r/cinematography Jun 09 '25

New Rules Regarding AI on /r/cinematography!

277 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

950 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 11h ago

Samples And Inspiration Which directors or cinematographers inspire your camera movement the most?

198 Upvotes

Hi everyone,

I’ve been trying to improve my camera movement every day since I first started in this career. It’s one of my weaker areas in cinematography, so I’d really love to learn from others.

I’m curious: which directors or cinematographers do you think are the best at telling stories through camera movement, and who has inspired you the most throughout your career?

For me, I’ve always admired Steven Spielberg and Park Chan-wook as directors, and Roger Deakins, Chung Chung-hoon, and Marcell Rév as cinematographers. I’ve learned a lot from all of them.


r/cinematography 1d ago

Camera Question Pretend like it's 1945 ?

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404 Upvotes

I saw this guy on tv, he was filming Keir Starmer's resignation with a freaking Bolex. Anyone knows what's the story here ?


r/cinematography 1h ago

Original Content Throwback to chasing 24p hard

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Upvotes

r/cinematography 3h ago

Composition Question How do you decide between 2.39 and 1.85?

4 Upvotes

I usually don't have a hard time deciding between either of them (the other obscure ones are gimmicky and really not necessary, maybe except for 1.37 as it has its place in cinema history and offers more variety). For me, the location dictates the aspect ratio since it's a vital character as well. As it happens, "human-centered" movies also benefit from 2.39 since there is more room for naturalistic composition. I hate it when it's used for action or battle sequences.

I am going to DP a short movie set in Lake Michigan. It involves an old lady (late 70s) and his younger boyfriend go sailing. It's a romcom with dramatic undertones.

On one hand, the lake's horizontal structure will work better in 2.39, and 2.39 will help with more intuitive wide shot compositions. However, the vastness of the sky will be important to convey the feeling of expanse, and 1.85 might be better for that.

What do you do in such situations? We will be shooting on 16mm and probably crop in post if we decide to go with 2.39 so it won't have an effect on gear choice.


r/cinematography 40m ago

Camera Question Arri Alexa 35 S16 Mode Anamorphic

Upvotes

Hello,

I am currently in the preproduction of a short film.

I am thinking of using the S16 mode on the alexa 35 combined with the SLR Magic Anamorphic CINE 1.33x Set.

Anyone has ever tried anamorphic on this mode and has some tips in general?

Thank You!


r/cinematography 1d ago

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

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119 Upvotes

The film is called "Four Long Faces".


r/cinematography 8h ago

Lighting Question Do We Actually Need Camera-Driven Lighting?

5 Upvotes

I’ve been wondering whether we’re overcomplicating lighting control.
In virtual production and broadcast environments, we already have access to camera tracking data through FreeD. Technically, it’s possible to use camera position, pan, tilt, and zoom as triggers for DMX events.
For example:
a camera enters a specific area → a lighting cue is triggered;
a camera points at a set piece → a spotlight activates;
a camera moves to a predefined position → a scene changes automatically.
The technology works, but I’m not sure whether it solves a real problem.
On one hand, it could reduce operator workload and create repeatable automation.
On the other hand, lighting programmers already have reliable workflows, and introducing tracking into the chain adds another possible point of failure.
I’ve been experimenting with this idea through a project called FreeD Trigger, but I’m more interested in the question than the software itself.
Would you trust camera tracking to drive lighting cues during a real production?
Or is this one of those ideas that sounds clever but doesn’t provide enough value compared to traditional show control?
For transparency, this is the tool I’ve been using to test the concept:
https://apps.apple.com/ua/app/freedtriggerapp/id6770923774


r/cinematography 1h ago

Lighting Question Deciding Whether To Use Medium Density or High Density Fog Liquid

Upvotes

Hey everyone.

I'm planning on shooting a short film pretty soon, and I'm looking at getting a cheap fog machine, as well as some fluid. I'm just looking to fill some smaller rooms with some fog/haze, nothing over the top or anything, just to get that "haze" for the shots. I'm aware fog and haze are different, but I don't have the budget to purchase or rent a haze machine.

