Cinematography is an art form that can be honed with time and practice. Learning to light subjects effectively for mood, camera motion, lens choice, depth of field, color grading - these are all skills that you can learn to take your films to the next level. But it's one thing to know the basics and yet another to visualize how these principles can be applied. If you're looking for advice on how to improve your cinematography skills or want some inspiration from the world of filmmaking today, then this blog post is for you!

What is Cinematography
Cinematography is the art of capturing film or video images, either electronically or on film stock. A cinematographer's role is similar to that of an art director in photography, and their work is part of what creates the mood or feeling in films. Cinematography is both an art form and a part of the filmmaking process. Cinematographers are responsible for finding locations, framing shots, managing daily shoots, working with actors, choosing lighting setups, directing motion sequences, and much more. The cinematographer is responsible for realizing an artistic vision of how a scene will be filmed and the technical resources necessary to facilitate that.

Cinematography can be thought of as three-dimensional photography. To accomplish this, cinematographers use arrangement and control of the camera as an artistic instrument. Some of these techniques include camera movements, such as panning, tracking, and dolly shots. Lighting and lenses are used to create the desired perspectives and composition. Editing also comes into play by defining what information is revealed or concealed from the viewer, how the viewer will interpret the sequence of events, and what color tones or grading the images have. All of these affect how the final film will be viewed.

Cinematography is highly collaborative, requiring many different people to work together to produce a single shot. Such people include camera personnel, including directors of photography and camera operators, grip technicians, lighting technicians, such as gaffers and key grips, visual-effects personnel, sound technicians, script supervisors, and other crew members. Cinematography is a vast topic, so let's get started with different areas of cinematography that you can learn about and experiment with to take your films to the next level.

The Basic Principles of Cinematography
Cinematography is typically directed to tell a story or move from one event to the next in a logical progression. Cinematography relies on a series of techniques designed to ensure that the film's feeling and mood match the director's artistic vision. Let's take a look at the different aspects that bring this vision to life.

Lighting
Lighting is a vital part of cinematography because it brings mood and feeling to your footage. Lighting gives insight to the viewer about the mood of the scene. Dark, moody lighting can make a scene feel scary or ominous. A brightly lit scene can portray happiness or innocence. Dappled lighting can make an outdoor setting more beautiful, while deep shadows can portray evil or mystery. Using light well can make all the difference when it comes to how your work is perceived. Let's take a look at different types of lighting you can use to achieve your objective.

Hard light is intense, usually coming from the sun or a very bright studio lamp. It creates strong shadows, and it can be harsh on people's faces if you're not careful. It provides the most contrast of all types of lighting.

Fill light softens hard shadows cast by your subject and illuminates dark areas in your scene. You can add fill light with a reflector or cloud cover during the day, or you can use studio lights to soften your shadows.

Backlight is sunlight or an artificial source of light that comes from behind and above your subject. It separates people and objects by creating a distinct rim of lighter color around their edges.

Side- or rim-light is used to make your subject pop off the screen. It comes from beside and slightly behind your subjects. This lighting creates an outline of light around the edges of the subject.

Lenses
There are many different types of lenses, including wide-angle, telephoto, and fisheye lenses. Typically, each lens has its own look that can be used for various purposes, depending on your needs. Here's a quick breakdown of each one:

Wide-angle lenses make images appear to be more depth-filled. They distort lines in the image, called perspective distortion, but provide an interesting look for certain shots. The wider the lens, the greater the distortion.

Telephoto lenses are designed to compress distant objects together. They have a very narrow field of view that is good for bringing you close to subjects at a distance, but they provide less depth in your scene than wide-angles do.

Fisheye lenses provide an extremely wide field of view and can distort perspective and create interesting images with a warped perspective.

Depth of Field
When you focus your camera on a particular subject, everything that is not in focus becomes blurry. This is called depth of field, DOF. Most lenses have a shallow DOF, which means only one thing will be clearly defined, while the rest have a soft blur. A deeper DOF gives you more of your shot in crisp focus - usually an entire person, instead of their face or eyes. Directors have to think about what they want the viewers to see clearly in every shot because of DOF. How you use depth of field in your cinematography can significantly change how your footage is interpreted.

Types of Camera Movement
Camera movement can also change the feel of a scene. It's up to your director to decide what type of camera movements are suitable for each shot. When you're shooting, you need to consider the lens and how each type of movement affects your shot. How close should you be? Should you rotate around an axis? These are questions needing answers for every take. In Cinematography, the four main types are linear, rotating, sweeping, and a dolly shot.

Linear movements are straight or diagonal lines across the frame - up and down or back and forth.

Rotational movements are circular around a central point in the frame, like spinning around an object.

Sweeping camera movements follow a curved path from one direction of the frame to another, usually horizontally.

A dolly shot is a linear movement where the camera is pushed forward or backward with the subject stationary.

Editing
Each film has its unique editing style that sets the mood or tone for what the director wants to convey. You can make a viewer laugh, cry, be scared, or feel any other emotion using editing, so think about how you want to guide your viewers' emotions with your editing style. Here are the most common types of edits are as follows:

Match on Action - A shot that matches directly after another shot cuts. When done well, it is most easily interpreted by the viewer as one action.

Action Sequence - A series of shots that slowly build up to the big climax of an action scene or scene containing fast cuts.

Flashback - An edited sequence in which the events are shown chronologically backward, usually used to remind the viewer of past information or give clues about future information.

Parallel Editing - Two scenes cut together to show the same action from two different angles.

Cutaways - A shot that cuts away from the main sequence of shots to another scene, often without sound.

Jump Cuts - A cut between two shots where the action seems continuous but is missing information.

Color Grading
Lastly, color grading is an essential step in post-production. Color grading is changing the look and feel of your shot by overlaying color and adjusting highlights, shadows, and contrast. You can do this by applying a LUT (Look Up Table) in editing software. A LUT changes the color and exposure of your footage before it is viewed on-screen. They are often used to give the film a specific look that suits the story. Depending on how much color grading you do, it can change the mood of your entire film. For example, low saturation and contrast look makes things seem very negative and depressing, but increased saturation and contrast could give a bright and sunny feel. Knowing how to read a LUT is essential to understanding how colors work together. This knowledge will help you choose which LUTs to use in your film.

In Conclusion
Cinematography is a complex art form that can take months or even years to master, but by learning the language of filming, understanding lighting, and mastering editing, you'll be many steps closer to creating an emotive piece. While these are the three most essential aspects of Cinematography, there are many more ways to improve your cinematography and become a fantastic filmmaker.