Cinematography

Cinematography is the art and technique of creating moving images through camera placement, framing, lighting, lens choice, and camera movement. It shapes how a film’s story and visual world appear on screen.

Shot composition: The arrangement of visual elements within a frame. Framing and placement organize subjects, space, and visual emphasis within each image.
Aperture: An adjustable opening in a lens that controls the amount of incoming light. Its size affects exposure and the depth of field in a shot.
Citizen Kane: A 1941 film directed by Orson Welles about the life of newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane. Deep focus and low camera angles make its compositions a landmark in screen visual design.
Photography: The practice of recording images by capturing light with a camera. Cinematography extends photographic choices across time, movement, and consecutive shots.
Camera angle: The camera’s orientation and height relative to the subject. Angle changes how subjects relate to the viewer and to their surroundings.
Shutter angle: A measure of how long each film frame is exposed, expressed as an angle of a rotating shutter. It links frame rate to motion blur and the crispness of movement.
The Third Man: A 1949 British film noir directed by Carol Reed and set in postwar Vienna. Its tilted framing and stark lighting turn visual unease into a defining stylistic feature.
Animation: The creation of moving images by displaying a sequence of individually made frames. Animation can create moving images without photographing live action through a camera.
Lens (optics): An optical device that gathers and focuses light to form an image. Focal length and optical design affect perspective, depth, and field of view.
Depth of field: The range of distances in an image that appear acceptably sharp. Focus choices separate subjects from backgrounds or keep several planes legible.

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