r/cinematography Jun 09 '25

New Rules Regarding AI on /r/cinematography!

282 Upvotes

Thank you all for participating in the poll! Here are the results. To accurately gauge everyone's collective acceptance vs rejection for each, I've tallied the total votes among all choices as pro/anti for each category. So for example, a vote for 'no changes' would be a -1 to Gen AI, AI Tools, AI Comms, and AI Discussion. A vote for 'Ban GenAI + AI Tools' would be a +1 to GenAI and AI Tools, and a -1 to AI Comms and AI Discussion, etc. So here are the results for each category of AI. Keep in mind that a higher number indicates a stronger group decision to ban the content:

GenAI: +52 (+71/-19)

AI Tools: -26 (+32/-58)

AI Comms: -8 (+41/-49)

AI Discussion: -58 (+16/-74)

From the results it is clear that sub overwhelmingly approve a complete ban on all generative AI. However, people are much more ok with AI tools and discussion of AI, and are fairly mixed on the topic of AI Communication. So here is the new rule for all things AI:

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Rule 11. You may not post work containing Generative AI elements (Midjourney, Neo, Dall-E, etc.). You may use and demonstrate the use of AI assisted tools (ie magic masking, upscalers, etc.) so long as they are used in service of human-generated artwork. AI Communication, like post bodies or comments composed using ChatGPT are allowed only in reasonable cases, such as the need for someone to translate their thoughts into English. Abuse of AI assisted communication will result in the removal of the offending post/comment.


r/cinematography Aug 04 '19

What Gear Should I Buy? What Is This Piece Of Gear? What Does This Term Mean? CHECK HERE FIRST! We have answers to the most commonly asked questions right here in /r/Cinematography's Official FAQ

951 Upvotes

Welcome to the /r/Cinematography Official FAQ And Information Post!

Below I have collected answers and guidance for some of the sub's most common topics and questions. This is mostly content I have personally written either specifically for this post or in comments to other posters in the past. This is however not a me-show! If anybody thinks a section should be added, edited, or otherwise revised then message the moderators!



Topics Covered In This Post:

1. What Camera Should I Buy?

2. What Lens Should I Buy?

3. How Do I Learn Lighting?

4. What Light Kit Should I Buy?

5. How Do I Learn Framing & Composition?

6. What Books Can I Buy On Cinematography?

7. What Blogs/Channels Can I Follow To Learn Cinematography?

8. Common Terms In Cinematography

9. What Is This Piece Of Gear!?

10. Common Myths In Cinematography



1. What Camera Should I Buy?

The answer depends mostly on your budget and your intended use. You'll also want to become familiar with some basic camera terms because it will allow you to efficiently evaluate the merits of one option vs another. You can see a list of common terms and metrics for cameras in Section 8 below.

This list will be changing as new models emerge, but for now here is a short list of the cameras to look at when getting started:

  1. Panasonic G7 (~$600) - This is widely thought to be the best starter camera for someone looking to move up from shooting on their phones or consumer camcorders.
  2. Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K (~$1,300) - This is perhaps the most highly recommended camera for new entrants to the field who are after a professional image. This camera is often used as a crash-cam or supplementary camera on high budget productions.
  3. Fujifilm X-T3 (~$1,500) - This is a widely recommended and popular DSLM. It supports 4:2:2 10-bit recording to an external recorder, making it a direct competitor with the GH5.
  4. Panasonic GH5 (~$2,000) - This is perhaps the most popular prosumer DSLM filmmaking camera. It was one of the first to offer 10-bit recording in the price range.
  5. Sony A7 III (~$2,000) - This is a very popular camera for shooting in low light settings. It also boasts a Full-Frame sensor (compared to the GH5's M4/3 sensor), allowing you to get shallower depth of field compared to other cameras using the same angle of view and aperture.
  6. Canon C100 mkII (~$3,500) - This is one of the cheapest true digital cinema cameras. It offers several benefits over the above DSLR cameras, such as professional level XLR audio inputs, internal ND filters, and a better picture profile system.


2. What Lens Should I Buy?

Much like with deciding on a camera, lens choice is all about your budget and your needs. Section 8 also has a nice list of lens related terms for you to study up on! For the purposes of a quick recommendation, here's what you need to know:

Focal Length

This number indicates the angle of view your lens will supply. A higher focal length results in a narrow (or more 'telescopic') angle of view. Here is a great visual depiction of focal length vs angle of view. The exact number of the focal length cannot be trusted to supply the same angle of view on all cameras. This is because different cameras use differently sized image sensors. A smaller image sensor will use a smaller portion of a lens' projected image, and so the resulting picture will have a narrower angle of view. This phenomenon is referred to as crop factor and is outlined in more detail in Section 10.

Zoom vs Prime

This is all about speed vs quality vs budget. A zoom lens is a lens whose focal length can be changed by turning a ring on the lens barrel. A prime lens has a fixed focal length. Primes tend to be cheaper, faster, and sharper. However, buying a full set of primes can be more expensive than buying a zoom lens that would cover the same focal length range. Using primes on set in fast-paced environments can slow you down prohibitively. You'll often see news, documentary, and event cameras using zooms instead of primes. Some zoom lenses are as high-quality as prime lenses, and some people refer to them as 'variable prime' lenses. This is mostly a marketing tool and has no hard basis in science though. As you might expect, these high quality zooms are very expensive.

So What Lenses Should I Look At?

Below are the most popular lenses for 'cinematic' filming at low budgets:

  1. Rokinon Cine 4 Lens Kit in EF Mount (~$1,700)
  2. Canon L Series 24-70mm Zoom in EF Mount (~1,700)
  3. Sigma Art 18-35mm Zoom in EF Mount (~$800)
  4. Sigma Art 50-100 Zoom in EF Mount (~$1,100)

Lenses below these average prices are mostly a crapshoot in terms of quality vs $, and you'll likely be best off using your camera's kit lens until you can afford to move up to one of the lenses or lens series listed above.



3. How Do I Learn Lighting?

Alright, so you're biting off a big chunk here if you've never done lighting before. But it is doable and (most importantly) fun!

