the center of attention in a scene is to have one object, e.g., in the foreground, in focus, with the background out of focus. Then an object in the background is brought into focus, with the foreground object now out of focus. For example, two people might be having a conversation in a crowded room and only they are in focus. Then the focus changes to reveal a person several feet away looking intensely at the two people.