The Five Pillars of Cinematic Exposure

Every cinematographer manipulates one or more of these five tools to create an infinite amount of looks.

Knowing how and when to use which is the first step to great cinematography.

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[cartoo]

"Light is what separates a videographer from a cinematographer."

[njugunawainaina]

Your channel is the most underrated...I always get so much value from your content. Thanks a bunch

[henryvirgil]

Great video. Even to a layman. Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO are all locked for a very particular reason : to achieve cinematic exposure. The only variables that you have to work with are The ND Filter and The Lighting. Again, simple and straightforward.

[BenjaBiker]

One teacher told me "you don't hire Roger Deakins to push buttons on a camera, you hire him to light scenes". I remember that quote everytime when a see a video titled "cinematic".

[mutebanshee]

Even though I'm not a filmmaker (not even a photographer, but just someone who paints and is interested in animation) I find your channel so valuable and am always excited to get into a new vid or revisit old ones to further my understanding. Thank you very much!

[marvingeronimo]

Now this is how art is made. Been learning a lot from you... thank you very much and I'm looking forward to learning more about cinematography.

[africanhistory]

On point AGAIN. Just today I was in this situation. You cannot touch your ISO in C log, you do not want to mess your DOF, so what is left? Only the ND. Few hrs ago and you know this when you actually make films. I did not learn it in school, i learned it via the work.

[matthewpcosta]

This is one of the best intro videos I have ever came across, thank you!

[Rafael-xrou]

Great! Thank you! I’m a photographer who is interested in filmmaking. Your video is a revelation, as for still photography I have more freedom on the subject.

[sachind.]

Such an excellent teacher for thanks a lot.

[Composit.Design]

This might be the realest video on film-making I've seen in a long time.

[bovinicide]

Excellent video as usual with just the right amount of dry wit, sarcasm and irony - cheers worcflow!

[jas_bataille]

The aperture remark can be discussed... I know you know all this but I have to say it anyway ;)
Traditionally, cinematographers use a spot-meter to determine the right aperture depending on the the right ambience for the scene, because you can't change the sensitivy (ISO) of film. There are also different factors what will change the way we perceive DOF. The wider the lens, the more open it needs to be to obtain bokeh, whereas a longer focal length can be closed much more to obtain the same DOF. It's often a game of power/distance from lights. Aperture can be ridden as well to maintain natural exposure shifts between darker and lighter frames in a scene. Finally, changing aperture in a scene is only confusing if you don't change framing; for instance, if you go from a close-up to a wide-shot and back, it's not confusing to change the aperture, but if you go from one character tat let's f5.6 to the other in the same room at f8 (given the lens, light settings and distance from the camera remains the same), then yeah, it might be confusing.
Even tho, aperture is a powerful storytelling tool. A character who's lost might often appear with blurrier surroundings than a character who's confident and have a clear mind, etc - rarely in the same scene of course. But the only point of the exposure triangle that never change is shutter speed.
Although in more recent times, we can afford to not change the aperture for an entire movie, there are still several good reasons why it's the setting that changes the most.

[AnandaGarden]

This is, to use a silly word that I mean very sincerely, "epic." A wonderful and very entertaining explanation.

[MartinBlasick]

That was so helpful. Guilty aperture and ISO abuser here. I will better myself with lighting and filters.

[veradragilyova]

This is genius! Simple and artistic! Please keep making these videos forever! It’s almost impossible to find such a smart approach to filming, open to the public. So, a big thank you! 🤩

[raymondyu]

Well said. Great episode. Thanks for sharing this with us.😀👍

[huseyinyildizkovboy]

I'm so lucky to saw your channel at the beginning :) That's so great and this channel is very very nice

[sabymondal]

In High end cameras like Red/Arri, if you shoot RAW, ISO (and color temperature/white balance ) is just a metadata, and you can adjust ISO (and color temperature) in post.

[fotonocity]

Another great piece of advice! Thanks once again !