I recently noticed that a handful of photographers were producing images that had a look as if they were stills captured from films. A couple of the most well-known photographers of this genre are based here in New York, so I got them together and challenged them to not only come up with a dynamic personal project on the fly incorporating this cinematic look but to share with us how it is achieved. Read on to find out how it all went down.

The power of the Fstoppers community is immense. I wanted to try and utilize it to do two things for this article.

First, see how a number of experts who produce the “cinematic” look do it, and share that learning with the community. The interesting thing about this look is you can apply this look to any image, from a street portrait to a landscape shot. The content is far less important than how the image is processed or “treated” (color correction and grading, much like film footage are processed before we see it in the theater).

Regardless of your love or hate for this look, I really enjoy the intersection between stills photography and motion, so this was something I found interesting to look and thought others might too.

Secondly, I wanted to use the power of the community to bring some photographers together for a unique project and challenge.

I came across the work of local New York City-based cinematic shooters Dennis Cacho and Andrew Mohrer. Their work is fantastic. If you want to know more about them, do some research. You’re definitely stunned.