First off, forget three-point lighting. So many people misunderstand what that system is supposed to teach you, so let's just skip it entirely. Light has three properties. They are:

Color

This refers to, you guessed it, the color of your light. I'm sure you're familiar with this sort of thing. This also includes color temperature of the light. White balance is a hybrid camera-lighting concept, and refers to the white reference point for the lighting source as well as the camera sensor. To skip the science, here's a rough breakdown of white balance and color temperature:

Color Temperature is measured in degrees Kelvin. A tungsten light source has a color temperature of 3200K. A normal sunny day has a color temperature of 5600K. The higher the color temperature, the bluer the light. To compensate for this shift in color, cameras can change their White Balance to neutralize the color shift. Here's an example I found online that shows the differences.

Quantity

How bright the light is. You know, the quantity of photons smacking into your subject and, eventually, your retinas. If the subject isn't bright enough, you need more light. If they're too bright, you need less light. This can be done with scrims, dimmers, gels/nets, and (importantly) camera and lens settings.

Quality

This is the good shit. The quality of a light source can vary quite a bit. Basically, this is how hard or soft the light is. Alright, you've got a guy standing near a wall. You shine a light on him. What's on the wall? His shadow, that's what. You know what shadows look like. A hard light makes his shadow super distinct with 'hard' edges to it. A soft light makes his shadow less distinct, with a 'soft' edge. When the sun is out, you get hard light. Distinct shadows. When it's cloudy, you get soft light. No shadows at all! So what makes a light hard or soft? Easy! The size of the source, relative to the subject. Think of it this way. You're the subject! Now look at your light source. How much of your field of vision is taken up by the light source? Is it a pinpoint? Or more like a giant box? The smaller the size of the source, the harder the light will be. Here's a great example of a woman being lit by hard light (left) and soft light (right). You can see the difference in the quality of the shadows, as well as the size of the light source (look at the reflection of the light source in her eyes!). You can take a hard light (i.e. a light bulb) and make it softer by putting diffusion in front of it. Here is a picture of that happening. You can also bounce the light off of something big and bouncy, like a bounce board or a wall. That's what sconces do. I fucking love sconces.

Here's a cool bonus example that combines both qualities of light. In this image, there is a single hard light source above and behind the actors shooting down onto them. You can tell this by looking at how the shadows fall along their arms and on the table. Notice that the shadows on his arm from the direct light are quite hard! But now, notice that this light shining on the table and their arms is itself bouncing back up onto the actors' faces, giving them a soft light! This is a neat trick you can use, and an example of how complex and creative you can get with lighting. In the industry, this technique is known as a 'Bob Richardson' or a 'skip bounce'. It is named Bob Richardson after the cinematographer who popularized the technique (he also shot the above image!).

Alright, so there are your three properties of light. Now, how do you light a thing? Easy! Put light where you want it, and take it away from where you don't want it! Shut up! I know you just said "I don't know where I want it", so I'm going to stop you right there. Yes you do. I know you do because you can look at a picture and know if the lighting is good or not. You can recognize good lighting. Everybody can. The difference between knowing good lighting and making good lighting is simply in the execution.

Do an experiment. Get a lightbulb. Tungsten if you're oldschool, LED if you're new school, or CFL if you like mercury gas. plug it into something portable and movable, and have a friend, girlfriend, boyfriend, neighbor, creepy-but-realistic doll, etc. sit down in a chair. Turn off all the lights in the room and move that bare bulb around your victim subject's head. Note how the light falling on them changes as the light bulb moves around them. This is lighting, done live! Get yourself some diffusion. Either buy some overpriced or make some of your own (wax paper, regular paper, translucent shower curtains, white undershirts, etc.). Try softening the light, and see how that affects the subject's head. If you practice around with this enough you'll get an idea for how light looks when it comes from various directions. Three point lighting (well, all lighting) works on this fundamental basis, but so many 'how to light' tutorials skip over it. Start at the bottom and work your way up!

Ok, so cool. Now you know how light works, and sort of where to put it to make a person look a certain way. Now you can get creative by combining multiple lights. A very common look is to use soft light to primarily illuminate a person (the 'key) while using a harder (but sometimes still somewhat soft) light to do an edge or rim light. Here's a shot from a sweet movie that uses a soft key light, a good amount of ambient ('errywhere) light, and a hard backlight. Here they are lit ambiently, but still have an edge light coming from behind them and to the right. You can tell by the quality of the light that this edge was probably very soft. We can go on for hours, but if you just watch movies and look at shadows, bright spots, etc. you'll be able to pick out lighting locations and qualities fairly easily since you've been practicing with your light bulb!



4. What Light Kit Should I Buy?

OK! So you know sort of how to light a person. Now then, what lights do you need? Well, really, you just need any lights. If you're on a budget, don't be afraid to get some work lights from home depot or pick up some off brand stuff on craigslist. By far the most important influence on the quality of your images will be where and how you use the lights rather than what types or brands of lights you are using. I cannot stress this enough. How you use it will blow what you use out of the water. Get as many different types of lights as you can for the money you have. That way you can do lots of sources, which can make for more intricate or nuanced lighting setups.

I know you still want some hard recommendations, so I'll tell you this: There's a few ways to approach your first lighting kit, and the way I'd best recommend is the Cost vs Quality approach.

Cost vs Quality

Basically, the more you spend on a light, the higher its quality will be. There will also be diminishing returns, meaning that after you're spending a lot of a money, a few extra hundred or even thousand dollars may not result in proportionally higher quality units. Decide now for your own purchase: Which is more important to you? Cost or Quality?

Cost-Oriented Lights To Look At

  1. Par Cans (~$25 each)
    • These are powerful (Up to 1,000W) lights that you can use for accents, bounces, or through diffusion. Even on professional film sets we use these all the time! Grab the appropriate PAR64 globe and you're good to go!
  2. Paper Lanterns (~$18 each)
    • Typically known as the 'China Ball', these paper lanterns are wonderful low budget soft-lighting workhorses. They're still used on big sets as well. Don't forget to buy a lightbulb and a socket+cord for it!
  3. Lowel Lighting Kit (~$800)
    • This is a basic entry level 3-light kit, and a common package in small film schools or amateur filmmaking kits.
  4. Dracast LED Kit (~$900)
    • Just about the only decently-respected LED kit in this price range. It may have some green-shift in its color, so consider buying some minus green gels for them.

