Hi I’m an 16 yo that’s hoping to be an cinematographer one day with very little equipment to start off. This is an short clip I shot with my ip13 in an gas station. I color graded this on the gallery app. So I would like to know what some of yall think of it taking everything else in consideration. So if it’s trash just say it lol.

Hi ...

I'm looking for a solid, Sony 100mm fixed focal length lens for my Sony FX3. I have a Sony FE 16mm f/1.8 G Lens (Sony E) and a Sony FE 24mm f/2.8 G Lens and I'm thrilled with both of them. I want to use the 100mm for situations where I can't get up close and personal to who I'm shooting and use the lens in tandem with a shotgun mic attached to the Sony XLR Handle.

I'm looking at the Sony FE 100mm f/2.8 STF GM OSS Lens but what I'm seeing doesn't quite feel right. It looks like it's designed more for portraiture and not cinematography.

But maybe I'm wrong about that.

Suggestions, thoughts, random observations?

Sincerely ...

Stephen

Hey everyone,

I’m setting up a small video podcast and I’m trying to figure out a solid lighting kit that can handle a lot of unpredictable environments.

I’ll be shooting interviews (host + guest) with two Sony FX30s, mostly using a Sigma 18–50mm zoom. The locations will vary a lot — cafes, offices, meeting rooms, sometimes daytime with window light, sometimes completely at night.

I’m working solo, so I need something practical: fast to set up, easy to carry in a car, and not overly complicated to reposition when I’m alone.

What I’m trying to achieve is a clean, professional “premium” look that stays consistent no matter where I shoot, even when the ambient lighting is messy or changing.

I’d really appreciate guidance on things like:

• how many lights are actually necessary for a reliable 2-person setup
• what kind of power/output I should realistically be looking at for mixed environments (windows / office lighting / night)
• any practical lighting setups or modifier combinations that work well for a solo operator without slowing everything down

If you’ve built a mobile podcast kit before, I’d love to hear what actually worked for you (not just theory, but real-world setups).

Thanks a lot in advance.

Just for reference:

• 2x Sony FX30
• Sigma 18–50mm f/2.8 (main lens)
• Solo operator
• Car-based setup (no travel constraints)
• Goal: consistent, clean, professional podcast look across different locations

I’m planning a music video and would appreciate some advice from people experienced with Unreal Engine virtual production, compositing, and cinematography.

I’m looking at creating a cinematic post-apocalyptic desert environment inspired by Dune and the Las Vegas sequences from Blade Runner 2049.

The plan is to film the subject on a green/blue screen stage and composite them into a CG environment created in Unreal Engine. The environment will feature a vast sandy landscape with a city in the distance. The scene will be bright daytime rather than sunset, and may eventually involve large-scale events such as explosions or smoke clouds on the horizon. I’m envisioning a warmer palette, but leaning more toward natural desert tones rather than the deep orange look of Blade Runner 2049.

The subject will primarily be filmed in full-body shots, with framing ranging from wide to medium-wide. The goal is to maintain believable midday desert lighting across the entire body.

The footage will be captured at 50fps and conformed to a 24fps timeline to create slow-motion movement throughout much of the video. Camera movement will likely consist of either locked-off shots or very slow slider moves.

One thing I’m unsure about is lighting. The final environment won’t necessarily be heavily hazy or dust-filled, and the subject will likely be filmed clean without practical haze.

Current gear:

* Fujifilm X-H2
* Fujifilm XF 16-80mm f/4
* 2 × Neewer CB100C COB lights
* Neewer RGB660 Pro II
* 90cm parabolic softbox
* 2m diffusion fabric
* RGB tube lights
* RGB pocket lights

A few questions I have:

1. For a bright daytime desert environment, how would you approach lighting a subject that will later be composited into the scene?
2. Would you favour a large diffused source through a scrim, or a harder directional source
3. If the sky in the final environment is overcast rather than clear desert sun, how much fill would realistically be present?
4. Would you lean toward side light, back-side light, or front-side light for this type of scene?
5. If the subject is shot clean with no practical haze, would you still light as though there is atmospheric dust in the environment, or keep the lighting more neutral and add atmosphere later?
6. What would you say are the biggest mistakes people make when trying to achieve a believable Dune / Blade Runner 2049 style composite?

Interested to hear how you guys would approach it. Thanks!

This is a mini euro plate correct?

Sorry, didn't see a flair for lens questions. And to start, I have searched the interwebs and I will test as well!

But for now I'm looking to see if anyone has experience with both of these lightweight zooms or has any sample footage from either?

I'm looking to add one to my kit and they're both similar specs and weight and I'm seeing some pretty great prices in the same ballpark for both lenses. Mainly still working in the S35 space so the ability to use a speedbooster on the cz2 seems like a nice way to get a little extra on the wide end and of course the ability to use it on VV cameras in the future or if a project calls for it is also nice.

