The most-credited but least-understood role on a film set. A working guide to what a DP's job actually involves.
Most viewers, if asked who made a film, can name the director and one or two actors. Few can name the cinematographer, even though the cinematographer's work is, by significant margin, the second-most-determinant of how a film looks — and sometimes the most-determinant, depending on the director.
This piece is a working guide. What the cinematographer is actually doing, with examples.
The cinematographer — also called the Director of Photography or DP — is the head of the camera and lighting departments on a film. The role typically involves: choosing the camera, lens package, and film stock or digital format; designing the lighting for every scene; collaborating with the production designer on the look of sets; collaborating with the director on shot composition, camera movement, and the visual storytelling; and supervising the colour grade during post-production.
On most productions, the cinematographer has authority over the gaffer (head of lighting), the key grip (head of camera support equipment), the camera operator (who physically operates the camera, though on many films this is the DP themselves), and the focus puller (who maintains focus on moving subjects). On smaller productions one person may do several of these jobs; on a major studio production the cinematography department can be over a hundred people.
Lighting is what cinematographers spend most of their time on. A typical major-production scene takes hours to light before a single take is shot. The number of lights involved is significantly larger than most viewers realise — a typical 'natural-looking' interior scene might involve fifteen or twenty separate light sources, each shaped, gelled, and positioned to produce a specific effect.
The lighting choices are doing structural work. Roger Deakins's work on No Country for Old Men uses available-light realism to make the film's morality look like documentation. Conrad Hall's work on Road to Perdition uses backlighting and rain to make 1930s Chicago look like an Edward Hopper painting. Vittorio Storaro's work on Apocalypse Now uses heavily-coloured gel work to make Vietnam look like a hallucination.
The cinematographer chooses the cameras and the lens package for the film. The choice has dramatic consequences. Wide-angle lenses (24mm and shorter) produce a different sense of space than telephoto lenses (85mm and longer); the same scene, shot with different lenses, will feel like different scenes.
Christopher Nolan's films have used IMAX 70mm cameras since The Dark Knight (2008), partly because the larger negative produces a different relationship to depth and partly because the format demands theatrical presentation. Dune: Part Two was shot on IMAX 65mm, with the Giedi Prime sequences shot on a custom infrared-modified IMAX camera that produces the film's monochrome alien landscapes.
Lower-budget cinematography has, in the 2010s and 2020s, increasingly used the ARRI Alexa camera family and the Sony Venice. The Alexa Mini LF is the contemporary workhorse — used on the recent James Bond films, Joker, Top Gun: Maverick, and many others. The democratisation of high-end digital cinematography is one of the most-significant industrial shifts of the past decade.
The best cinematographer-director collaborations are often multi-decade. Roger Deakins has shot most Coen brothers films and the recent Sam Mendes work (Skyfall, 1917). Emmanuel Lubezki has shot most Iñárritu and Malick films. Bruno Delbonnel has worked with the Coens, Tim Burton, and Joe Wright. Janusz Kamiński has shot every Spielberg film since Schindler's List.
The collaboration is the foundation of the film's visual identity. Most major directors have a 'look' that is, on close inspection, their cinematographer's look. The director-cinematographer pair, working together over multiple films, develops a shared visual vocabulary that becomes recognisable.
If you're new to thinking about cinematography: pick two films shot by the same DP and watch them back-to-back. Roger Deakins's work on Sicario and Blade Runner 2049. Emmanuel Lubezki's work on Children of Men and Birdman. Janusz Kamiński's work on Saving Private Ryan and Schindler's List. The continuity of approach across different films will be visible.
For longer-form reading: the American Cinematographer magazine is the trade publication; ARRI and Panavision both publish technical documentation; the Visions of Light (1992) documentary remains the canonical introduction to the craft.
See also our essays on The History of the Long Take, How Sound Design Shapes a Film, The History of the Steadicam, and Film Editing Techniques That Tell the Story.