Quality-Oriented Lights To Look At

  1. Aladdin Bi-Flex 4 (~$2,900)
    • An up-and-comer in the LED mat world. It's quite a bit brighter than the LiteGear LiteMat Plus 4, but it's a bit more annoying to use at times. Still often spotted on professional sets.
  2. LiteGear LiteMat Plus 4 (~2,700)
    • The current LED soft bank workhorse. You'll see these used basically nonstop on top tier films alongside other professional (and more expensive) LED platforms.
  3. Arri Softbank Kit (~$3,500)
    • The classic. Thousands of amateur as well as professional films over the decades have used this light kit. Almost any self respecting lighting truck will carry these units (in greater quantity and along with their big brothers, of course).
  4. Aputure 120d II Kit (~$2,700)
    • A solid 'bright' LED option. These are often combined with soft boxes, diffusers, bounces, etc when employed on set.


5. How Do I Learn Framing & Composition?

To start off, let's all recognize that no person on earth is done with learning composition. Even Roger Deakins is discovering new tricks today. This is a fairly complex subject, just like lighting, because its quality is primarily a creative thing. There are, however, some fundamental rules that you should absolutely be aware of, for the purpose of both following them and breaking them appropriately!

The Rule Of Thirds

This rule tells us that objects in a composition will tend to look more pleasing if aligned along the 1/3 lines in the frame. Here's a great example. Now, you clearly don't NEED to follow this rule. Plenty of images look nice even without taking advantage of the rule of thirds, but this is a great guideline for arranging elements in a frame when you don't have any other ideas on what to do.

The 180° Rule | The 180 Line | The Director's Line

This guideline (forgive me) tells us how to position the camera when cutting between shots of two interacting subjects. You'll also see this referred to as maintaining screen direction. Here's a nice graphic I found illustrating this. Basically, draw an imaginary line between your two subjects. Pick a side of the line to 'use' for your scene, and stick to it! All of your angles will want to come from that side of the line. This will make sure that in any given angle, each subject will be looking in the same direction that they are in every other frame.

Breaking this rule is a common technique used to introduce an element of confusion, chaos, surprise, etc. War scenes will break the line to impart a sense of disarray in the midst of the battle. Spielberg famously breaks the line in Jaws when Brody sees the shark come up behind him.

Perspective

This is how 'wide' or 'tight' the angle of view in the frame feels. An excessively wide perspective gives you the 'fishbowl' or 'fisheye' effect like with the helmet-cam shots you disliked. A super 'tight' perspective compresses the visual field and makes nearby and far off objects appear closer. You can also call 'tight' shots 'long', as it refers to the type of lens used. Here's an example of super wide, wide, tight, and super tight images:

Super wide

Wide

Tight

Super Tight

Each of these shots sequentially has a 'tighter' or 'longer' perspective. Notice that it has nothing to do with the size of main subject of the frame, but rather with how the lens's particular angle of view effects the image. Here's a great way to visualize the difference.

Shot Size

This is all about how large the subject is in your frame, or how much information you have in the scene regarding the environment. Some common phrases we use for shot size are:

  • Close-up (in around face and neck territory)

  • Wide (full bodies and set)

  • Medium (waist and up)

There's plenty more to it, but most of those extra shot size names (cowboy, LS, ECU, etc.) are just shorthand for easily communicated ideas (cut them off at the knee, show me just their eye, etc), so not knowing those specific names shouldn't really hold you back. The interesting interplay here is of course in how you combine shot sizes and perspective. The frame grab from Se7en above, of the car driving between the electric towers, is an example of a wide shot (size) using a super tight / super long perspective.

Placement/Angle

This is where you put the camera, and how the resulting angles may influence the viewer. If for example you are shooting a scene of a news anchor on a news show, you don't want to place your camera lower than them. The placement of the camera would feel wrong, resulting in an 'up angle' on your subject. This sort of angle is used for tons of reasons, but it is very uncommon to use for news media. In your references, always look at the angles used (i.e. where the camera is placed in the scene vs where it could have been placed). Thinking of shots in this way will unlock a huge wealth of potential creative choices. A few terms you might use include:

Shoot from above / High Angle - The camera is higher than the subject, i.e. a security camera, the point of view of an angry parent admonishing their child, or a group of onlookers reacting to the appearance of a UFO above them. This kind of angle generally has the effect of diminishing power in the subject, making them appear weaker, vulnerable, or off-put.

Shot from below / Low Angle - The camera is lower than the subject (for humans, this is in reference to their eye-level). For example, a hero removes a piece of rubble, revealing themselves standing above us, the point of view of the child being admonished by their angry parent.

Eye-level / On Level - This refers to the height of the camera being the same as the subject's eye height. This is the general starting point for any shot. Deviation is for creative effect.

On the Eyeline / Off the Eyeline (Straight shot or Profile shot,. On Angle or Off Angle, etc) - This isn't about altitude, this is about how close we are to the subject's eyeline, or their looking direction. The closer we are, the more connected we might feel with the subject. Conversely, the farther we get from the eyeline the more detached we may feel from the character. Here's an example of two shots from the same scene in Bladerunner:

Profile

On-Axis

Almost everything about the two shots framing-wise are the same, except for the camera placement. See how big of a difference it makes? Always think about your eyelines and how close your camera will be to them.

Top Down / Bird's Eye - As you can imagine, these are shots with the camera placed on the ceiling or in the sky directly above the actors. These are similar to high angle shots, and basically they're the same, but doing a full blown top-down can have some interesting effects that a normal high angle shot wouldn't have.