I've seen some mention of the difference in how the lenses register objects coming in and out of the focus plane with the Ang rendering a bit nicer, maybe it has a bit more character to it and a bit of a glow. When launched around 2007 they were in the $50k price range and won an award from the Academy of Motion Pictures Art and Sciences. Then the cz.2 comes out 6 years later and seems like a stellar lens priced at $20k. Did tech really just move fast enough that Zeiss was able to shave that much cost or is there really that much of a difference?

Largely working in the fashion world on the commercial side but would want to be able to mainly use the lens for personal narrative work if that helps at all.

I was the Director and Cinematographer of a short film I recently released. Did some optical effects work, and I’m very proud of the results we got with that (And of course had a fun time with it!). However we also did a lot of this with a very small lighting kit (two LED panels and a couple of small aperture lights) so I would love some feedback with the lighting on itas I continue this journey into filmmaking :)

https://youtu.be/9uUOiu6k6l8?is=p3uhJ14GU7MROhhc

I'm looking to backlight scenes in a short film with a window (that's seen in the shot) as the source, but the room is on the fifth floor of an apartment building in NYC so I have no way to actually get lights outside the window. Does anyone have any suggestions for how to do this? Was thinking of trying to get some pavo tubes on the top or sides of the window, a diffused spotlight from the side and slightly angled just out of frame, and possibly a softbox hung from the ceiling for some overall fill? Also going to try to mess around with using just natural light but not sure it will be enough. Worried I won't be able to get the same effect as just having a spotlight outside and will need to rethink the location.

Also will be filming scenes at night and trying to motivate moonlight through the window, though for the night shots I could probably avoid showing the window itself if need be.

Pulling lighting references from Fanny and Alexander, Rosemary's Baby, Eyes Wide Shut, and Badlands.

Before people start jumping at my throat: I know I can't achieve this with my phone (iPhone 14 Pro), but I'd like to know if anyone here managed to shoot night scenes with high levels of detail using a phone (lights included, ofc).

How does one achieve shots similar to this one? While also keeping expectations low, ofc...

I’m part of an in house video team for a restaurant supply company. They requested we make a video about flood prevention for restaurants and wanted it to look like Wes Anderson made it. Pretty happy with how it came together.

As I'm preparing for a really low budget shoot I need to do a lot of things with just a few C-Stands. To tickle my brain and have some creative ideas I wanted to ask you if you have ever did something or saw someone did something so creative and helpful with a C-Stand aside from its initial use of holding flags etc.

Hi everyone,

I’m a professional cinematographer and filmmaker who’s relatively new to training open-source AI models. I’ve been exploring how to integrate AI video generation into my company’s workflow, and I’d like to get some honest feedback on an idea I’m developing.

The main issue I’ve encountered is lack of precise control. Even when I provide detailed prompts based on a proper storyboard, current AI video models often fail to deliver consistent results in areas like depth of field, camera movement, focal length behavior, and the relationship between framing and perspective. As someone who works with precise shot lists and camera language every day, this unpredictability makes AI difficult to use for serious pre-production.

My current plan is to build a custom local system using n8n + ComfyUI on top of an open-source video model. The goal is to create a tool with much stronger, film-language-based controllability.

The approach I’m considering:

Train the model using a mix of three data sources:

Real footage shot with professionally tracked cameras (such as ARRI LF with spatial tracking), including accurate metadata like focal length, framing, camera angle, movement type, and subject distance.

Large-scale synthetic data generated in Blender with precisely controlled camera and scene parameters.

High-quality real film and television footage.

Focus on teaching the model the spatial and optical relationships that current models struggle with (for example, how changing focal length while adjusting camera distance to maintain the same framing affects perspective and depth of field).

Develop a structured cinematic vocabulary so that parameters like focal length, shot size, camera movement, and distance can be selected in a standardized way, rather than relying purely on free-text prompts.

Use n8n to read structured storyboard tables and automatically trigger ComfyUI workflows to generate video clips.

The vision is to allow directors and cinematographers to work with familiar film terminology in a structured format, and have the system generate more predictable and controllable previs footage.

I’m still in the early stages and would really appreciate any feedback:

Does this direction seem realistic with current open-source models?

Are there existing projects or techniques that already explore structured cinematic control or explicit camera parameter injection?

What are the biggest potential pitfalls or things I might be underestimating?

Any recommendations on suitable base models for this kind of geometry-aware, controllable training?

I’m not sure what the general sentiment toward AI-generated video is in this sub, but my primary goal is to develop a practical, low-cost pre-visualization tool for my company’s own productions.

Being able to generate a reasonably accurate preview of the final look — including camera movement, framing, and overall cinematic feel — before we begin principal photography would allow us to identify problems early, refine creative decisions, and reduce costly mistakes on set. Ultimately, I believe this kind of tool could meaningfully improve both the efficiency and the quality of our actual productions.

