C. M. Franke | Photography

Now that this endlessly procrastinated Tidewatcher project is past the hurdle-point, I thought it might provide a great opportunity to explain the term "Cinematic Style," since I use it repeatedly on my website to describe a specific type of photography. How is "Cinematic style" different than any other form of photography that uses lighting gear and creative camera angles? Well, to make a long boring story somewhat shorter (but still boring), like many people I have wanted to make feature films ever since I was old enough to go to the movies and stare up at that big, silver screen. And, like many, I discovered soon enough that a home video camera and a handful of friends and neighbors standing under a halogen work-light does not exactly result in Hollywood-grade output. At least it didn't for me. I realized that I could create far better images using still photography. But why not make those images look like they came from a movie? Instead of having the subjec