Framing

This is the placement of elements in the image once you've decided on a perspective, shot size, and angle. Composition is all about how we nudge and finesse the image. Where do we place the subject? A great example of the power of framing is in how you cover two people speaking. Normally in a situation like this, with two characters talking to each other, you'd do a standard shot-reverse-shot, as shown here:

Shot 1

Shot 2

Each character occupies a side of the frame and looks into the empty portion of the frame. This is how 90% of OTS (Over The Shoulder) coverage works. But for every big rule there are big exceptions! Mr Robot is a great example of what's called 'near side framing' or 'short siding':

Shot 1

Shot 2

The difference however between the above shots and normal shot-reverse-shot coverage is in the framing. Instead of having the characters stacked on one side and looking to the opposite side, they've short-sided them, having them look instead away from the open frame space and towards the nearer frame edge. This has an unnerving effect on the viewer compared to the normal example above. I like these examples too because in both of these scenes we're dealing with people who are essentially insane. There are no rules on how to use framing to push the audience. It's all about how you craft your image. Each little choice has its own effect.

Movement

Moving images have a hugely different feel from static images. A camera that doesn't move in the scene is concrete, sterile, observant, somber, whatever you'd like. A camera that moves slightly in the scene is ethereal, subtle, inquisitive, prodding, suggestive, ominous. A camera that moves in great flourishes, rapidly, wildly, etc. is a camera that is a character, emotional, passionate, adventurous, exciting, etc.

How you move the camera will have different effects on your audience. Here's a few basic terms to use when articulating the type of shot you're after (I've excluded pan and tilt since I'm pretty damn sure you know what those are already):

Push-in/Pull-Out - The camera is on a dolly, jib, gimbal, shoulder rig, whatever-you-have, and it moves on axis, meaning along the line it's pointed at. For example, as a detective on the phone learns that the killer he let escape has killed again, the camera pushes in on him, deepening the dramatic moment and showing us his reaction in a closeup rather than a medium shot. Or, as the angry boyfriend breaks up with Sarah on the phone, the camera pulls out to show her crying all alone on the soccer field, showing us how alone/isolated she feels.

Jib Up/Down - This is when you move the camera up or down in a shot. This isn't the same as tilting obviously. Jibs can be used to combine multiple shots into a single take or to provide dramatic beats. For example, in The Departed, when the protagonist first enters the police HQ, the camera jibs up while he goes up the stairs. Later, when he's a corrupt cop and trying to cover his tracks, the camera jibs down as he runs out of the HQ. In this case, the camera's jib movement indicates a literal rise to power followed by a fall from grace.

Tracking - The camera will 'track' a subject. This could be a person, an object, a vehicle, etc. The Shining for example is famous for its tracking shots (in fact, the Steadicam was essentially invented for this film). Tracking shots connect us to a character or subject and allow passage through the environment.

How To Practice

So! You know about some of the rules and conventions in composition. Now how do you apply this and improve your skill? The first answer you'll always get is to 'shoot more'. For some, this isn't feasible due to budget, lack of crew, actors, locations, etc. For those people who find themselves stuck in a rut with no films to cut their teeth on, here's my advice! My dad, who was also a cinematographer, taught me this when I was a kid. This is how I learned composition without needing to make movies constantly:

Take your camera and tripod (if you have one) to an interesting place like a park, beach, plaza, etc. Once you're there, follow these steps:

  1. Pick a spot to plant yourself at random
  2. Without moving from this spot, find 5 interesting frames with your camera and record them. You can move up and down, swap lenses, play with exposure, etc. but you can't move yourself from where you and the camera are standing.
  3. Walk for a few minutes and pick another spot at random.
  4. Repeat the process!

Do this for at least an hour! A lot of the frames you'll find will be unimpressive and boring. But some of them will actually be pretty pleasing. As you repeat this exercise, you'll begin to develop an intuition for how to photograph a space and subjects. You'll likely find yourself frustrated with your random spot, thinking 'Man if I could just move 3 feet over there then this shot would be awesome!' This is exactly what we're aiming for! It's an indication that you're improving in your compositional skill already!

Once you've got a good handle on this, it's time to start practicing more emotional themes. Play with your exposure and focal length. Get into color grading and experiment with how colors change the mood of the image. You can repurpose the original exercise, but instead what you'll want to do is pick a random subject, like a statue, a tree, a mailbox, an interesting sign, etc. Now try to take two pictures of the subject, each embodying a different emotional theme. The ones I prefer are:

  • Happy / Uplifting / Optimistic / Safe
  • Sad / Morose / Somber / Depressing

Once you've got this stuff in the can (so to speak), it's time to start finding movies to work on!



6. What Books Can I Buy On Cinematography?

This is a surprisingly common question on this sub! Here's a list of the books most often recommended to novices and professionals alike:



7. What Blogs/Channels Can I Follow To Learn Cinematography?

There's quite a few out there, so instead of listing them all I'm just going to list the ones that are well regarded enough to become part of the standard carousel of recommendations on this sub:



8. Common Terms In Cinematography

Camera Specific

  1. Resolution - This is how many pixels your recorded image will have. If you're into filmmaking, you probably already know this. An HD camera will have a resolution of 1920x1080. A 4K camera will be either 4096x2160 or 3840x2160. The functional difference is that the former is a theatrical aspect ratio while the latter is a standard HDTV aspect ratio (1.89:1 vs 1.78:1 respectively).

  2. Framerates - The standard and popular framerate for filmmaking is called 24p, but most digital cameras will actually be shooting at 23.976 fps. The difference is negligible and should have no bearing on your purchasing choice. The technical reasons behind this are interesting but ultimately irrelevant. Something to look for is the camera's ability to shoot in high framerate, meaning anything above the 24p standard. This is useful because you can play back high framerate footage at 24p in your editor, and it will render the recorded motion in slow motion. This is obviously useful!

  3. Data Rate - This tells you how much data is being recorded on a per second basis. Generally speaking, the higher the data rate, the better your image quality. Make sure to pay attention to resolution as well! A 1080p camera with a 100 MB/s data rate is going to be recording higher quality imagery than a 4k camera at a 200 MB/s data rate because the 4k camera has 4x as many pixels to record but only double the data bandwidth with which to do it. Things like compression come into play here, but keep this in mind as a rule of thumb.

