möglichst Canada What does it take to master cinematography?

Some would say it's how pretty or epic a shot looks, so maybe it's all about the composition.

Some believe it's how immersive you can make the viewer feel as they watch the story unfold.

But what goes into creating that feeling?

Many don't realize how much actually goes into creating a cinematic image.

How everything they see on screen has been done with intention and meaning behind it.

If you want to master cinematography, there are essential elements you need to understand and I'll show you everything you need to know.

You need to have a good understanding of the technical aspects of filmmaking.

know what goes into creating the visual language, and understand all the additional skills and responsibilities we have to make this process work.

Everything within cinematography is to serve the story being told, but what is everything?

Well, first, the fundamentals.

You don't need to know every little thing about cameras to be a cinematographer, but you should know enough of what you're talking about to get your point across, and know the limits of what you're working with so you know what is achievable.

At least understand the basics like the exposure triangle.

Even if you think you already have a full understanding of it, always remember you can use it to change your visual language in many different ways.

With the shutter speed or shutter angle, you can affect the motion blur in a given shot.

The standard is to double your shutter speed for the frame rate you're working in or have the shutter angle at 180 degrees.

If you slow down the shutter speed to 1 20th or 1 10th of a second, you introduce more motion blur, giving your cinematography a dream like look.

If you speed it up to 1 100th or 1 250th or higher, you lose the motion blur and can clearly see what's happening, making it easier to observe high speed action or make it feel more intense or exaggerated.

The aperture is for how much you want in focus.

If you want a shallow depth the field, you drop the aperture to f2.8 or lower.

If you want a deeper focus, you can go to f5.6, 8 or higher.

The depth of field in a shot matters to what you're filming and what you want the audience to pay attention to.

And finally, the ISO.

You might think it's just best to shoot at the base ISO for a cleaner image and that could be true for the most part, but sometimes you want a certain visual style and changing the ISO can achieve that.

The cinematographers from the films nobody and a complete unknown chose to push the camera to its limit with the ISO.

It gave their respective films a unique look, a texture that could only be achieved by raising the ISO as high as they did because they learned what their cameras were capable of.

You can apply and manipulate the exposure triangle to your advantage for a more immersive visual storytelling experience.

The lenses you choose also belong on the technical side of filmmaking, and I'm not talking about the focal lengths just yet.

The qualities of a lens are what we need to decide on when we have that option.

You could want the Cook look from the Cook lenses.

They have a warmer, high contrast, sharp look that is pleasing and subtle to the viewer, not too crazy in its characteristics.

Then there are anamorphic lenses on the opposite end, with their oval bokeh, iconic lens flares across the frame, and softer edges as you go further from the center.

And there are vintage photo lenses as well, like the legendary Helios 44-2 lens.

Known for its swirly bokeh and lower sharpness towards the edges, this has been used by cinematographer Greg Frazier in his films like The Batman and Dune Part Two.

There are many other lenses you can choose from and filtration you can add to them, you just have to experiment and find out what characteristics you desire.

With a deeper insight into the technical aspects of filmmaking, you can better understand your equipment to get the most out of it, and you can communicate more clearly what you want when you create the visual language in your cinematography.

For me, and I believe for most of you, this is the best part about being a cinematographer, getting to bring to life the visual world of whatever you're creating.

Cinematography takes the words, actions, and emotions of what you or the director has in their story and puts them into a visual world that the audience can experience.

There's a lot that goes into creating the visual language that will help immerse the viewers in the world you've made.

Let me give you the essentials to master cinematography.

The first visual element we take in is composition.

We show the audience where to look in a frame.

We choose what we let them see and what we leave out.

Different factors within composition can affect the audience's experience.

The traits I want to talk about are aspect ratio, camera placement, shot size and focal lengths, camera movement, and camera focus.

First, aspect ratio.

This completely changes how we plan and look at our compositions.

We could use the standard 16x9 high definition aspect ratio or the widescreen 2.35 aspect ratio, usually associated with the anamorphic look.

Each one will subtly affect the viewer's experience on a subconscious level.

Certain ratios could be used to depict how vast a landscape is, or it could make what's happening feel more claustrophobic or intimate if we went for a narrower ratio.

