How to Get the ‘The Anamorphic Look’ for Cinematic Video on a Budget

Many videographers and filmmakers strive to make their videos look ‘cinematic’. A quick way to achieve cinematic imagery is to use an anamorphic lens—or, at least, mimic the anamorphic look using some affordable or DIY methods. 

What makes imagery look cinematic? Usually, a cinematic image will adhere to those classic cinema conventions: controlled lighting, considered composition, camera movements and much more. Plus, your choice of lenses and the specific style you get from using anamorphic lenses. 

This article covers the anamorphic side of cinematic imagery. MPB videographer Jakub Golis reveals seven affordable ways to achieve ‘the anamorphic look’ for your footage.

What does anamorphic mean?

The word ‘anamorphic’ comes from the Greek for transformation, or shaping back again.

Traditionally, videographers use the anamorphic process to create images that appear wider and more dramatic. The process involves using an anamorphic lens to ‘squeeze’ a wide image into a standard frame, which you then ‘de-squeeze’—or rather, stretch—to create the final image. Often used in Hollywood, the results of this technique contributed towards those classic cinematic visual conventions.

Today, the term anamorphic usually refers to any image that features the visual distortions, aspect ratio and bokeh effects of the anamorphic process. Many digital photographers and videographers want to replicate the classic cinema look, without the hassle and expense of following the traditional process. This article covers just some of these modern workarounds and methods.

What are anamorphic lenses?

Anamorphic lenses were introduced to squeeze more information onto a standard film frame. They did so by horizontally compressing the image, which was later de-compressed by a similar projector lens in a cinema. It created a widescreen image, which we associate with those classic Hollywood movies.

That’s why the anamorphic look is still relevant, even in the digital age. We no longer need to squeeze more details onto our high-resolution sensors.  But the anamorphic look still reminds us of the big, blockbuster movies like The Power of the Dog and No Time to Die. 

For more about cinematic imagery, read our interview with cinematic photographer Dean Pearson or discover our top Hasselblad XPan digital alternatives.

Due to their construction, anamorphic lenses render images with some distinct features. These include horizontal compression (which results in a panoramic aspect ratio when ‘decompressed’), oval-shaped bokeh, usually barrel distortion and horizontal lens flares.

Traditionally, you could only achieve the anamorphic look by using expensive Panavision, Arri or Cooke lenses. Fortunately, these days, you can replicate the look on a far lower budget.

1. Use an affordable anamorphic lens

The landscape changed a few years ago when some manufacturers—like Prometheus, bringing fire to the people—introduced affordable anamorphic lenses to the market. Leading producers of those lenses are Sirui and Venus Laowa. Anamorphic lenses are available in almost every modern lens mount and for most sensor sizes, from Micro Four Thirds and APS-C to full frame.

Modern anamorphic lenses are convenient, of great quality, and work as intended. Some models, like the Laowa Nanomorphs, are really compact, and they are available in three variants: neutral, amber or the classic blue lens flare.

You should consider ‘the squeeze factor’ when looking for an anamorphic lens. The higher the squeeze factor, the more compressed your footage—and the more pronounced the anamorphic characteristics. 

The most affordable anamorphic lenses usually have a squeeze factor of 1.33x. This will give you the desired aspect ratio and strong lens flares on a usual 16:9 sensor, but the bokeh distortion will be barely noticeable. Look for a lens with a squeeze factor of 1.6x or higher for a more pronounced effect.

The only downside with modern anamorphic lenses is that they’re pretty much all primes. Like with any other prime lenses—here's one difference between primes and zooms—you have to buy a whole set to cover a wide range of focal lengths.

2. Get an anamorphic adapter

Luckily, there’s a way to make your existing set of lenses anamorphic—get an anamorphic adapter. 

An anamorphic adapter is an optical unit you mount in front of your lens—the taking lens—and adds the anamorphic squeeze, oval bokeh and lens flares to the image. These adapters aren’t as convenient as dedicated anamorphic lenses, but you can achieve decent results with them and not have to buy another set of lenses.

