How To Do Cinematography With Your Phone
As we already mentioned, cinematographers use expensive professional camera equipment to create beautiful shots. While most people can enjoy filming with their own smartphone, it is not practical or reasonable to call yourself a filmmaker due to this.
Luckily, these days there are many ways you can do cinematic photography using your phone! This article will go into more detail about some of the best apps for iPhone and Android that can help you achieve similar results to a professional photographer.
These applications have features such as adjustable exposure, color balance, and white balance settings, slow motion videos, and even depth-of-field (Aerials) which match that of higher quality cameras.
There are also several free resources available online and in app stores that can get you started.
Practice taking photos and editing them
A lot of cinematographers start out doing photography before moving onto filming, which is great for building your camera skills! If you are already having trouble focusing in person, try shooting a few outside settings or at least in low light to get comfortable with using your camera off-camera.
Once you feel more comfortable, look into getting some basic photo editing software such as Photoshop or Lightroom so that you can easily edit your pictures without having to invest heavily in other apps or software like you would need if you were starting from scratch.
There are many free resources available online where you can find out how to do various things within these programs, such as creating fake grays, levels, curves, and shades! These tools will help make your still photographs look much better than if you had to learn how to do this yourself.
Use a tripod
A good way to do handheld filming is by using a sturdy, well-made tripod. This will give you a stable base that can be adjusted in height and width to match the setting or scene you are shooting in!
The best tripods have adjustable feet so that you can make sure your camera does not move when extended up or down. You also want ones with rubberized grips as this helps keep them steady.
These days there are very affordable tripods available at any store with great reviews. Make sure to check out Amazon and YouTube to see what people say about each one!
There are many ways to use a tripod for cinematographic purposes. Some of the most common usses include:
For example, if you wanted to create an action sequence where someone was running away, you could mount the tripod behind the person being run through a set number of shots before pulling it forward to capture their face.
This would totally depend on the length of the chase and how quickly you able to get these types of settings prepared!
Another option would be to have the person in question walk towards the tripod while it is mounted, then pull back.
Use a location that has good lighting
A common way to do photography is using a camera with you. This is typically referred to as smartphone photography or mobile photoshoot.
A smartphone contains all of the tools needed to take high quality pictures, including a front facing camera! If you have a decent phone that has good enough photos then it’s easy to pick up where professional photographers leave off.
By learning how to use your phone as a camera, you can create some really cool images. Plus, there are now lots of free apps and resources online for anyone to learn from.
It’s not too difficult to get started either- most only require basic photo editing software such as Photoshop or Lightroom which are both available free online or through Google Play/Apple Store.
Use your whole camera setup
The best way to do cinematographic photography with your phone is by using all of your equipment! You don’t have to use every piece of gear, but if you are able to, why not?
Having a nice camera that takes beautiful pictures is great, but investing in some extra lenses and other pieces of technology can help take your photos to the next level.
These additional tools can be expensive, however. Luckily, there are many ways to get free or cheap photo effects and tips from online communities and YouTube videos. By learning the basics of smartphone photoshootering, you will know what to do when your budget allows for more advanced settings.
Learn to use your shutter speed
A good starting place for cinematographers is learning how to use your shutter speed. This will determine what looks cool in your photos!
The shutter speed of your camera determines how long it takes to capture an image. There are two main things that affect shutter speed- aperture and focal length.
As we discussed earlier, the larger the hole (or more open) the lens, the faster the exposure time can be. Therefore, one way to increase the “beauty” of an image is by using a wide angle shot.
However, due to the wider field of view, there is less focus detail than a longer depth of field would normally have. So, whether or not this is desirable depends on the look you want to achieve!
Another way to use shutter speed to create beautiful images is via a technique called handholding. Here, instead of having the camera hold still while taking the picture, you drop the ball with one hand and take several pictures at varying speeds to get a sense of motion.
You can also do something similar by moving your body or the object being photographed. By doing so, you can create some very interesting photographs!
There are many ways to learn how to do photography if you are just beginning. Learning about shutter speed is a nice primer as most photographers start out knowing this element well.
Learn to use your ISO
A common photography mistake is using too high of an ISO value while taking pictures. When you do this, your camera will try to compensate by making the image brighter. But with video, having more light means not recording good quality footage!
So how can we reduce the brightness of our photos? By learning how to use your intrinsic sensor (ISO) limit. This allows us to lower the sensitivity of the camera so it does not overcompensate for lights or darkness.
By lowering the ISO value, you can take very bright photos without having to increase the exposure time which could result in blurry images. Also, some cameras have a noise reduction mode that works similarly to what we get from software such as Adobe Lightroom. By using this feature, you can capture sharper, clearer stills.
Use your white balance
A very important part of filming is knowing how to use your camera properly! One thing that can totally take away from the overall look you are trying to achieve with your film is poor white balance settings.
There are many different types of light sources in our daily lives, so being able to identify what color temperature each one produces is an integral part of cinematography.
By using the right white balance for each shot, you can create some beautiful looking films. By experimenting with various colors, you will get familiar with how individual lights affect images.
When doing outdoor shooting, sunlit scenes require a warmer white balance setting otherwise it looks too cool. If the scene has lots of shadows, then you need to use a cooler white balance to make the image darker.