We can even change the aspect ratio throughout a shot to dramatize the impact a moment has in the overall narrative.

This is the first decision we must make when creating our compositions, and it can significantly impact the story as a whole.

Where you place the camera can change everything about a shot and the emotion the audience feels.

different camera angles can put the viewer in various positions enhancing the story being told you can have an eye level shot to match what we see in real life keeping the look neutral or you can go for a high angled shot to make the audience feel uneasy to look down at your subject making the look weak or to show more of a scene that is happening across the vast area or why not a low angle shot that can convey power or vulnerability in a character placement can also be as simple as an over-the-shoulder shot, letting the audience see what the character is paying attention to.

It's about viewing things from different perspectives.

There are many camera angles we can explore and experiment with to tell the story.

However, there are also factors such as shot size and focal length that can significantly impact what we see and how much we allow the audience to take in.

You can go from extreme wide shots to extreme close-ups, all with different focal lengths to pick from.

Extreme wides don't have to be shot with a wider focal length, and you don't have to use longer focal lengths for close-ups.

You can mix them if a certain style fits the story you're telling, and using different focal lengths can change the look of the world.

You can go for a more standard approach that makes the visuals appear more realistic, or take a creative approach with the focal lengths that can alter the world around our characters.

Camera movement can also affect what is in frame.

Should we move the camera to reveal something new to the audience?

Do we want to track or follow someone as they explore the space they're in?

Are we in the action of what's happening or do we choose not to move the camera at all?

Letting the scene play out, no distractions from what the audience needs to see, all focus on what is happening in this moment.

We not only make intentional choices on these aspects, but anything we let in the frame, we have to consider what is the focus.

Just because something or someone is in the scene doesn't mean that's what the audience needs to pay attention to.

Maybe some details should stay hidden until the time is right.

Sometimes we want to rack focus to help direct the audience's attention from one part of the frame to another.

All of these choices are important just for the composition.

We have to make them with purpose, but the composition is only part of what brings out the emotion and story in the visual language.

The next and even more important aspect is the lighting.

Every good cinematographer knows how to control and use lighting.

Anyone who wants to master cinematography, visual storytelling, or anything cinematic should focus on improving their lighting skills.

Lighting helps create the emotion in a scene with your compositions.

Where the light comes from or where you place your light, the quality of the light and the intensity of it are all factors in achieving the look you want in your image.

The number one must-know thing about creating depth in your lighting is to almost always shoot from the shadow side.

Most if not all of your favorite shots in cinema will be shot from the shadow side of your subject.

Have the strongest source of light come from the opposite plane of your camera.

It doesn't matter if you're using natural light, an LED, or a lamp.

You can choose the light from the side or even fully backlight your characters, but at times, you might place your camera on the same side as your key light.

If it works for the story you're telling, you might have the sun coming from where the camera is placed, or your strongest light along the same plane.

Not only is the lighting placement important for your cinematography, but the quality of the light can change the mood you're going for.

This is about using harsh vs soft lighting.

You can tell the difference by how the light falls on your subject, if there is a hard or gradual roll off from the brighter parts to the darker parts.

Harsh lighting tends to have little to no diffusion, a higher contrast ratio, and is associated with a more moody, sometimes mysterious feel in the image.

It can add tension in a scene and bring out the imperfections more in our characters.

The sun is a perfect example of a harsh light source that we use, and if clouds were to cover the sun, that is the best example of how soft lighting can be created.

Soft lighting requires more effort to set up as it needs to be diffused or bounced, creating a gradual roll off from the highlights to the shadows.

Soft lighting is more flattering on our skin and can feel more natural with more subtle shadows compared to harsher light.

There are many techniques and setups you can explore to achieve different lighting styles, especially with soft lighting.

What matters most when putting one together is how smooth or how dramatic you want your lighting to be.

And when you decide on the quality of the light, you also have to figure out the intensity of it.

The more intense it is, the more contrast you can introduce.

That has a totally different feel compared to shots with less intense lighting.

Filmmaking has trended towards soft lighting, but harsh lighting still has a place in cinema, and mixing both qualities can create even more depth than relying only on one.

