The Cinematic Photography Style: 8 Ways to Make Your Photos Look Like Movie Stills

The Cinematic Photography Style: 8 Ways to Make Your Photos Look Like Movie Stills

There is something about cinematic photography that I absolutely love:

Rather than simply documenting “what’s there”, a cinematic photograph feels like a still taken from a movie. 

I like that it makes you wonder what happened just before the photograph was taken, and what might happen next.

And that, to me, is really the essence of the cinematic photography style:

It isn’t simply about using a particular preset or giving your images a dramatic colour grade.

Now, of course, lighting, colour, composition and editing all matter, but what’s maybe even more important is atmosphere and storytelling.

So, let’s look at some of my favourite ways to give photographs that cinematic feel!

What Is Cinematic Photography?

There isn’t one specific look that makes a photograph cinematic:

Films can be dark and moody like The Godfather, bright and nostalgic like The Grand Budapest Hotel, gritty like Taxi Driver, dreamy and romantic like In the Mood for Love, intensely colourful like Amélie, or almost completely desaturated like The Road.

What they tend to have in common is that the stylistic decisions have been made very intentionally:

Filmmakers use lighting to create a specific mood, a deliberately chosen colour palette, and a thoughtful composition to direct your attention to certain parts of the frame – and those are exactly the elements we’re trying to borrow for still photography.

Cinematic street scene. Image credit: Zeeshaan Shabbir.

1. Choose Subjects That Work Well for a Cinematic Style

Technically, you can make almost anything look cinematic, but some subjects make it definitely a lot easier.

Urban Photography

Cities are my favourite subject for cinematic photography, especially after dark.

That’s because they naturally offer lots of elements that set a scene or tell a story:

• neon signs
• restaurants and cafés
• shop windows
• train stations
• empty streets
• cars and taxis
• Chinatown at night
• rainy pavements
• people waiting at bus stops
• convenience stores
• areas of light surrounded by darkness

Cinematic photo by Tolga Ahmetler.

So, for taking cinematic-style pictures in a city, don’t just photograph a building simply because it looks nice – look for a scene:

For example, a solitary person eating inside a brightly lit restaurant can immediately make the viewer wonder who they are.

Portrait Photography

Portraits are another obvious choice for cinematic style photography, especially environmental portraits (rather than very clean studio shots).

You could try photographing someone sitting next to a bedside lamp, standing in a doorway, looking through a window or walking through a dimly lit street.

Ideally, give the person something to do rather than simply asking them to pose for the camera.

Even tiny actions, such as drinking coffee, looking into a mirror, putting on a coat, etc., can make the photograph feel like a moment within a story.

Cinematic portrait by Wolrider YURTSEVEN.

By the way…if you love taking portraits, check out my free ebook below:

…but now, back to the blog post!

What About Landscapes?

Landscapes can absolutely have a cinematic photography style, but you’ll need to be a bit more strategic; a beautiful landscape isn’t automatically cinematic simply because it’s beautiful.

If you want to create a sense of scale or a narrative, try incorporating atmospheric weather, dramatic light, fog, unusual colours or a tiny human figure within a huge environment.

Cinematic landscape shot by Hanifi Sarıkaya.

2. Think Like a Storyteller

This is probably my most important tip (in fact, I’ve dedicated a whole blog post to storytelling in photography – you can find it here).

Don’t just ask: What do I want to photograph?

Instead, try to establish what is happening in your image.

I don’t mean you have to invent an elaborate plot for every photograph, but you’ll want to give the viewer just enough information so they start imagining one themselves.

Let’s say you want to photograph a woman standing beside a tree, which is perfectly fine, but not necessarily cinematic.

But what if you have her standing underneath that tree at dusk, holding a suitcase? Or maybe she could look back towards something outside the frame…or be illuminated by the headlights of a car?

Image credit: Muhammad fawwaz labib.

Suddenly, there would be questions arising in the viewer:

Where is she going? What is she waiting for? What is she looking at?

That little bit of ambiguity is incredibly useful in cinematic photography.

So, the secret is, you don’t necessarily need to explain the whole story; you just want to suggest one.

3. Lighting Is Everything

If you want to create a specific cinematic mood, lighting is an absolutely essential (if not the most important!) tool.

Luckily, you don’t need a huge professional lighting setup. In fact, regular lights can work extremely well for cinematic shots.

Try:

• bedside lamps
• table lamps
• streetlights
• shop signs
• window light
• car headlights
• candles
• fairy lights
• light falling into the room from street lamps
• the glow from a television or computer

A rule of thumb is: You’re not using lights that just illuminate your subject – they should also set a scene, something you’ll see constantly in movies (a masterful example of this is Lost Highway by David Lynch).

Another helpful tip is to intentionally keep areas of darkness in cinematic images rather than trying to illuminate everything evenly.

For example, a small lamp illuminating someone’s face while the rest of the room lies in darkness can create far more atmosphere than even lighting.

Cinematic portrait by Alex Koval.

You can also mix different light temperatures, e.g. a warm lamp inside a room combined with cool blue evening light coming through a window, to create colour contrast and depth.

Before I get to the next section…if you like cinematic photography, you may enjoy my free cinematic prompts delivered by email – more info below:

…but now, onto the next section…using colour.

