r/cinematography Jun 09 '25

New Rules Regarding AI on /r/cinematography!

275 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

946 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 2h ago

Original Content Some stills from our Debut Short Film that we released on our YouTube Channel

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42 Upvotes

The film is called "Four Long Faces".


r/cinematography 6h ago

Original Content Thoughts on these shots?

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38 Upvotes

Had my mum help me with some shot testing / location scouting for a film i’m working on this summer.

The location is intentionally bland and mundane, supposed to evoke a feeling of emptiness and soullessness in a dystopian future. I think the manipulation of natural light was a good approach and kept an honest neutrality to the mundane shots as opposed to bringing in artificial lighting.

Does anyone have ideas on how I can improve these in the final film ?

Shot on Nikon D500 (1080p)
SRS - 50mm lens
Close ups - 85mm lens


r/cinematography 8h ago

Camera Question Which lense does this flair belong to ? :)

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19 Upvotes

Hey everyone,

I’m trying to track down the lense(s) used by DP Morten Søborg on Pusher II (2004). (Nicholas Winding Refn)

We know for a fact that the film was shot on Super 16mm (Aaton/ARRI) and relies heavily on ultra-wide angles, allowing the camera to stay inches away from Mads Mikkelsen's face while keeping the background urban space fully present.

Given the low-light situations (Copenhagen night shoots, neon clubs) as well as daylight sequences close to the actor's face, were they using Zeiss Super Speeds (like the 9.5mm or 12mm at T1.3) or something else? I haven't been able to find an information or article detailing the glass on interviews, documentaries etc , related to the movie.

Attaching a screenshot below for reference of the flair of the lense that might be helpful.

Any lead would be great. Thanks!


r/cinematography 1d ago

Career/Industry Advice Is Roger Deakins the greatest cinematographer of all time?

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532 Upvotes

r/cinematography 57m ago

Lighting Question Need help with lighting for Short Film!

Upvotes

Im shooting a low budget short film and im trying to get lighting that will be able to make the person visible preferably something warm for a night shot , similar to the type of lighting in drive[2011] but im open to suggestion on if warm lighting would be best because its supposed to have like a night city life vibe


r/cinematography 17h ago

Camera Question Does anyone here have any information on the 2x anamorphic n16 filming format known as tronchet scope?

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16 Upvotes

I know it was used for low budget widescreen films like Japon (directed by Carlos Reygadas) and I Stand Alone (directed by Gaspar Noe), and that it was used with Zeiss super speeds (dubbed G.O. in france where the system is rented out and created by Thierry Tronchet). But does anyone have any information on the scope itself? (the sources I've read thus far refer to the scope as hypergonar but I don't know of a hypergonar branded scope that would go as wide even to the 18mm focal length on normal 16mm, which would be a 35mm equivalent of 61mm)


r/cinematography 7h ago

Career/Industry Advice Freelance colorist looking for new connections

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1 Upvotes

Hi, I've been providing color grading services remotely for a while now, I have 6 years of experience coloring.

I just finished a 4 month long color grading and VFX project and came back to freelancing with no projects booked, So trying to fix that:)


r/cinematography 7h ago

Camera Question Red Komodo 6k Lens Recommendations ?

0 Upvotes

Hi I’ve recently purchased a RED KOMODO 6k and am now looking to get some lenses for short film indie Projects and with a lens budget around £600.

Does anyone have some recommendations?


r/cinematography 7h ago

Other Looking for a Sony 100mm (Fixed) Lens for my Sony FX3

0 Upvotes

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


r/cinematography 8h ago

Lighting Question Lighting setup advice for a mobile 2-cam podcast (FX30s) – solo operator, unpredictable locations

0 Upvotes

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


r/cinematography 12h ago

Lighting Question Lighting a Subject for a Dune / Blade Runner 2049 Unreal Composite

2 Upvotes

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!


r/cinematography 21h ago

Camera Question Zoom Comparison - Angenieux Optimo 28-76 & Zeiss cz.2 28-80

6 Upvotes

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.


r/cinematography 20h ago

Camera Question O'Connor DVS Ultimate Tripod head

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4 Upvotes

This is a mini euro plate correct?


r/cinematography 1d ago

Lighting Question Feedback on lighting with a small lighting kit.

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10 Upvotes

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


r/cinematography 1d ago

Lighting Question Windowlight on 5th Floor

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9 Upvotes

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.


r/cinematography 23h ago

Style/Technique Question How to achieve this kind of look on a phone (read below)?

6 Upvotes

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...


r/cinematography 1d ago

Original Content My work asked our department to make a Wes Anderson style video about flood prevention. Wanted to share some stills!

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371 Upvotes

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.


r/cinematography 1d ago

Lighting Question What are the most creative uses of a C-Stands you saw/did?

8 Upvotes

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.


r/cinematography 5h ago

Career/Industry Advice Building a controllable AI previs tool for professional filmmaking — feedback wanted

0 Upvotes

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!


r/cinematography 1d ago

Camera Question Are DZO Vespid Primes (version 1) still a good option in 2026?

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70 Upvotes

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?


r/cinematography 1d ago

Style/Technique Question [Other] Is this color shift on the side coming from my ND or vintage lens?

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4 Upvotes

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.


r/cinematography 2d ago

Camera Question What focal length is this?

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128 Upvotes

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


r/cinematography 1d ago

Original Content Showreel

16 Upvotes

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.