What does ¨primer plano¨ and ¨plano medio¨ mean when referring to photos?

Question

Hi,

I´m translating a document from Spanish which talks about different styles of portrait photos.

Can anyone tell me what ¨primer plano¨¨ and ¨¨plano medio¨ would be in English?

Here is the paragraph, if you want context...

Primer plano cunado se abarca desde el pecho del sujeto hasta su cabeza; perfil se refiere mas a la posicion del sujeto que se ubica de lado, Plano medo muestra al sujeto desde la cintura hasta la cabeza; Plano americano muestra al sujeto desde arriba de la rodilla hasta la cabeza; y plano general ubica al sujeto en un espacio determinado, mostrando todo su cuerpo.

¡Muchas gracias! Emma

Thanks everyone for their responses....extremely helpful! I´m going to call ¨primer plano¨a close-up portrait shot, and the ¨plano medio¨ a medium-range shot. Not ideal, but I can see that there isn´t really an exact translation. - Motema15, Mar 1, 2014

Answer 1

distance within the frame that would indicate zooming in and out.

primer plano = fill in the frame

etc...

Edit:

As far as I know, "planos" refers to how close the object of interest is in relation to the rest behind it.

A full body can be in "primer plano" then everything up to the "horizon" whatever this might be refers to "el fondo (background) the place between the primer plano and el fondo, is called plano medio.

foreground, middle ground and background.

would that be OK?

It's all about perspectives.

:) - gringojrf, Feb 28, 2014

Answer 2

As far as I can see ' primer plano' is a face portrait. 'Plano medio' seems to be from the waist up and 'plano americano' a portrait from the knees up, whereas the' plano general '( full body portrait)? shows the whole body of the subject.

I have no idea what these would be called in English!

Answer 3

This is a little off topic but interesting.

Here they often refer to the need to provide a foto infantil. For the longest time I thought why in the world would they require a baby picture for whatever official business.

It turns out to mean a passport sized picture.

I thought it was funny how easy it is to misinterpret something.

ha ha - ian-hill, Feb 28, 2014

How weird! Infantil does not mean "small" in either language. - chileno, Feb 28, 2014

Thus my confusion. - gringojrf, Mar 1, 2014

Answer 4

Primer plano - Close up

Plano medio - Medium shot

El primer plano, en el caso de la figura humana, recogería el rostro y los hombros.

El plano medio muestra a los personajes de la cintura hacia arriba.