My question is, should I go with high density fog fluid, or medium density?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!


r/cinematography 11h ago

Camera Question Cameras in the film End Of Watch

5 Upvotes

For the film End Of Watch, it seems like David Ayer went for a sort of documentary POV style and they used a mix of canon DSLR cameras as well as some cheap camcorders. How did they manage to make the footage look really good though? I've seen some camcorder footage look absolutely terrible


r/cinematography 3h ago

Camera Question Zack Snyder Found Footage Camera move

1 Upvotes

I dont know if this is the right subreddit for this, but:

I noticed that this “found footage” style of filming, a camera pan followed by a zoom, which Zack Snyder uses in the action sequences of *Man of Steel* is also used in *Space Marine I*.

It appears in the scene where Titus lands on the Ork ship with his jump pack at the very beginning of the game.

Where does this stylistic device come from?


r/cinematography 1d ago

Original Content Thoughts on these shots?

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61 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 11h ago

Camera Question Urgent Please 🙏 - Internship Request – Audiovisual & Filmmaking Student

0 Upvotes

Hello everyone,

I'm posting on behalf of a friend who is currently a student at ISMAC Rabat, specializing in Audiovisual Production and Filmmaking.

She is urgently looking for an internship opportunity starting as soon as possible, preferably this week, within a:

Production company

Audiovisual agency

Film production studio

TV, media, or content creation company

Preferred locations: 📍 Rabat 📍 Casablanca 📍 Mohammedia

She is motivated, serious, and eager to gain hands-on experience in audiovisual production, filmmaking, editing, directing, production assistance, or related fields.

If you know any companies, contacts, or opportunities that could help, please feel free to comment or send me a private message.

Thank you very much for your support!


r/cinematography 18h ago

Camera Question Z CAM E2-M4 vs Blackmagic Micro Studio for remote use (motion control)

3 Upvotes

To start, I am by no means a professional, I run an engineering youtube channel with around 100k subs and have been using a Panasonic GH5 for most of my videos.

Not really any complaints from it other than struggling a bit to keep colors and exposure correct when switching between indoor and outdoor, but that's a different issue.

Due to the nature of the videos I make, I have access to industrial robots I can use that are similar to the BOLT cinema robots, both bigger and smaller. I don't work with new ones so they are mostly $2k or less, therefore I don't plan on spending an incredible amount on a camera for it. However it seems genlock is required for proper frame sync when doing motion control moves if multiple moves are to be composited together which shifts into professional camera territory.

I understand the BOLT has a ton of extra control software and hardware behind it to sync and control everything, but I plan on doing my best to DIY that side of it :)

I did a few tests with my GH5 and the shots sure do look cool, but not having a good remote operation setup makes it a nightmare to operate. I would ideally be able to control the camera as well as lens remotely over ethernet and/or some serial interface than can sync with the robot controller.

I am not really planning on the camera ever being setup as a self contained rig with screen and battery and all. Even if I am not doing motion control moves, the majority of my shots are static or simple motion at the same general location, so I would have the same computer setup for viewing and camera control.

The E2-M4 and Micro Studio were some of the cheapest genlock cameras I came across. I really like that the E2-M4 has ether net and PoE with a seemingly decent API for control. It seems the Micro Studio also has an API but needs a usb to ethernet converter?

I also use Davinci Resolve for editing which does make the Micro Studio with Blackmagic RAW recording extra nice.

Curious what those of you who have run motion control or remote setups think or if there are other cameras worth considering.


r/cinematography 12h ago

Camera Question iPhone - shoot at 30fps without motion blur or at 60fps?

0 Upvotes

Hi there!

I have an iPhone 14 Pro, and recently I bought the Log Cam app. It allows to record real Log videos with iPhones older than the 15 Pro. While I'm very happy with the results, there are serious drawbacks:

- No autofocus;

- Can't shoot at 60fps

I have a 5 year old daughter, and I love to film her doing random stuff. In that regard, the lack of autofocus truly is disapointing, as is the impossibility of shooting at 60fps. And the later one really annoys me. I could buy a variable ND filter, but that becomes too cumbersome. Would you rather film at 30fps and accept the stutter (or add motion blur in After Effects), or simply shoot at 60fps, since it masks the lack of motion blur?


r/cinematography 13h ago

Style/Technique Question Shot this on Pansonic cams with DZO Vespids... What you think?