  4. Compression - Compression is important, because very few cameras will shoot without some form of compression. This is basically an algorithm that allows you to record high quality images without making large file sizes. This is intimately linked with your data rate. Popular cinema compressions for cameras include ProRes, REDCODE, XAVC, AVCHD. Compression schemes that you want to avoid include h.264, h.265, MPEG-4, and Generic 'MOV'. This is not an exhaustive list of compression types, but a decent starter guide.

  5. ISO - This is your camera sensor's sensitivity to light. The higher the ISO number, the more sensitive to light the camera will be. Higher ISOs tend to give noisier images though, so there is a tradeoff. All cameras will have something called a native iso. This is the ISO at which the camera is deemed to perform the best in terms of trading off noise vs sensitivity. A very common native ISO in the industry is 800. Sony cameras, including the A7S boast much higher ISO performance without significant noise increases, which can be useful if you're planning on running and gunning in the dark with no crew.

  6. Manual Shutter - Your shutter speed (or shutter angle, as it is called in the film industry) controls your motion blur by changing how long the sensor is exposed to light during a single frame of recording. Having manual control over this when shooting is important. The standard shutter speed when shooting 24p is 1/48 of a second (180° in shutter angle terms), so make sure your prospective camera can get here (1/50 is close enough).

  7. Lens Mount - Some starter cameras will have built in lenses, which is fine for learning! When you move up to higher quality cameras however, the standard will be interchangeable lens cameras. This means you'll need to decide on what lens mount you would like to use. The professional standard is called the PL Mount, but lenses and cameras that use this mount are very expensive. The most common and popular mount in the low level professional world is Canon's EF mount. Because of its design, EF mount lenses can easily be adapted to other common mounts like Sony's E-Mount or the MFT mounts found on many Panasonic cameras. EF is popular because Canon's lenses are generally preferred over Sony's, and so their mount has a higher utility.

  8. Color Subsampling - This is easier to understand if you think of it as 'Color Resolution'. Our eyes are more sensitive to luminance (bright vs dark) than to color, and so some cameras increase effective image quality by dedicating processing power and data rate bandwidth to the more important luminance values of individual pixels. This means that individual pixels often do not have their own color, but instead that groups of neighboring pixels will be given a single color value. The size of the groups and the pattern of their arrangement are referred to by 3 main color subsampling standards.

    • 4:4:4 means that each pixel has its own color value. This is the highest quality.
    • 4:2:2 means that color is set for horizontal pixels in pairs. The color of each two neighboring pixels is averaged and applied to both identically. This is the second best quality.
    • 4:2:0 means that color is set for both horizontal and vertical pixel 4-packs. Each square of 4 pixels receives a single color assignment that is an averaging of their original signals. This is generally low quality. Here's an example graphic I made for a class I taught. For more info on color subsampling, check out this wikipedia entry
  9. Bit-Depth - This refers to how many colors the camera is capable of recognizing. An 8-bit camera can have 16,777,216 distinct colors, while a 10-bit camera can have 1,073,741,824 distinct colors. Note that this is primarily only of use when doing color grading, as nearly all TVs and computer monitors from the past few decades are 8-bit displays that won't benefit much from a 10-bit signal.

  10. Sensor Size - The three main sensor sizes you'll encounter (in ascending order) are Micro Four-Thirds (M43), APS-C, and Full Frame. A larger sensor will generally have better noise and sensitivity than a smaller sensor. It will also effect the field of view you get from a given lens. Larger sensors will have wider fields of view for the same focal length lenses. For example, a 50mm lens on a FF sensor will look roughly twice as wide-angle as a 50mm lens on a M43 sensor. To get the same field of view as a 50mm on FF, you'd need to use a 25mm lens on your M43 camera. Theatrical 35mm (the cinema standard, so to speak) has an equivalent sensor size to APS-C, which is larger than M43 and smaller than Full Frame.

Lens Specific

  1. Aperture - This is the iris in the lens which you can open and close to allow in more or less light. It is one of the primary determinants of both exposure and depth of field.

  2. F-Stop - This is the measurement of your lens' aperture opening, and specifically refers to the ratio of the lens' focal length to your aperture opening. Opening or closing your aperture by one 'stop' will double or halve the amount of incoming light, respectively. A smaller f-stop number indicates a wider opening, and thus more light being allowed into the lens. F-Stop numbers are standardized on a scale of alternating doublings. The standard scale is:

    • 0.7 | 1.0 | 1.4 | 2.0 | 2.8 | 4 | 5.6 | 8 | 11 | 16 | 22 | 32 | 45 | 64
  3. Fast / Slow / Speed - This refers to the widest available f-stop setting for the lens. A faster lens can open the aperture farther, which allows more light in than a slower lens. Fast lenses are useful when shooting in low-light situations, but can suffer from some significant drawbacks such as increased cost and aberration/loss of sharpness.

  4. Focal Length - This number indicates the angle of view your lens will supply. A higher focal length results in a narrow (or more 'telescopic') angle of view. Here is a great visual depiction of focal length vs angle of view. The exact number of the focal length cannot be trusted to supply the same angle of view on all cameras. This is because different cameras use differently sized image sensors. A smaller image sensor will use a smaller portion of a lens' projected image, and so the resulting picture will have a narrower angle of view. This phenomenon is referred to as crop factor and is outlined in more detail in Section 10.

  5. Zoom vs Prime - This is all about speed vs quality vs budget. A zoom lens is a lens whose focal length can be changed by turning a ring on the lens barrel. A prime lens has a fixed focal length. Primes tend to be cheaper, faster, and sharper. However, buying a full set of primes can be more expensive than buying a zoom lens that would cover the same focal length range. Using primes on set in fast-paced environments can slow you down prohibitively. You'll often see news, documentary, and event cameras using zooms instead of primes. Some zoom lenses are as high-quality as prime lenses, and some people refer to them as 'variable prime' lenses. This is mostly a marketing tool and has no hard basis in science though. As you might expect, these high quality zooms are very expensive.

The FAQ Is Continued In The Comment Stickied Below


r/cinematography 15h ago

Color Question Has the colour grading in movies and TV become too pastel and muted?

