r/cinematography

It's somewhat of a blur but looks glassy. I am new to cinematography. Anyone know how to achieve this effect in Davinci Resolve?

Kindly review this and tell me what do you feel about this video

I am student currently learning and would love some technical feedback on this 2:14 video I put together. I wanted to focus on fixed frame (static shots) to capture the movement of the environment. The video features original soundtrack, I am trying to improve my composition and understanding of natural lighting, specifically focus on how sunlight interacts with water and leaves. I edited the movement shots to show the movement from left to right to indicate outward journey. Are the shots interesting enough to hold attention without camera movement? Any tips on color grading for natural skin tones/water reflections?

Hello everyone.
So I've been watching videos on YouTube, trying to find cinematic Sony FX30 and a6700 videos to see what lenses people use to achieve a cinematic look. I've literally been watching for days and days now. At first I thought that certain lenses are better. I went down a whole rabbit hole, finding lots of videos where people use anamorphic lenses, and I felt like it looked really good. It looked like actual movies and looked very cinematic.

I wanted the Sigma 17-40 1.8 lens but the videos I found looked a lot less like a warm movie and a lot less cinematic so I thought you NEEDED an anamorphic or "cinema" labeled lens to look cinematic. But then later I started finding certain channels that have very cinematic, very warm, movie-like examples of the Sigma lenses. For example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5r7w6q4IL0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-wxHR_rdEc&list=PLcZiLo5PJeDA8SNDQniAfbTQdAvEWOJKb&index=6
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSVZcVGaQUY&list=PLcZiLo5PJeDA8SNDQniAfbTQdAvEWOJKb&index=8

and really cinematic videos with another non-anamorphic lens (tamron):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChxDEAN8EtY&list=PLcZiLo5PJeDA8SNDQniAfbTQdAvEWOJKb&index=11

So I realized anamorphic doesn't really matter and these sigma and tamron lenses can still make something that is very warm and movie like. I guess my conclusion is that there are many other factors that need to be considered, like maybe if the person uses filters, or the color grading and editing they do in post, and so forth. Could you all please confirm for me?

Basically, I am leaning towards the Sigma 17-40 1.8 or the Tamron 17-70mm 2.8.
What would you choose between these two? Sigma is better at low light but Tamron can zoom so much further! It is so hard for me to decide!

Thank you for reading.

I’ve noticed a trend in recent movies and series where the colour grading seems to favour muted, pastel tones, lower contrast, and a slightly hazy look rather than richer colours and stronger contrast.

A good comparison for me is Game of Thrones vs. House of the Dragon. Despite HoTD having newer cameras, VFX, and a much bigger production, I often find GoT more visually pleasing. The colours and contrast gave the scenes more depth and made locations, costumes, and even the VFX feel more tangible.

Is this actually a broader trend in modern cinematography/colour grading, or am I just noticing a stylistic difference between these particular shows?

And if it is a trend, why are filmmakers choosing this muted/pastel look? Is it related to digital cinematography, HDR, streaming, VFX integration, or simply a change in visual taste?

Curious to hear what people who understand cinematography and colour grading think.

Hello there! I wanted to ask what do you think of the lighting in these pictures. I don’t know much about lighting, I’m planning on shooting a short film soon but as I said I don’t know how to light, so I did some research and watched some videos about the topic and I decided to try and do a little experiment. One of the main locations in my short film will be this living room, so for this experiment I basically used the living room lamps as backlights, then on my right side I placed a desk lamp in front of one of the living room lamps to light half of the face of my subject so I suppose that would count as my key light. Finally for the negative fill I placed a black umbrella on my left side because I didn’t have any black cloth or anything. All of this stuff were things I had at hand in my house.
(I also played a little bit with the ISO)

The first image the only source of light are the living room lamps as backlights.

The second image I’m using the living room lamps and the desk lamp to light the face.

In the third one I’m using the living room lamps, the desk lamp and the the black umbrella for the negative fill.

I wanted to ask, is this lighting good? Could I improve it? Do you have any suggestions, tips, advice? I don’t have any professional equipment and I don’t have a budget or anything, as I said the stuff I used were things I found in my house.

The rest of the images of are the living room I will be shooting in, my next question is how can I light shots were the camera will be constantly moving? The lighting I used for the first pictures can work fine for still shots, but there’s going to be a lot of movement in various shots were I will be moving the camera around the room and facing all directions, so how can I light this kind of shots and avoid a flat lightning?

Thank you!

