How To Explain Cinematography

In filmmaking, cinematography (or simply filming) is an integral part of the movie industry. A good director will make sure that they have enough shots of the scene being filmed so that the audience can form their own interpretations about what’s happening in the film.

Usually, there are only limited number of shots available due to time or money constraints, so the director will use whatever resources are at hand to create a sense of flow for the story.

By and large, most people agree that great cinematographers know how to use light well and understand timing, but very few understand the difference between foreground and background space. Beyond that, some manage movement better than others!

Luckily, you don’t need to be a professional shooter to help filmmakers tell their stories! By learning the basics of shooting scenes, you can contribute towards creating successful cinematic images.

In this article, we'll go over all the important things that a beginner must know when it comes to camera work.

History of cinematography

When talking about the history of cinematographic technique, there are two main categories: documentary-style filming and narrative filmmaking.

Documentary style filming is typically characterized by having individual shots that tell their own story with little or no emphasis given to creating a continuous flow of footage. Some examples of this include shooting still photos in succession or recording short videos at a steady pace. The key difference between documentary photography and documentary video is that the latter uses longer duration pieces of film to create an illusion of fluidity.

Narrative films go beyond simply telling a story, they establish characters, develop relationships, and advance the plot. This use of storytelling was arguably perfected during the golden era of Hollywood cinema, which lasted from roughly 1935 until around 1965.

From here, cinematic styles began to blend together as filmmakers innovated new ways to tell stories using camera techniques. For example, many consider the shot selection, editing, and overall aesthetic of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic thriller Psycho (1960) to be one such innovation.

Since then, other notable stylists have incorporated various components of this approach into their work, making for some interesting variations. These artists often emphasize creativity, expression, and challenge when capturing imagery. Many also appreciate how well light changes can convey mood, setting, and storyline.

There you have it! That is all you need to know about the history of cinematography.

Equipment of a cinematography team

Now that we have an overall understanding of what makes up a cinematic style, it is time to discuss how professional cinematographers are able to bring their own unique style to projects!

First off, you will not find many professionals who do not use light meters. This can be done either with handheld or tripod mounted lights, large softboxes or gels, or even just natural sunlight when available.

By having a meter in hand, they know where levels of intensity are needed to properly expose the film. By using different lighting styles, photoshoots become much easier as there are no hard limits on how close or far away from a subject you can work.

Another piece of equipment most pro-cinematographers have is at least one camera body per model. This way, they know which features each body has and how this body reacts to certain settings and modes.

This saves them time by knowing what works best with the given setting and environment. For example, if a scene requires some action, then the body may need to allow for faster shutter speeds thus achieving more blur.

Overall, having a good base of knowledge about cameras helps create seamless photos that look professionally made.

Plan your shoot

When it comes down to it, cinematographers spend most of their time talking about shooting. They talk about light, setting up for a scene, coverage, depth of field, and so on. All of these things contribute to what we refer to as “the look” of a film.

The word “look” actually has its roots in painting. Before moving into photography, many artists studied how to apply textures, colors, and mediums to create aesthetically pleasing pictures. We can take inspiration from those who came before us to learn how to achieve beautiful shots.

In filmmaking, the term “look” typically refers to the overall style or tone that a movie sets aside during filming. This includes everything from the camera used (lenses, angles, and shutter speeds) to the color grading and effects applied to the final product.

There are several styles or tones that filmmakers use to convey different messages. These include gritty, epic, naturalistic, surreal, comic-relief, and others.

Touch up

After you edit your film, there is one more important part of filming that needs attention- touch up or retouching. This includes things like changing the color balance, enhancing contrast, and adding overall brightness or darkness (lightening or darkening) the movie.

Running an automatic white balance can sometimes result in very blue or green tinges being over exposed, making the images look too bright. To avoid this, you can use a gray card, which has a standard light source, to set your camera’s white balance. Once it does, you can take pictures of it to get a better idea of what colors are needed and how to achieve them!

Another way to enhance the intensity of some parts of the picture is to increase the exposure. If the image looks slightly overexposed, you can add back into the photo by taking away from it. An easy way to do this is to go into your photoshop or gimp file and create a new layer under the current one. Then reduce the opacity of the new layer down until only a small amount of the image is visible. You want just enough to see the difference, not so much that you cannot tell what was altered.

That brings us out! Hopefully you have learned something about cinematography here! Don’t hesitate to experiment with lighting, depth perception, and other key components when editing your films.

Take photos

As we already mentioned, cinematographers take very artistic pictures. They use special light sources or gear to create aesthetically pleasing images.

Most people do not realize that anyone other than professional photographers uses photography as an art form! That is why it is so hard to describe what makes an image beautiful.

It is impossible to tell if an image looks good until you have seen several examples like yourself. So try taking some pictures - just for fun!

Photography is a medium that allows your imagination to run free. Use natural sunlight, artificial lights, close-up shots, wide angles, and anything else your mind can come up with! The only limit is your creativity.

After all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Create a movie

The next step in developing your film career is actually creating your first movie! While it’s tempting to start filming immediately, you should think about what kind of movie you want to make before you get started.

It’s great to have an idea for a story, but you will not be able to tell whether your ideas are interesting until you can create a sequence of events that people would watch. This requires deciding if you want to document or narrate a situation, doing a introduction or setting up a plot, and then writing and shooting a scene.

After all, scenes are what people watch films for! So, how do you learn how to write and direct a scene?

There are several ways to learn this art form. You can either take classes at university, work with a mentor, or find someone else who does so and then copy their techniques. There are also plenty of free resources available via YouTube and blogs.