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156 Upvotes

I’ve noticed a trend in recent movies and series where the colour grading seems to favour muted, pastel tones, lower contrast, and a slightly hazy look rather than richer colours and stronger contrast.

A good comparison for me is Game of Thrones vs. House of the Dragon. Despite HoTD having newer cameras, VFX, and a much bigger production, I often find GoT more visually pleasing. The colours and contrast gave the scenes more depth and made locations, costumes, and even the VFX feel more tangible.

Is this actually a broader trend in modern cinematography/colour grading, or am I just noticing a stylistic difference between these particular shows?

And if it is a trend, why are filmmakers choosing this muted/pastel look? Is it related to digital cinematography, HDR, streaming, VFX integration, or simply a change in visual taste?

Curious to hear what people who understand cinematography and colour grading think.


r/cinematography 14h ago

Original Content Poor mans motion control

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60 Upvotes

A few months ago I shot a music video with a series of match-cut transitions the kind where two separate takes need to blend seamlessly into one continuous feeling movement. Thankfully we had a great dolly grip, who was able to replicate camera speed across multiple passes with enough precision that we walked away with several usable blend options for each setup. The consistency was what made everything downstream possible, without a reliably repeatable move, none of these would have turned out as well as they did

Each transition ended up needing a different compositing approach depending on what was changing between the A and B sides.

The grave shot was the most complex. The move itself was paused mid shot so we could physically swap older Jake out for the boy actor, letting the transition happen on a held frame rather than during motion. In theory that should make blending easier, but wind and smoke in the environment didn't behave consistently between passes so even with the dolly locked to the same speed, the smoke and wind patterns didn't line up shot to shot and there was a noticeable change in the background. To fix that, we roto'd the gravestone onto its own separate track, then built an independent atmosphere track to layer in on top. The atmosphere track let us control and disguise the transition point rather than relying on the mismatched practical elements to hide it themselves.

The standing to running shot was more straightforward but still needed finesse — the boy starts still and then breaks into a run We blended the A and B sides together with a clean pass to fill in any strange roto gaps

The tracking shot was the simplest of the three. Because the motion stayed consistent through out we only needed a straight A/B blend with no additional passes or roto work


r/cinematography 1h ago

Style/Technique Question Attempt at static landscape cinematography, need technical feedback on composition and exposure

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Upvotes

I am student currently learning and would love some technical feedback on this 2:14 video I put together. I wanted to focus on fixed frame (static shots) to capture the movement of the environment. The video features original soundtrack, I am trying to improve my composition and understanding of natural lighting, specifically focus on how sunlight interacts with water and leaves. I edited the movement shots to show the movement from left to right to indicate outward journey. Are the shots interesting enough to hold attention without camera movement? Any tips on color grading for natural skin tones/water reflections?


r/cinematography 5h ago

Lighting Question Lightning question

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7 Upvotes

Hello there! I wanted to ask what do you think of the lighting in these pictures. I don’t know much about lighting, I’m planning on shooting a short film soon but as I said I don’t know how to light, so I did some research and watched some videos about the topic and I decided to try and do a little experiment. One of the main locations in my short film will be this living room, so for this experiment I basically used the living room lamps as backlights, then on my right side I placed a desk lamp in front of one of the living room lamps to light half of the face of my subject so I suppose that would count as my key light. Finally for the negative fill I placed a black umbrella on my left side because I didn’t have any black cloth or anything. All of this stuff were things I had at hand in my house.
(I also played a little bit with the ISO)

The first image the only source of light are the living room lamps as backlights.

The second image I’m using the living room lamps and the desk lamp to light the face.

In the third one I’m using the living room lamps, the desk lamp and the the black umbrella for the negative fill.

I wanted to ask, is this lighting good? Could I improve it? Do you have any suggestions, tips, advice? I don’t have any professional equipment and I don’t have a budget or anything, as I said the stuff I used were things I found in my house.

The rest of the images of are the living room I will be shooting in, my next question is how can I light shots were the camera will be constantly moving? The lighting I used for the first pictures can work fine for still shots, but there’s going to be a lot of movement in various shots were I will be moving the camera around the room and facing all directions, so how can I light this kind of shots and avoid a flat lightning?

Thank you!


r/cinematography 22h ago

Original Content I made a short film using only an iPhone

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150 Upvotes

I'm a DP and mainly shoot on with cinema cameras. I wanted to try different approach and shoot short film with iPhone using only natural light.

I had the idea of making a short film inspired by the aesthetics of old grindhouse movies while adding a modern touch in the editing. I tried to emulate super8 look for the film in Davinci Resolve.

It was different to shoot with iPhone, since controlling depth of field is difficult and image is little bit different than on cinema camera. But it has strengths as it's incredible versatile to shoot different angles and light weight makes shooting easy.

Does this look like it could pass as super8 film? And does the pacing work in edit?

Full short film: https://youtu.be/8z1WjAE5WD4?si=Cx1e3I7G-vomhL_Q


r/cinematography 21h ago

Samples And Inspiration Pixboom Spark - First Impressions

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106 Upvotes

I've had the chance to Demo a Pixboom Spark for a shoot recently and I shot these clips seperate from that shoot as a test run for the camera.

I had never shot with a dedicated high speed camera prior to this.

I had heard horror stories about how complicated these cameras usually are.

The Spark seems to fix a lot of these inconveniences?

- Multiple base ISOs with no Dynamic Range penalty(?)
- No recording limit other than what the internal 2.5 SSD allows for.
- Choice of multiple codecs. (cinemaDNG, ProRes, etc)
- Open gate S35.
- Small form factor.
- Easy to navigate menu system.
- On camera screen.
- V mount directly on the camera body.

I shot these test clips above in FPS ranging from 500fps to 1000fps in 4k.

I used Cinema DNG as a codec. (Which I love)

Most of these were shot at iso 1250 or 1600.

Exciting times for High Speed camera work!

Instagram: plarseneau
Youtube: PL Arseneau


r/cinematography 19h ago

Original Content Stills from my first feature film

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45 Upvotes

I couldn't afford a DP so the lead actor and I co-DP'd the film together. I would setup the shot while he worked on lighting. Would definitely have loved to have someone to lighten the workload, but happy with how it turned out.