Hey everyone,
I’m looking for some real-world advice from professional DPs and operators regarding fluid heads for extreme telephoto tracking.
For years, I've been using a Sachtler FSB-8 paired with a Canon R5 and a Canon 600mm lens. I regularly shoot in windy conditions with stabilization turned off.
My biggest issue has always been sticky starts and stops (stiction) during fast pans. When filming fast-moving birds that suddenly change direction, I have to fight the initial resistance of the Sachtler fluid drag. This causes jerky starts, and when I stop panning, the kinetic energy of the long setup results in visible micro-adjustments/bounces in the frame. Even though the FSB-8 is a great broadcast head, its fluid resistance feels too aggressive and heavy for my specific tracking style.
I've been looking at picking up a used Vinten Vision 3 (similar to the one in the attached image) because I’ve heard Vinten's lubricated friction drag and continuous balance systems handle long lenses much more smoothly without stiction.
My questions for the community:

1. Has anyone made a similar switch from Sachtler's stepped/heavy broadcast heads to Vinten for high-speed tracking ?
2. Will a Vinten Vision head actually eliminate that initial sticky break-away force and micro-bounces when tracking at 600mm ?
3. Any other specific head recommendations for this exact type of rig?
   Appreciate any insights or experiences you can share!

A few months ago I shot a music video with a series of match-cut transitions the kind where two separate takes need to blend seamlessly into one continuous feeling movement. Thankfully we had a great dolly grip, who was able to replicate camera speed across multiple passes with enough precision that we walked away with several usable blend options for each setup. The consistency was what made everything downstream possible, without a reliably repeatable move, none of these would have turned out as well as they did

Each transition ended up needing a different compositing approach depending on what was changing between the A and B sides.

The grave shot was the most complex. The move itself was paused mid shot so we could physically swap older Jake out for the boy actor, letting the transition happen on a held frame rather than during motion. In theory that should make blending easier, but wind and smoke in the environment didn't behave consistently between passes so even with the dolly locked to the same speed, the smoke and wind patterns didn't line up shot to shot and there was a noticeable change in the background. To fix that, we roto'd the gravestone onto its own separate track, then built an independent atmosphere track to layer in on top. The atmosphere track let us control and disguise the transition point rather than relying on the mismatched practical elements to hide it themselves.

The standing to running shot was more straightforward but still needed finesse — the boy starts still and then breaks into a run We blended the A and B sides together with a clean pass to fill in any strange roto gaps

The tracking shot was the simplest of the three. Because the motion stayed consistent through out we only needed a straight A/B blend with no additional passes or roto work

I've had the chance to Demo a Pixboom Spark for a shoot recently and I shot these clips seperate from that shoot as a test run for the camera.

I had never shot with a dedicated high speed camera prior to this.

I had heard horror stories about how complicated these cameras usually are.

The Spark seems to fix a lot of these inconveniences?

- Multiple base ISOs with no Dynamic Range penalty(?)
- No recording limit other than what the internal 2.5 SSD allows for.
- Choice of multiple codecs. (cinemaDNG, ProRes, etc)
- Open gate S35.
- Small form factor.
- Easy to navigate menu system.
- On camera screen.
- V mount directly on the camera body.

I shot these test clips above in FPS ranging from 500fps to 1000fps in 4k.

I used Cinema DNG as a codec. (Which I love)

Most of these were shot at iso 1250 or 1600.

Exciting times for High Speed camera work!

Instagram: plarseneau
Youtube: PL Arseneau

I joined reddit today for the first time. I've been working on this stop motion for months! I hope you all enjoyed. Ifff you did please subscribe!

I'm a DP and mainly shoot on with cinema cameras. I wanted to try different approach and shoot short film with iPhone using only natural light.

I had the idea of making a short film inspired by the aesthetics of old grindhouse movies while adding a modern touch in the editing. I tried to emulate super8 look for the film in Davinci Resolve.

It was different to shoot with iPhone, since controlling depth of field is difficult and image is little bit different than on cinema camera. But it has strengths as it's incredible versatile to shoot different angles and light weight makes shooting easy.

Does this look like it could pass as super8 film? And does the pacing work in edit?

Full short film: https://youtu.be/8z1WjAE5WD4?si=Cx1e3I7G-vomhL_Q

I love the 1977 movie Suspiria; especially the exaggerated, almost unmotivated colours.

we want to replicate these deep saturated blues in an upcoming short film as a way to exaggerate moonlight.

How would some of you recommend we achieve a similar look?

Looking into the movies production, they placed fabric over lamps, but I’m not trying to find use the same method as the filmmakers.

We don’t have any RGB lights, and our budget for rentals is limited, so any and all advice you guys have is much appreciated.

I couldn't afford a DP so the lead actor and I co-DP'd the film together. I would setup the shot while he worked on lighting. Would definitely have loved to have someone to lighten the workload, but happy with how it turned out.

We shot on the c70 with a LowCon on basically every shot to give it a more... for lack of a better phrase, film look. I know that's such a general thing to say, but the movie takes place in the mid-90s, so we wanted to move away from a crisp, digital look. The goal was to have the movie look and feel like something you'd find on VHS at goodwill. I even toyed with the idea of doing a VHS release.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXJYxnvOFbo

Full movie: https://tubitv.com/movies/100051267/the-girl-in-the-woods