Every decision you make affects the story you're telling, so you have to understand lighting in every possible way.

One more element that you have to consider not only in lighting but other aspects of your cinematography is color.

We can use color to bring out certain themes that are important in the story.

Color affects us on a subconscious level.

It can help give visual guidance in the frame, separating subjects from the backgrounds, creating color contrast that works together in harmony.

You can really dive deep into color, learning about color theory and what ideas colors push into our minds, but there are many places we can add color into our cinematography.

We can adjust our colors in post-production through color grading, but we shouldn't wait to get the colors we want in our visual language until after we film.

Most of it comes from what we do in camera and on set, while color grading brings that look to life.

We can use color through our lighting, getting a daylight balanced look, a warmer tungsten feel, or a mix of both.

Or we can explore adding true colors in our lighting to further explore certain themes of the story.

Even the lack of color filming in black and white has a different tonal feel that was a staple in Hollywood until the introduction of color.

We still see films made in black and white from time to time with intention.

For reasons like achieving a darker tone, getting more contrast and texture between black and white, or if you want a period piece and match that classic film look of the past.

However, when using color, one aspect is influenced by the lighting and the other comes from the first thing we see in our frames, the set design.

The cinematography and set design work together to create a believable world.

With poor set design, no matter how beautiful our lighting is or how we compose our shots, the audience can get taken out of what they're watching.

Set design is what helps give the aesthetic we want in the visual language, the texture that adds depth to our shots, and here is where color can also play a factor.

From the wardrobe, the props, the practical lights, the furniture, and anything else you can see in the space around your characters.

Every piece has to be picked with intention, and the more thought that's put into it, the better the results will be in the end.

Cinematography is the process of combining different job departments within filmmaking to define the world our characters live in.

All these pieces create the visual language of our cinematography, and it is our job to immerse the audience in whatever we make.

But if we want to master everything about cinematography, our job doesn't start when we press record, it begins way before we get on set.

This is the pre-production.

Filmmaking is hard, but pre-production is what makes the process as smooth and easy as possible.

We start by gathering ideas, inspiration, anything that could be used in our visual language that will define the look and feel of our project.

You collaborate with a director to understand their vision and find ways to bring it to life while incorporating your own creativity.

You can start with mood boards, then storyboards, or create shot lists to see how you want the scenes to flow together.

Here, we also do location scouting, figuring out where we want to film, what time of day, how our shots might look with different focal lengths, and all these variables that affect the visuals.

When your plans start to become more concrete, you can do camera tests.

This is for you to try out your compositions and lighting styles you want to use, the wardrobe and set design, lenses, and even camera settings to see what looks good in different scenarios.

As I mentioned with Nobody and a Complete Unknown, this is where the respective cinematographers figured out they could push their cameras to the maximum ISO settings to get the texture they got in their films.

On YouTube, you can find Paul Thomas Anderson's camera test for Phantom Thread, as well as his thoughts on trying different settings and outfits to see how they achieved the film's final look.

With everything thought out before getting on set, it makes everyone's lives easier so you don't just waste time and money when you could be filming.

On the other side, once you're done filming, you could be a part of the post-production.

You might work with a colorist or in my case color grade your own work, and here you get to see everything come together and come alive.

Any colors you wanted in your visuals should already be there when you're filming, so all you have to do is amplify what was captured to finalize the look of the world you created.

This is what goes into being a cinematographer at the highest level, and if you want to continuously improve to master these skills, you need to practice.

When you're just starting, it's hard to gain experience to improve your craft, so you need to create your own experiences.

Don't wait for someone else to give you the chance to create what you want to create, but work on your skills on your own and make the projects you can with the resources you have.

When you want to learn new techniques and skills, you have to go through trial and error and learn all by yourself.

If you like my cinematography, that's how I've been able to develop the skills I have now.

Continue to practice and take in more inspiration and learn from the mistakes and hardships you've had to go through along the way.

And remember, everything we do is to serve the story being told.

What is best for the story is all we should care about and how to show that to the audience.

As cinematographers, we have to be quick at problem solving, be effective communicators with different departments on set, and develop a good eye and taste for the cinema.

So you're asking yourself what does it take to master cinematography it takes everything