Digital Cinematography: Fundamentals, Tools, Techniques, and Workflows

This can be a cinematographer's bible. Expansive and comprehensive content

I teach a course on the physics of cinematography at a major film school and this book was recommended as a potential textbook. What I was hoping would be a thoroughly modern explanation of current technology dimmed quickly as I realized that errors in the first chapter are recurring flaws throughout the entire text. I recognize my review represents a minority amongst the five star reviews, but as someone who researches and teaches this topic I felt inclined to give my perspective. First, a number of concepts and technologies are incorrectly explained. Just to give a few examples out of many the author on page 144 incorrectly defines vignetting as light transmission loss at each air-to-glass boundary. These are two separate optical problems and vignetting is a loss of brightness in the periphery of an image due to the obstruction of light rays by the edges of glass elements or mechanical elements in a lens. There is a section titled "Dynamic Range = Exposure Latitude" describing these terms as synonymous, but in the science of sensitometry these are independent concepts and measurements; dynamic range is the smallest to greatest recordable signal and exposure latitude is how much the Subject Brightness Range of scene can be over or underexposed before resulting in an appreciable loss of quality. On page 30 he claims that the OLPF filter helps recover lost color information due to the Bayer filter. I’ve spoken to engineers and consulted the latest books on sensor design and I can’t find any evidence to support his claim. Like many of the technical claims in this book there is no citation to demonstrate where he found this information. However, what is most unusual in this text is not just how dubious claims are made once, but repeated. On page 57 he points out that broadcast HD signals are sampled at 74.25 MHz - 22 times the information as their SD predecessors. This is correct mathematics, but he proceeds to claim 4:4:4 should be 22:22:22 repeatedly and with cloying glee. However, as Charles Poynton explains in his venerable "Digital Video and HD: Algorithms and Interfaces" (pg. 125) that 4:4:4 is correct nomenclature and the initial digit is always 4 since all chroma ratios are a factor of 2. I understand that researching and writing a book is a tremendous undertaking and despite an author’s best intentions errors will creep in. However, in this book there seems a willing lack of basic research on fundamental topics as well as any fact checking. Another persistent problem is a frequent disconnect between text and illustrations. On numerous occasions the illustrations don’t support the text at all. When discussing how the recorded image is composed of individual red, green and blue channels on page 56 the author has chosen a photo so drab and monochromatic that all the RGB images just look like the original image but tinted. It would have been more useful to pick a scene with clear RGB primary colors for a clearer demonstration of the concept. Similarly, when discussing Depth of Focus on page 190 the author picks a photo illustrating Depth of Field but labels it as Depth of Focus, which is an entirely different concept. To further confuse the two the author leads of off his explanation of Depth of Focus by describing Depth of Field before suddenly inserting a correct explanation written by another author. Conversely, illustrations are also profusely used in place of written explanations with no connection between the two as best seen on pages 12 and 13 where pockets of text punctuate a series of graphs and equations. The text does nothing to reference which graph illustrates his statements resulting in ambiguity. For instance, after a graph of a gamma of 2.2, a graph of the gamma .45 there is the lone sentence “All video images (analog and digital) have this gamma.” followed by graph of the gamma of 1. Which gamma is this sentence referring to amongst the three graphs that surround it? Beyond this being just confusing the author is also failing to clearly spell out the concepts of encode gamma and decode gamma. I also take issue with what I feel is a great amount of filler material to the text. An entire chapter is dedicated to an inventory of the specifications of digital cameras that existed at the time of publication. This is a waste of printed text on a rapidly changing subject and it would be best to leave readers to research this online. Moreover, I believe that the author’s focus throughout the book on specific technical devices and their specs at the expense of general concepts is a huge disservice to the reader in an ever-evolving field. Stump is giving us a plethora of fish without teaching us how to catch them. The ‘filler’ extends to soliciting anecdotes from colleagues which don’t provide quality information to the reader. For instance, Steven Poster writes nostalgically on page 150 about how he likes Canon glass because he purchased a Canon camera in art school, which is less of a technical claim than an emotional one. Furthermore, his description that Canon’s lens qualities “add contrast to simulate sharpness” and have “lower contrast with very sharp results” are diametrically opposed statements. There are ways to actually measure the performance of the optics and show examples, but instead we are treated to vague and contradictory claims. All of this taken together makes the entire book read like a first draft. Each chapter lacks a clear structure, terminology is used with no clear definitions, and there are surprisingly few citations for a technical book. Moreover, entire sections are sometimes reduced to a few sentences, and to make matters worse these sentences are questions. Take for instance the section “Flare Characteristics” on page 141. This is a topic that could be addressed in a concrete manner with examples but instead is reduced to two questions left entirely unanswered. This lack of substantive information makes the book feel less authoritative and more like an off the cuff ramble. Then again, the book is really a giant copy and paste affair relying on a rather large amount of contributions from other people. (Beyond the fact that one of the most readable chapters is written by another author take a look at the endnotes for each chapter just to see how much is contributed.) In all fairness, I give this book credit when it comes to discussions involving the author’s practical on-set advice clearly born of decades of experience. However, as a source for understanding the concepts and technologies of current cinema technology I believe it fails on two fronts – on the one hand it is so disorganized as to give little substantive help to those coming to the topic for the first time, and on the other hand so flawed as to be of little use to those who teach or research the subject.

