# Cinematography > The craft of capturing a film's images: camera, lens, framing, movement, light and color. It is led by the cinematographer, also called the director of photography or DP. Also known as camerawork, motion picture photography ## In practice Cinematography is the art of making the images of a film: choosing the camera, lens, framing, movement, light and color that turn a script's scenes into pictures. The person responsible is the cinematographer, also called the director of photography or DP, who works with the director to decide how every shot will look. Writers do not write cinematography, but they write for it. The images a reader sees on the page, a figure against a huge sky, a face lit by a phone, a room that grows darker as the scene goes on, are the raw material a cinematographer reads for. Clear, visual action lines give the DP something to build on; a page full of camera directions mostly gives them something to ignore. Knowing the vocabulary still helps. Understanding what a wide shot, a close-up, a long take or natural light does to an audience lets a writer put the right moment in front of the camera, and it makes conversations with a director or DP easier once the script goes into production. ## Writing an image without directing the camera **A farmer watches a storm come in at dusk** ``` EXT. WHEAT FIELD - DUSK Gold light, almost gone. The wheat runs to the horizon in every direction. WIDE MAE (60s) stands alone in the middle of it, tiny. Behind her, a wall of black cloud eats the last of the sun. MAE Not this year. Please. Not this year. CLOSE ON MAE The light leaves her face. Thunder, a long way off, then not so far. ``` The page gives the cinematographer what matters: the size of Mae against the land, the light dying as the storm arrives, and two shot headings only where the image depends on them. The lens, the exposure, whether the camera moves and how the dusk is lit are left to the DP, which is where they belong. ## What cinematography is Merriam-Webster defines cinematography as the art or science of motion-picture photography. In practice it covers every visual decision about how a shot is captured: the camera and format, the lens and its focal length, the composition and framing, how the camera moves, how the scene is lit, and the color and contrast of the final image. The cinematographer, or director of photography, leads the camera, grip and electrical departments. On a feature film the DP plans the look with the director in preproduction, chooses equipment, designs the lighting with the gaffer, and on set decides exactly where the camera goes and how each setup is lit. The DP usually also supervises the final color grade. The craft has a professional home in the American Society of Cinematographers, founded in Hollywood in 1919, whose members add the letters ASC after their names on screen credits. Similar societies exist elsewhere, such as the BSC in Britain, and their credits signal a cinematographer whose work peers have recognized. ## The tools of cinematography Framing decides what the audience sees and how close they are to it. A wide shot places a character in their world, a medium shot shows body language, and a close-up puts a face, or a hand, or a key object, at the center of attention. The choice of lens changes the feel of a frame too: a wide lens exaggerates space, a long lens compresses it. Movement is a choice as much as framing. A locked-off camera feels observational; a slow push in tightens attention; a handheld camera feels urgent and unstable; a long take that follows a character through rooms can make an audience feel they are living the scene in real time. Each tells the audience how to feel about what they are watching. Light and color carry mood more directly than almost anything else. Hard light makes deep shadows and drama, soft light flatters and calms, and the color temperature of a scene, warm tungsten or cool daylight, shapes how it feels. Depth of field, how much of the frame is in focus, decides where the eye goes. ## Famous examples of cinematography Gregg Toland's work on Citizen Kane (1941) is the classic case. His deep-focus photography kept foreground and background sharp at once, so a single frame could stage a whole dramatic conflict, such as young Kane playing in the snow, seen through a window, while the adults inside decide his future. Emmanuel Lubezki won three consecutive Academy Awards for Gravity, Birdman and The Revenant, known for long, fluid takes and natural light; The Revenant was shot largely in available light. Roger Deakins, after many nominations, won for Blade Runner 2049 and 1917, the second of which was designed to look like one continuous shot. Cinematography can be just as memorable at small scale. Bradford Young's soft, underexposed images in Arrival and Moonlight's saturated color by James Laxton show how a look can carry character and feeling, and how a modest budget can still produce a distinctive visual voice. ## How cinematography relates to the script The script is where the cinematographer starts. Before a camera test or a lighting plan, the DP reads the script for its images, time of day, weather, light sources, contrasts and recurring pictures. A script that describes a scene by what can be seen gives them a clear brief; a script that only reports feelings and backstory gives them very little. In a spec script, camera directions are best kept to the moments where the image is the story: an insert of the letter, a point of view through the keyhole, a wide shot that reveals how alone a character is. Most readers find a page crowded with shots harder to read, and most directors and DPs will plan their own coverage anyway. Once a script is in production, the shooting script, the shot list and the storyboards translate it into the cinematographer's language. A shot list breaks each scene into setups; storyboards draw the important ones. Writers who know how that translation works can write pages that survive it. ## How to write for the camera Write what can be seen and heard. Instead of saying a character feels lonely, show the empty chairs around the table or the single lit window in a dark building. Concrete images in action lines are the most useful thing a writer can hand a cinematographer, and they read well on the page too. Use light and time on purpose. Choosing DAY or NIGHT in a scene heading is already a cinematographic decision, and so is setting a confession at dawn or a breakup in a car under streetlights. When light matters to the drama, describe it briefly in the action, as in the excerpt above. Suggest the frame through the sentence rather than the shot heading. A new paragraph for each image, a short line that isolates a detail, or an action line that moves from a wide view to a small object can imply framing without telling the director where to put the camera. ## Official sources & context Sources reviewed Oct 30, 2026 - [Merriam-Webster — Cinematography](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cinematography) - [American Society of Cinematographers — About](https://theasc.com/about) ## Common questions ### What is cinematography? Cinematography is the art of capturing the images of a film: the camera, lens, framing, movement, lighting and color. It is led by the cinematographer, also called the director of photography. ### What does a cinematographer do? A cinematographer designs the look of a film with the director, chooses cameras and lenses, plans the lighting, decides where the camera goes for each shot, and leads the camera, grip and electrical crews. Most also supervise the final color grade. ### Is a cinematographer the same as a director of photography? Yes, in most productions the two terms mean the same job. Director of photography, or DP, is the common credit on features; cinematographer is the name of the craft and is used for the same person. ### What is the difference between cinematography and directing? The director is responsible for the whole film, including performance and story. The cinematographer is responsible for the images and works under the director's vision to decide how each shot is framed, moved and lit. ### Should screenwriters write camera directions? Sparingly. Use a shot heading only when the image is essential to the story, such as an insert or a point of view. Otherwise describe what can be seen and let the director and cinematographer choose the shots. ### What is an example of great cinematography? Citizen Kane's deep-focus images by Gregg Toland, Emmanuel Lubezki's long takes in Birdman and The Revenant, and Roger Deakins's work on Blade Runner 2049 and 1917 are among the most studied examples. ### What is the American Society of Cinematographers? The ASC is a professional society of cinematographers founded in Hollywood in 1919. Membership is by invitation, and members put the letters ASC after their names in screen credits. ## Related terms - [Camera direction](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/camera-direction): A line that tells the reader what the camera shows or how it moves, such as ANGLE ON, CLOSE ON or BACK TO SCENE. Spec scripts use them rarely, keeping them for the moments the story depends on the audience seeing one specific thing. - [Storyboard](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/storyboard): A sequence of drawings in panels that shows how each shot of a scene will look before filming, made in preproduction by the director and a storyboard artist. - [Shooting script](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/shooting-script): The production draft: scene numbers, locks, and revision marks — the document departments schedule and shoot from, not the clean selling draft. - [INSERT](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/insert): A brief cutaway to a detail the audience must read or notice — a letter, phone screen, photograph, or object — usually written as INSERT followed by what we see. --- Canonical page: