sfocati

Sfocati is an Italian adjective meaning out of focus or blurred. It is the masculine plural form of sfocato and is used to describe images, details, or objects that lack sharpness. In everyday language, one would say, for example, l’immagine è sfocata or i dettagli sono sfocati.

In photography, film, and digital imaging, sfocato can result from several factors. It may occur when the subject is not properly focused, when the depth of field is shallow, or when there is camera or subject motion during exposure. Sfocato can also be an intentional aesthetic choice, used to create atmosphere, convey dreamlike or impressionistic qualities, or to direct attention away from fine detail. The related term sfocatura refers to the blurring itself as a phenomenon or effect.

Techniques to achieve sfocato include adjusting the aperture to a wide setting to reduce depth of field, using longer focal lengths, or employing diffusion filters and soft-focus lenses. Post-processing blur can also produce sfocato effects, though care is often taken to control the direction and degree of blur.

Linguistically, sfocato and sfocati function as adjectives and agree in gender and number with the nouns they modify. Common phrases include l’immagine sfocata, le aree sfocate, and i dettagli sfocati. In a broader sense, sfocato appears in discussions of visual art and cinema to describe deliberate or accidental imprecision in rendering sharp edges.

See also: sfocatura, profondità di campo, bokeh.