Much like Alexis Van Hurkman's book,  Color Correction Handbook: Professional Techniques for Video and Cinema (2nd Edition) (Digital Video & Audio Editing Courses)  has become the defacto standard in reference for digital color grading, I predict this book will become the defacto standard for Cinematographers seeking in-depth information on the fundamentals behind digital cinema image capture. David Stump takes great pains to delve into all aspects of how digital sensors work, the math behind image capture, the complexities of various imaging color spaces, current digital camera systems and a plethora of other issues germane to the subject, but conveys it in a easy-going, informative manner. I especially appreciate how he reaches back into the History of Cinema Production to tie the current technology to the past; showing that while there are revolutionary aspects to digital production, it in the end is a continuation of the process of moving image production evolution, and is yet another tool in the arsenal for moving image production, rather an an island onto itself. While targeted specifically at cinematographers, this book should not be overlooked by any member of the image production chain. The comprehensive information contained within is valuable to anyone who wishes to understand digital image production from start to finish and should be on the shelf of any DIT, Editor, Colorist or person with a need to understand the underlying mechanisms that are used to create a digital moving image. Highly recommended.

I love how this book is built-up to gradually teach you, step by step, with great illustrations and definitions as it moves along. It takes no inside knowledge for granted, explains things factual and simple so it makes sense. It's a really great book, taking much care for the quality of imagery, and as such a valuable contribution to future quality content.

I'm very impressed by what the book covers. It extensively covers the technologies that digital cameras use. Everything from the sensor to the lens, and then discusses things like color spaces, sampling rates, aspect ratios etc. The the last half of the book is devoted to camera setup, workflows, and displays (monitors) and recorders. There's also mini sections on specific info about many of the pro/prosumer cameras (as of ~2013).There's certainly some good (even great) info in this book. I especially enjoyed the section on lenses and camera setup/operation. What I really didn't like was the first half of the book, for me it was painful to slog through that info because of how it was presented, and that was information that I was actually very interested in. For me though, and let me preface this by saying that I have an engineering degree and have had lots of college level math and physics, I would have much preferred much fewer equations and graphs and charts and theorems, and history., and much more qualitative discussion about achieving various results, anecdotes about in-the-field situations etc. But judging by the other reviews, I may be in the minority with that opinion, which is fine.

I met David Stump at the "Global Cinematography Institute" this year, 2015, he teaches a class there, great instructor! If you cannot take the class with him, buy the book, it's excellent and very comprehensive.

A very complete book about every aspect of digital cinematography written for the professionals and whoever is willing to upgrade his or her knowledge about digital cinematography. It explains you everything you need to know about the digital workflow, from the camera, the lenses, the formats, the display choices, the different types of recorders and what you should consider before starting to work on a digital project properly. The terminology of the book is very professional, making it a more "professional oriented book" but even so, it is very complete. I recommand it to those who already have a good basic knowledge about film making in the digital era in general. This book is the perfect upgrade!

Though it’s filled with information, the printing alignment is too bad and not eye pleasing. The whole books is tightly packed with no gaps between sentences and no proper diagrams and serial numbers. So returned it and got Behind the Lens by Jay Holben.

Uno de los mejores libros sobre tecnología en la era del cine digital. Lástima que no esté en castellano.

Great book if you want an in depth knowledge of digital cinematography. Very technical but that is required to really discuss all the concepts that go into it. Very happy with my purchase!

Complete guide to digital cinematography. Handy to have around