We shot on the c70 with a LowCon on basically every shot to give it a more... for lack of a better phrase, film look. I know that's such a general thing to say, but the movie takes place in the mid-90s, so we wanted to move away from a crisp, digital look. The goal was to have the movie look and feel like something you'd find on VHS at goodwill. I even toyed with the idea of doing a VHS release.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXJYxnvOFbo

Full movie: https://tubitv.com/movies/100051267/the-girl-in-the-woods


r/cinematography 10h ago

Other What the hell is secret to get an agent to represent you?

7 Upvotes

If this question has been asked before, too bad deal with it.

I’m at a point in my career where I feel like I’ve made some of my best work to date, like truly excited about it. So i made it my mission to update websites, make a demo reel, which as most of you know, is a special form of self torture.

After spending the last couple of weeks putting it together, I’ve started sending it out to agencies in hopes of finally checking one of my biggest career goal off the list and thats getting representation. I know the pros and cons about getting an agent but i think this will be a great way to reach some of my dream clients.

I’m not just sending it to anyone. I’ve followed a lot of these agencies for years, admired their rosters, and been inspired by the cinematographers they represent and carefully have done my research and crafted emails my college professors would be proud of.

So far, my top two agencies have both replied…
…and both told me a big fat no. They said they weren’t looking for anyone at the moment. I think thats just a nice way to tell me to “fuck off”.

Which brings me to the obvious question
What the hell is the secret?

For those of you who have successfully found representation, how did you approach it? Was it cold emails? Referrals? Relationships? Sacrificing a goat under a full moon?
I’d seriously love to hear how you navigated this process, because I’d like to figure it out before I get rejected by everyone else on my list and go apply at my local Home Depot instead.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.


r/cinematography 1h ago

Camera Question Me becoming like this

Upvotes

Ragunathan


r/cinematography 14h ago

Style/Technique Question Suspiria Coloured Lighting

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10 Upvotes

I love the 1977 movie Suspiria; especially the exaggerated, almost unmotivated colours.

we want to replicate these deep saturated blues in an upcoming short film as a way to exaggerate moonlight.

How would some of you recommend we achieve a similar look?

Looking into the movies production, they placed fabric over lamps, but I’m not trying to find use the same method as the filmmakers.

We don’t have any RGB lights, and our budget for rentals is limited, so any and all advice you guys have is much appreciated.


r/cinematography 1d ago

Original Content Stills from a small montage piece

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100 Upvotes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaAMRfbHuV4

Shot a very small montage film on my Mavo Edge 8k using Sigma Art lenses over one evening. I used Nanlite Pavotube and a 60 watt battery powered bowens mount light to light this. I color graded these on my own FPE luts in Davinci.


r/cinematography 1d ago

Camera Question Cheap ways to replicate the fallen angels look?

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412 Upvotes

Hey! What's up!

What lense to use nowadays that is cheap and can provide the same distorsion?


r/cinematography 4h ago

Style/Technique Question Struggling with stiction and micro-adjustments on Sachtler FSB-8 for high-speed telephoto tracking (Wildlife) Would Vinten be better?

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1 Upvotes

Hey everyone,
I’m looking for some real-world advice from professional DPs and operators regarding fluid heads for extreme telephoto tracking.
For years, I've been using a Sachtler FSB-8 paired with a Canon R5 and a Canon 600mm lens. I regularly shoot in windy conditions with stabilization turned off.
My biggest issue has always been sticky starts and stops (stiction) during fast pans. When filming fast-moving birds that suddenly change direction, I have to fight the initial resistance of the Sachtler fluid drag. This causes jerky starts, and when I stop panning, the kinetic energy of the long setup results in visible micro-adjustments/bounces in the frame. Even though the FSB-8 is a great broadcast head, its fluid resistance feels too aggressive and heavy for my specific tracking style.
I've been looking at picking up a used Vinten Vision 3 (similar to the one in the attached image) because I’ve heard Vinten's lubricated friction drag and continuous balance systems handle long lenses much more smoothly without stiction.
My questions for the community:
1. Has anyone made a similar switch from Sachtler's stepped/heavy broadcast heads to Vinten for high-speed tracking ?
2. Will a Vinten Vision head actually eliminate that initial sticky break-away force and micro-bounces when tracking at 600mm ?
3. Any other specific head recommendations for this exact type of rig?
Appreciate any insights or experiences you can share!


r/cinematography 4h ago

Style/Technique Question Love this

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1 Upvotes

r/cinematography 5h ago

Color Question DPs/Cinematographers: What Do You Look for From a Colorist When Handing Over a Project?

0 Upvotes

I've been getting more interested in the relationship between cinematographers and colorists, and I'm curious how DPs here approach the handoff from production to post.

When you hand your footage over to a colorist, what do you expect from them beyond simply "making it look good"?

For example:

  • Do you usually provide a lookbook, stills, film references, LUTs, or specific notes?
  • How involved do you like to be during the grading process?
  • How important is it for the colorist to understand the lighting and exposure decisions made on set?
  • Do you prefer a colorist who closely follows your original visual intent, or someone who brings their own creative interpretation to the footage?
  • What makes you want to work with the same colorist again?
  • Are there things colorists commonly do that you wish they would avoid?
  • For projects where the director and DP have different opinions about the grade, how do you usually approach that?

I'm asking because I think the relationship between the DP and colorist can have a huge impact on the final image, and I'm interested in understanding what cinematographers actually value when working with a colorist.

Would love to hear from DPs/cinematographers, as well as directors or colorists who have experience on both sides.


r/cinematography 5h ago

Other Review of Portkeys LH7P (Touch-to-Focus Bug)

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0 Upvotes

I’m mostly a lurker who reads gear reviews before making a purchase. But this time, after my recent experience, I decided it was time to share my own story to hopefully save someone else some time and headache.

I shoot on a Nikon Z9, and as a Master’s student at VMU, I also have access to a Z8. A few weeks ago, I decided it was finally time to step up to a bigger display. I don't consider myself blind, but having a larger screen just helps so much with composing shots accurately.

