"cinema" style

Luke

Legend
Location
Milwaukee, WI USA
Name
Luke
I saw one of KVGs shots today that I thought looked right out of a film. I have chatted with Boid in the recent past about recreating a cinema style in stills photography. Show us your shots that have that look like they are from the big screen. Generally, I would think most of these would be 16:9 aspect ratio (or wider), but feel free to share an image if it has a cinema feel in other ways. Feel free to go through your archives and crop one to fit. For my first one here, I cropped to 2.35:1 aspect ratio (the popular CinemaScope aspect ratio) and then dropped it and centered it on a blank black 16:9 frame (like our modern-day tellys).
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Untitled-1 by Lukinosity, on Flickr
 
I'm beginning to think kelly is making movies, and just tosses us random screen grabs on occasion.... Lol ;D

Supa cinema man!
 
Some of my newest

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I'm really glad you guys like the cinematic style :D
 
Kelly, your shots here have a pretty consistent white balance or color scheme that makes me feel like I'm viewing a movie.....very different from reality or from straight photography. Do you use a preset or does it depend on the image? I think the shots with shallow DOF lend themselves better to this "cinema" look, but I also am interested in the processing and color treatment that I see in your images.

In the first set, I LOVE "the hipster". The second set seems to have more of a consistency in color balance. Are you arriving more at a look that you are using consistently?
 
Kelly, your shots here have a pretty consistent white balance or color scheme that makes me feel like I'm viewing a movie.....very different from reality or from straight photography. Do you use a preset or does it depend on the image? I think the shots with shallow DOF lend themselves better to this "cinema" look, but I also am interested in the processing and color treatment that I see in your images.

In the first set, I LOVE "the hipster". The second set seems to have more of a consistency in color balance. Are you arriving more at a look that you are using consistently?

I don't use a preset, but I usuall go for a greenish tint to the white balance with hash contrast. The constant battle I have with photography is my yearning for a shallow dof (but I don't need it to be super shallow) and my preference for a wide angle perspective(28-40mm equivalent). The first shot of the second set was done with a 45mm 1.8 on my gx1 and it achieved the dof I'm after, but not the perspective. I am seriously considering a ff dslr with a 35mm 1.4, but the thing that holds be back is the size. Here is one done with the 25mm 1.4 and its better, but not quite there:alcoholic:

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I don't use a preset, but I usuall go for a greenish tint to the white balance with hash contrast. The constant battle I have with photography is my yearning for a shallow dof (but I don't need it to be super shallow) and my preference for a wide angle perspective(28-40mm equivalent). The first shot of the second set was done with a 45mm 1.8 on my gx1 and it achieved the dof I'm after, but not the perspective. I am seriously considering a ff dslr with a 35mm 1.4, but the thing that holds be back is the size. Here is one done with the 25mm 1.4 and its better, but not quite there:alcoholic:

What about Lumix G 14mm f/2.5 and Lumix G 20mm f/1.7 for wider rather than an entirely new camera? That 1.7 stop will give you seriously shallow dof, when you want it or just be a great night shooter. Either lens would.
 
I use the 14/2.5, 20/1.7 and the 25/1.4, but there is nothing wrong with the camera or lenses it's just the my desired result that is some what unattainable. I wouldn't be selling my M43 camera, but rather adding a new camera.
 
KVG, those are great shots. Loved it.

Came across this screen grab from "Children of men" which I felt was particularly evocative

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Here's another fabulous inspiration from 1967 by Jacques Tati from his film "Playtime". He went broke trying to make, what was at the time, the most expensive French film ever made.

Watch in HD if can.

[video=youtube;RUncJH6UUPY]
 
Wonderful theme! I really like the effect.

Silly question, but what's the easiest way to drop the cropped image into that black frame? (LR4 instructions in particular would be helpful if possible).

Thanks!
 
I really like these aspect ratios (2.4:1 or 16:9 aka 1.77:1), and I've been wanting to shoot in them more often but I'm to busy to go out shooting right now.

A solution to KVG's problem I'm pondering, is to get the 20/1.7 on the E-M5, and use the 9fps to make a panning sweep that has as little subject movement as possible, and hopefully stitch that into a wide-angle panorama with shallow DOF.

Also, do you guys think the shots you posted would lose their magic if you removed the black bands? The purist in me thinks a shot shouldn't need things like that, but it does look awfully good to me (although I might get tired of seeing the black bands if I saw a lot of them, dunno yet).
 
Yes, the alternative is to go Brenizer - more compact and affordable solution, but requires more work from photographer. Results can be great:

very nice results indeed, but much more work than I'm willing to put in. And as long as you're fond of the cineramic aspect ratios anyway, you can just make a single, high-fps sweep and with a bit of luck, even get good shots out of street scenes (where you don't control every last detail, as opposed to the sort of portrait photography Brenizer shows).
 
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