All lighting in the film falls under the category of natural or artificial. Natural lighting could come from the sun, moon, fire or anything else occurring in nature. Artificial lighting is things like streetlights, flashlights, LED lights and even the massive spotlights used in big production films. Ambient lighting is a crucial way to use lighting. It refers to any light the crew didn't bring. This could refer to car headlights, or the most potent ambient light - the sun.

1. Elements of Cinematography
Lighting
All lighting in the film falls under the category of natural or artificial. Natural lighting could come
from the sun, moon, fire or anything else occurring in nature. Artificial lighting is things like
streetlights, flashlights, LED lights and even the massive spotlights used in big production films.
Ambient lighting is a crucial way to use lighting. It refers to any light the crew didn't bring. This
could refer to car headlights, or the most potent ambient light - the sun.
Another form of lighting is practical lighting, which appears in the frame of the shot - this could
also be ambient lighting depending on the light used. Practical lighting, however, doesn't have to
be ambient and could be purposefully placed there by the head electrician.
Framing
Framing is an instrumental part of cinematography and one of the most important factors of
great cinematography. Using techniques such as symmetry, balance, and a frame within a
frame.
Symmetry
This is where you have both sides of the frame matching. It can be used to highlight certain
subjects that are out of symmetry or to create a beautiful shot such as an epic wide shot.

2. Balance
This is the act of making sure that a frame is appropriately filled to make the viewer feel relaxed
and calm. This can be ignored to give an unnatural feeling.
A Frame Within A Frame
A creative way to highlight a subject is by using a frame within a frame. This could use a window
or a natural clearing. This particular technique is good at conveying messages.
Composition
Like the other elements in this article, this element can either be played into or ignored. Both
can produce an exciting film by conforming or running against the grain. Knowing how to
arrange specific shots for specific reasons is an indispensable skill in filmmaking - allowing you
to retain the audience’s attention. Composition is especially important when showing unlikeable
characters, and good composition helps make the audience stick around, which is especially
needed when the film portrays a complicated protagonist.
Camera Movements
Camera movement can add a lot of meaning to your footage and help shape a viewer’s
perspective on a scene for better or for worse. Some of the most basic camera movements are
the zoom, pan, and tracking shot.
Zoom
Zoom is possibly the most popular camera movement. It allows you to get close to the subject
ad quickly change the composition of the scene. A satisfying and immersive zoom is smooth
and natural.
Pan
This is simply moving the camera from one side to another. This can help reveal a larger scene
or reveal something that was otherwise off-screen. A faster version of the pan is called the whip
pan, which is useful for showing the dramatic travelling of a distance or the passing of time.
Tracking Shot
This shot is as simple as it sounds. The camera tracks what it is recording. Tracking shots will
usually follow the subject along a horizontal axis, this is commonly shown in “walking and
talking” scenes.
Depth of Field
The best cinematographers use depth of field to control their images and govern what the
viewer sees. Depth of field refers to the size of the field in your image where an object appears
acceptably sharp. This is decided by the angle that the light rays enter the lens. Due to the
depth of field’s ability to help set the emotional mood, it should be planned out ahead of
shooting.

3. Lens Choices
Choosing the correct lens is an instrumental part of cinematography. The right lens for the right
mood amplifies the scene. There are many different specialised lenses to choose from, a few
are the wide angle, standard, portrait, telephoto, and ultrawide.
Wide Angle
The wide-angle lens allows the viewer to see more than they usually would, creating a slightly
more complex shot due to the increased complexity.
Standard
This is the lens that is equal to the human eye, giving viewers a familiar experience.
Portrait
The portrait lens places the focus on the subject and blurs out the background, isolating the
character and drawing the viewer’s attention.
Telephoto
Compressing the foreground and the background, the telephoto lens focuses on a subject in an
otherwise busy environment, this isolates the subject whilst getting the width and depth not
provided in a portrait lens.
Ultrawide
The ultrawide lens gives us more field of view than a human can normally see, expanding the
viewer’s point of view and allowing them a better grasp of the distance between objects.
Written by Mark Murphy Director