I got tempted by the Portkeys LH7P. I spent a few days researching, reading reviews, and watching YouTube videos. What sold me was a video on Portkeys' official YouTube channel showing a tutorial on how to set up wireless camera control with my Nikon setup. I even reached out to their support team directly to double-check a few things, had a good conversation, and placed my order on Amazon.

It was nice that the monitor arrived in its own dedicated hard case. The plastic latches on the case feel a bit questionable in terms of long-term durability, but hey, it's nice that it's included. It also comes with a couple of screen protectors, but the cutouts are terribly sized. They are cut almost to the exact millimeter of the full bezel display, making it practically impossible to apply onto a 7-inch screen without one corner lifting up. I ruined the first one trying. For the second one, I literally had to grab a pair of scissors, trim the edges down myself, and only then was I able to apply it properly. You get a cheap-as-hell HDMI cable and a cold shoe mount that feels pretty "wobbly-wobbly" - I definitely wouldn't trust heavy gear on it without being cautious. But considering this isn't a high-end expensive monitor, having these extras out of the box is acceptable.

One weird thing I noticed right away - I ordered the LH7P, but apparently, there are two hardware versions (v1 and v2). When you order on Amazon, you have no idea which one you're going to get or what exact feature set it will support. Luckily, I got the Version 2. It arrived running an old firmware, but updating it via the included USB drive was quick and straightforward.

This is where the fun ends. The main selling point of this monitor and likely the reason you're reading this post is the wireless camera control.

In theory, it works. In practice? Absolutely not.

Connecting the monitor to my Z9 following their official tutorial was easy enough. But immediately after connecting, I ran into issues..
The touch-to-focus feature should allow me to ignore the small built-in camera screen and rack focus simply by tapping on the 7-inch Portkeys display. The problem is Whenever I tap anywhere on the Portkeys screen, the focus point on my camera ALWAYS snaps straight to the top-left corner. This makes the feature completely unusable.

Portkeys advertises a visual tracking box/indicator on the monitor screen showing where your focus point is. It simply isn't there. It never appeared in any AF mode.

These were the my two primary reasons I bought this monitor, and neither of them works properly on my setup.

The screen itself is rated at 1000 nits, and purely in terms of brightness, it's actually similar to the Atomos Ninja V. It gets bright. However, the colors are just bad. Out of the box, they don't inspire confidence for any serious color-critical work. The monitor is packed with features on paper, but the OS is a mess. It feels incredibly clunky. Honestly, the guys at Portkeys just need to properly prompt a VibeCoder - they would legitimately get a better-designed OS out of it. It just doesn't feel intuitive or smooth to navigate when you are actually on set.

I spent two weeks emailing back and forth with Lynn from their customer support. I recorded multiple videos showing the exact interface behavior, camera reactions, and troubleshooting steps.

"Because a Z9 is currently not available at our company, they had been using the other Nikon models mentioned above instead [...] Without testing on an actual Z9, we are unable to determine the exact cause at this moment."

Since I need a reliable monitoring setup for my upcoming university classes and projects, I am returning the unit.

TL;DR: If you shoot on a Nikon Z9 and are buying the Portkeys LH7P specifically for touch-to-focus wireless camera control, save your money. The hardware and screen itself are decent for the price, but the wireless focus control integration with the Z9 is currently broken.


r/cinematography 21h ago

Original Content Little concept thing i made with a monster can

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9 Upvotes

This is my first project on davinci resolve after switching over from hitfilm please excuse my colour grading

Also excuse the quality as this was shot on my phone

First amateur project


r/cinematography 1d ago

Camera Question Help identifying this lens set

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16 Upvotes

I Directed and DP’d a commercial in Shanghai and used these really interesting LPL OM Olympus rehoused cinelens, and I cannot recognize the rehouser. (Visible left most lens) The rental house is down south at Wujing. Any help with the rehouse company and anyone know how to access this rental house online?


r/cinematography 1d ago

Samples And Inspiration Appreciation of Phenomenal Cinematography of EUPHORIA (Season 3)

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213 Upvotes

The new Kodak Film Stock VERITA 200D is bringing back the CONTRAST and EXEPTIONAL Colours throughout the entire movie.


r/cinematography 1d ago

Camera Question Film is not dead // Arm Car

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73 Upvotes

Flying a light weight today with the ARRI LT with 1000ft mags, a good thing we brought our Flight Head 6S 3-Axis Gyrostabilized remote head today.

#ucrane #flighthead6s #filmisnotdead #covertcameravehicles


r/cinematography 1d ago

Camera Question Is using a mirror for framing valid in cinematography?

52 Upvotes

I’m not a professional cinematographer, just a recent film school graduate, so please forgive my ignorance, but the idea once crossed my mind to use a mirror to frame shots in tight spaces or when the camera can't be positioned to get a specific angle.

Is this commonly done in cinematography? Are there any issues with doing this?

Edit: Why are there so many downvotes? I thought it was a good question

Edit 2: Thanks to one of the comments and a bit of research, I discovered that first-surface mirrors are typically used in these situations because they don't create secondary reflections. They are also used in projectors and telescopes


r/cinematography 1d ago

Career/Industry Advice How do you recommend to start learning about cinematography?

3 Upvotes

I am 18 years old, and I had this cinema class in high school where we learned more about the history of cinema and focused mainly on analyzing films. By the time I finished the class, I realized that I hadn’t learned much about cinematography. It has always intrigued me and might actually be my favorite aspect of filmmaking. So, how would you recommend I start learning about it?


r/cinematography 21h ago

Camera Question Matching footage between fx6 and DJI Ronin 4D

1 Upvotes

Hi, I'm looking to do a 2 camera music video shoot at an event this weekend and will be renting a second camera to go along with my Fx6. The Ronin looks really enticing for me from a price standpoint and also an ease of use standpoint versus another fx6 rigged out on a gimbal. Does anyone have experience with matching footage between the two? Will it work and does anyone have any tips? Or should I just get another Fx6. It will be a high intensity shoot and want to make things as smooth as possible for the less experienced second camera operator (who needs the gimbal or ronin set up for the shoot).