# Lens & Optics — prompt skill for camera & shots

> **For AI agents:** find the right skill in one call — `curl -s "https://skills.varg.ai/api/search?q=<what the person wants>"` returns the matching use case and the best skills with install commands, as markdown (Russian works too). Full index: https://skills.varg.ai/llms.txt. Every page has a markdown twin: add `.md` to its path. Before generating anything, show the person the options on the use-case page.

10 lens and focus cards — compression, anamorphic, rack focus, split diopter — written as visible effects.

- **Type:** [Prompt](https://skills.varg.ai/prompts.md) · [Camera & shots](https://skills.varg.ai/browse/skills/camera.md)
- **Slug:** `craft-lens-optics`
- **Status:** beta
- **Publisher:** varg (varg, verified)
- **License:** MIT
- **Source:** https://github.com/vargHQ/skills
- **Works in:** Claude Code, Claude.ai, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, OpenClaw, Any MCP client, varg Studio

## What it does

Lens language written as effects first, with millimeters optional: most video-model guides document qualitative words (wide-angle, telephoto, shallow depth of field), and of the current guides only Runway's uses focal lengths. The cards cover wide-angle, telephoto compression, macro, fisheye, anamorphic, shallow and deep focus, rack focus (Seedance: 移焦 plus a plain description), tilt-shift and split diopter. Misuse notes flag the classic confusions: a digital crop does not compress, and blur everywhere is not shallow focus.

## Use when

- User asks for a lens look ('85mm', 'anamorphic', 'bokeh', 'everything sharp')
- Separating a subject from a busy background, or keeping two planes in focus

## Not for

- Color and film-stock looks (craft-color-looks)
- Camera moves such as zoom or dolly zoom (craft-camera-moves)

## Install

Not published as a standalone skill yet. Source: https://github.com/vargHQ/skills

**Models it drives:** veo_3_1, veo_3_1_fast, veo_3_1_lite, omni_flash_1_1, kling_v3, kling_v3_standard, seedance_2_5, seedance_2, minimax_h3_max, nano_banana_2_1, flux_3_image

## Example output

https://skills.varg.ai/previews/craft-lens-optics.mp4 — Long-lens shallow focus on real glass: two live-action close-ups (Thom, then Celia) with the canal houses and trees behind them melted into soft bokeh so only the face is sharp, the look the '85mm, f/1.4' card describes. Tears of Steel (2012) 05:15.5-05:22.1, 720p release from the Blender mirror (download.blender.org/demo/movies/ToS), full 2.40:1 frame, no audio. (credit: Tears of Steel (CC BY 3.0) — (CC) Blender Foundation | mango.blender.org, https://mango.blender.org/)

## More camera & shots skills

- [fal Cinematography](https://skills.varg.ai/skills/fal-cinematography.md): Direct cinematic stills and video: shot language, camera moves, lenses, lighting, grade and film texture.
- [Storyboard Creation](https://skills.varg.ai/skills/inference-sh-storyboard-creation.md): Storyboard a video before generating: shot types, angles, moves, the 180-degree rule, annotated panels.
- [Video Shotcraft](https://skills.varg.ai/skills/video-shotcraft.md): 124 shot recipe cards and a tested Remotion template for cinematic product promos built from real UI screenshots.
- [Camera Moves](https://skills.varg.ai/skills/craft-camera-moves.md): 22 camera moves with direction, speed and an end frame — dolly in to bullet time — in six models' syntax.
- [Shot Sizes & Angles](https://skills.varg.ai/skills/craft-shot-sizes-angles.md): 17 framing cards — extreme wide to insert, eye level to worm's-eye — with model-ready clauses.
- [Composition & Framing](https://skills.varg.ai/skills/craft-composition-framing.md): 9 composition cards — thirds, symmetry, leading lines, negative space, 2.39:1 — for stills and video.