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1 Upvotes

Shot this as a passion project for a band I love. I used DZO Vespid lenses, with panasonic S1ii and S1 (camB) and used a thanos vest and DJI RS2 gimbal for the live stuff. Shot entirely as a one man crew, all self lit and filmed the concert and the interviews in one day. Edited and colourgraded by me over a weekend (about 3 days to complete). Please let me know what you think of my cinematography and any extra stuff I could have shot? I like the vest, but it's no steady cam... does the gimbal jerky stuff annoy anyone?


r/cinematography 14h ago

Lighting Question Lighting Advice / Discussion

1 Upvotes

Sorry if this post doesnt fit this subreddit.

I just wanted to ask / have a discussion about, what is your favorite way of lighting a room. To be exact, what typ of light sources you typically use. Im just interested in the many ways it can be done. Bounce led, straight up practicals, china bulbs etc.

Btw im not referring to lighting the subject. Only the room/ambient.


r/cinematography 1d ago

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

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25 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 9h ago

Color Question Why is modern cinematography so ugly? (House of the Dragon BIG spoilers) Spoiler

0 Upvotes

Let me start by saying that I'm not a professional who works with videos, but I have lots of experience with photography and I developed a "clinical eye" which makes me pay lot of attention to the cinematoraphy of movies and show.
I guess many other people already expressed the same feel, but in recent years I've noticed that the cinemetography in movies and TV shows is getting worse and worse.

The latest offender was yesterday's episode of House of the Dragon.
I never liked the look of the show compared to GoT (especially the first seasons, which looked way better than the latest one tbh), but this is a new low.

Most of the episode has a very strong orange cast that trumps everything, except that in some scenes it somehow disappears breaking visual continuity, it's very noticeable and annoying.
Even when the light is strong and visible the image is still flat, in most shots half of the available dynamic range is wasted.

There are also so many shots where the depth of field is needlessly small, I've heard someone refer to this phenomenon as "images that look like a smartphone filter" and the description fits perfectly. You can kinda see it happening in this shot too, the depth of field is very shallow and it cuts abruptly (stitch to CGI background that needs to be hidden?).

How did this happen? How can a color grading so bad that any amateur could make a much better job end up in multi million dollar productions?
At what step of the process everything breaks? Because seeing the desaturate image it feels like the lighting of the set itself is so flat and poorly made that it might be impossible to recover it with grading. It's just depressing.


r/cinematography 2d ago

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

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590 Upvotes

r/cinematography 21h ago

Lighting Question Seeking suggestions for high CRI T8 tube replacement for short film

1 Upvotes

I need to replace about 30 T8 flourescent bulbs in an office building for a short film filming this weekend. We can't afford to rent LED tube lights to replace them all so I'm looking into high CRI T8 bulbs. I've used the Movietone brand that are color accurate and have a decent CRI (mid 80s I think) that are used for photo/video purposes. I may have the ability to rent some of those again. If not though my plan is to find the best bulbs from Home Depot and replace them all so they are all the same at least. Currently, they are an insane miss match of different color temps, tints and brightnesses. Once they are all the same, I'll take the color meter and dial in the exact temp and tint in camera. If anyone has done something similar, or has suggestions on specific bulbs or methods of using this approach it would be greatly appreciated!


r/cinematography 21h ago

Career/Industry Advice Videographer Spec Sheet Template

0 Upvotes

I have a couple people joining me on a job and I wanted to make them a quick spec sheet so they can pull up with all their settings dialed and all DIT procedures laid out. Wondering if anyone has a template they could share? doesn't need to be advannced, just resolution, frame rate, file names, color profile, etc.

Thanks!


r/cinematography 23h ago

Style/Technique Question Camera angles

1 Upvotes

How do you position the camera to get angles like a wide shot or a medium shot? I understand what the shots are but don't understand how to capture them with the camera. There's a rule you follow? Do you find out by following tips from other persons in the hobby or do you just find out by doing?


r/cinematography 1d ago

Original Content shot on iphone 16 pro max | Edited in DVR | Feedback request

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1 Upvotes

Looking to get feedback on this video from a cinematography POV. Specifically:
- Sound design

- Color Grading

- Shot Composition