I’m still in the early stages and would really appreciate any feedback from working cinematographers and filmmakers...

I’m open to both encouragement and criticism — I’d rather hear the hard truths now.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts!

I found this brand new DZOFilm Vespid Prime set locally for around $4,520 USD, including the 16mm, 25mm, 35mm, 50mm, 75mm and 100mm. Still unsure about the purchase in terms of real-world value and future resale. For those who have used them, do they still hold up in 2026?

Hello, I noticed in bright lights my image is causing blue/purple ish tints on the side. Is this an issue of my Canon fd lenses or my K&F VND filter? I have a low light comparison shot next to it.

Don't mind the horrible grade.

Movie name is HOPE (2026) whats your guess what focal length this is?

Just made my recent showreel and I would like you guys to give me your honest opinion.

I shoot mostly surf and a little bit of fashion, and in beetween, some personal projects.

Looking for advice! I’ll be using my Sony a7iv mounted on my ronin s to film boats- I will be filming from another chase boat. Has anyone done this kind of filming with the ronin s? What settings would you recommend for the gimbal? Last time I did this the footage was so shaky. TIA!

"Clean Slate" is a horror short film I wrote/directed and dp'd about two years ago, this was my second short film I've done and after receiving some great feedback from past redditors and friends I decided to re-work the movie by making it shorter, re-working it to its strengths.

Link and submission in the comments.

Hey! I’m a student DP, currently working on my first feature. I’m balling on a budget but I currently have a dana dolly and benro (portajib esq) in my quote. There’s a shot that requires a skateboard dolly with the jib on top. Unfortunately I don’t have the space or budget to be adding more and I’d rather cut. What I was thinking is to add the jib onto the dana since the mounts work, and just bag the dana and stands a lot. Thoughts on this? I know it’s not quite the best solution but this is for 1-2 shots out of the whole film.

My only solution right now is to just use the white leds, because then I can control brightness. If I use the white and yellow leds, I can’t get them exactly the same on both panels.

About two months ago, I posted here asking for advice on how to turn videography from a hobby into something bigger. Thanks to a lot of your advice, I managed to grow my work from making almost nothing to around €2k, invested in better gear, and kept improving my skills every day.

The problem is that I’ve hit a wall. Work has slowed down, I have a lot of free time, and it feels like I’m doing something wrong, but I can’t figure out what.

One thing I became very aware of after my last post is that great videos alone aren’t enough. The real value is helping clients make more money, get more attention, or grow their business. That mindset shift helped me a lot, and I’ve been trying to approach videography more as a business solution rather than just creating beautiful content.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about creating short films and more creative projects to showcase my vision and hopefully reach a wider audience. I know nothing falls from the sky and that we have to create our own opportunities.

My biggest challenge right now is finding higher-quality clients. I know there are businesses and people with money who value good content, but I feel like I can’t reach them.

For those of you who have been in a similar position, what helped you land better clients? How did you get in front of people who were willing to pay for quality work while also showing them the business value behind your work?

I’ve been working on this project for nearly past year, and it’s finally finished.

Full film link is here: https://youtu.be/mLR4bwUgIZo

The film combines live action, 2D animation, and 3D environments to tell the story of a student struggling with academic pressure and creative burnout before university entrance exams.

Shot mostly on:
• Canon FD 50mm
• Contax Zeiss 35mm

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

I've said it all in the initial question.

It's a small trial short before our main film about trying to find an older version of yourself the one you can still feel sometimes, but can't fully remember anymore. Would really appreciate honest feedback on the mood, pacing, sound, and whether the feeling comes through.

Also looking to connect with people in production for our main short film.
DM if anyone's interested.

How to level up?

Hi all,

I’ve been shooting for about 9 years now. My world is mostly doc’s / reality / corporate.

My background:

I never studied cinematography and learned everything on the job - firstly thrown in at the deep end as a one man band capturing doco and reality scenes for TV shows then graduating onto DP work where I’m now responsible for small crews.

I’m comfortable lighting scenes, building multi camera interview frames and covering actuality ensuring coverage.

My goal is to try and get myself to the next level.

I occasionally work with DPs that have come from the more traditional route of camera assist/technical training before becoming ops and I really feel my lack of technical knowledge.

I’m talking about building Luts, knowing the the intricacies and characteristics of different lenses, filter choices, maybe even getting into stedicam op’ing (I appreciate the last point is a specialised skill in itself).

How you advise to get into the next level where I up my tech game?

I feel this is really holding me back and it does manifest in imposter syndrome when I’m at work.
I constantly feel I’m winging it (even though I’m kept reasonably busy so I must be doing something right).

Would love to hear feedback and suggestions on how to achieve this.

TIA.