4. Use Colour to Create a Mood

Colour is another huge part of the cinematic photography style.

In practice, there isn’t one “correct” cinematic colour palette – the important thing is that the colours feel intentional.

Before shooting, you can already decide how you want the image to feel, e.g.:

• warm and nostalgic
• cold and lonely
• dark and mysterious
• muted and melancholic
• colourful and surreal

Then think about what colours support that mood.

Complementary colours can work particularly well! Blue and orange is the famous cinematic combination, but there are many others you can try:

Red and green, yellow and blue or even a mostly monochromatic palette.

Image credit: Riki Ramdani.

Also, pay attention to small things:

The colour of someone’s clothing, a lampshade, a wall or even an object on a table can reinforce your chosen colour palette – or try introducing a colour that feels completely out of place.

5. Create Cinematic Colour in Photoshop

Luckily, you don’t have to get every colour exactly right in-camera; I regularly adjust colour while editing, and there are what feels like hundreds of ways in Photoshop for colour grading.

Here are my most used tools for this job:

Colour Balance

Colour Balance is probably one of the easiest tools to start with, as it allows you to independently adjust the colour of your shadows, midtones and highlights.

For example, you can introduce cooler blues or cyans into the shadows while keeping your highlights slightly warmer.

Selective Colour

I love Selective Colour for more precise control. It’s an amazing tool because instead of changing the entire image, you can adjust only reds, only blues, etc.

Hue/Saturation

Hue/Saturation is another great option, particularly when one specific colour doesn’t fit your palette.

Simply choose that colour from the dropdown rather than altering the master setting, and adjust its hue, saturation or lightness individually.

Curves

I don’t only use curves for brightness and contrast; you can also open the individual red, green and blue channels and introduce subtle colour casts into your shadows or highlights.

This takes a little more experimentation, but it’s brilliant for colour grading.

My advice with all of these tools is the same: 

Don’t just edit until the photograph “looks cool”. Decide what mood you want first, then use colour to help create it.

6. Choose a Lens That Shows the Environment

For cinematic photography, I generally prefer a slightly wider lens.

A 35mm lens is a very good starting point: It gives you enough space to show the environment around your subject without creating the very obvious distortion of an ultra-wide lens.

35mm cinematic photo by Riki Ramdani.

And after all, environment matters – if you’re photographing someone in a restaurant, bedroom or nighttime street, you probably don’t want to crop out everything that tells us where they are.

A 24mm or 28mm lens can be even more immersive, particularly for street photography and environmental portraits.

A 50mm can absolutely work too, especially for closer scenes, but I wouldn’t automatically reach for an 85mm portrait lens and blur the entire background, as that’s often where the story lies.

7. Experiment With Cinematic Composition

Movies are generally presented in wider aspect ratios than traditional photographs, which is one reason a wide crop can immediately make an image feel more cinematic.

Of course, you don’t necessarily have to shoot that way in-camera; just try cropping an image to 16:9 in editing and see how it changes the feeling.

However, composition goes beyond aspect ratio, so also think about:

Negative space: Don’t always place your subject prominently in the centre of the frame. A small person surrounded by their environment can create tension or loneliness.

Foreground elements: Photograph through a doorway, window, curtain or other object to create depth.

Layers: Look for a foreground, middle ground and background rather than putting everything on one flat plane.

Off-centre subjects: Leaving empty space in the direction someone is looking can immediately suggest that something exists beyond the frame.

You can also deliberately make compositions feel slightly uncomfortable…after all, perfect isn’t always interesting!

(Check out composition tips in depth in this post).

8. Shoot Film for a Naturally Cinematic Look

And finally, my favourite tip…why not shoot actual film?

Cinema was historically shot on motion-picture film, so there is something very fitting about using analogue photography when you’re going for a cinematic aesthetic.

Film naturally gives you grain, subtle colour variations and a less “perfect” look than modern digital cameras.

Film photograph by Hayes Potter.

One particularly obvious choice is CineStill 800T.

It’s an 800-speed tungsten-balanced colour negative film designed for low-light tungsten conditions and made using motion-picture film technology. 

I’ve tried this film, and it’s amazing – specifically because it produces a distinctive halation effect around bright lights, which can look gorgeous with neon signs, streetlights and other bright points within a dark scene.

If you prefer shooting during the day, CineStill 400D is daylight-balanced and has a softer colour palette with warm skin tones.

But don’t worry, you don’t need a film specifically associated with cinema – Kodak Portra, Kodak Gold and other colour-negative films can all produce beautiful cinematic photographs depending on your subject, lighting and colour palette.

Cinematic Photography Is Really About Atmosphere

If there’s one thing I’d take away from this post, it’s that creating a cinematic photography style isn’t about finding the right preset, and you don’t need expensive equipment, elaborate lighting, or a Hollywood colour grade.

Just think about the scene:

Where is your subject? What are they doing? Where is the light coming from? Which colours dominate the frame? What happened five minutes before this moment – and what might happen five minutes afterwards?

Use your lighting, composition, colour and camera choices to support that idea.

And that’s it for today’s post! Which of these tips resonated the most with you? Let me know in the comments!