Anamorphic adapters tend to work better with prime lenses. And you’ll want to make sure the adapter is compatible with your existing lenses. But these adapters have so many possibilities: you can even make your vintage lenses anamorphic! There are plenty of manufacturers, including SLR Magic, Sirui and Blazar.

3. Experiment with a vintage anamorphic adapter

Alternatively, you could use a vintage anamorphic adapter. These are pretty affordable, but there is a caveat: they weren’t designed to shoot video. They are mostly projector lenses, which were used in cinemas to project anamorphic movies. These vintage anamorphic adaptors often don’t come with any widely-used lens mounts and require quite a lot of DIY to make them work for filming.

I had some first-hand experience using a vintage anamorphic adapter on a digital and even a film camera. Honestly, I wouldn’t do it again as it was an extremely clunky setup. But from what I know, if you commit to mastering a rig based on a specific adapter, you can get really good results. 

The high-quality vintage adapters can cost as much as a new anamorphic lens, which—in my opinion—defeats their purpose. Also, considering the affordability of the lenses and the modern adapters, I don’t see a point in using a vintage anamorphic adapter. Unless you just enjoy tinkering with your rig, you’ll have a lot of fun!

4. Try out modified lenses

Modified lenses, sometimes called ‘anamorphfake’ or ‘anamorfaux’, only mimic some anamorphic features—like oval bokeh or horizontal lens flares—without squeezing the footage. 

These lenses are modified by mounting an ‘anamorphic’ insert inside a lens. The insert changes the bokeh shape and makes bright light sources produce a horizontal lens flare. Vintage lenses like Helioses or Jupiters are especially popular for this modification.

For my tests, I used a modified Helios 44-2 lens, which has a 3D-printed insert that makes the bokeh oval-ish. A piece of metal string also makes bright light sources render a horizontal lens flare. I am not that good at DIY, so I bought it with all those modifications already done. However, it is a fairly simple procedure if you want to do it yourself.

The benefits of using modified lenses are that they can be pretty cheap, the results are acceptable, and you don’t need to use any de-squeeze feature in your camera (because the image isn’t distorted). Also, these vintage lenses have tons of character, even without the anamorphic insert. If you’re interested in vintage lenses, you’ll love this—we once mounted a 1916 Kodak Vest lens to a modern mirrorless camera.

5. Replicate the lens flare effect with a streak filter

If you want to add some anamorphic character to your footage using a lens filter, you can use a streak filter. 

A streak filter creates a horizontal lens flare effect from strong light sources when mounted on a lens. Use these filters carefully, as they will have quite a strong effect—particularly if there’s a bigger light source in your frame. The good thing is that streak filters are pretty affordable.

To make the streak effect more believable, you can enhance it with some post-production magic—like adding a widescreen crop—which we’ll explore in the next section.

6. Fake it in post

You can fake the anamorphic look in post-production. For example, you can force your footage into the iconic widescreen aspect ratio by cropping or letterboxing—adding black bars on top and bottom of the frame. 

You can fake the anamorphic look in post-production. For example, you can force your footage into the iconic widescreen aspect ratio by cropping or letterboxing—adding black bars on top and bottom of the frame. 

You can also add barrel distortion, which is, fortunately, a relatively simple effect to achieve in any editing software.

To enhance the look further, add horizontal lens flares with a specialised plug-in like Optical Flares or Knoll Light Factory. Or, use any editing or compositing software to isolate bright light sources and add horizontal blur.

The final touch? Creating the oval bokeh. At the moment, there are no quick solutions for this. Replicating oval bokeh would be a laborious process, involving creating masks and blurring out the background for each shot, one by one. In my opinion, it wouldn’t be worth the effort.

If you plan on cropping a regular 16:9 footage to the 2.35:1 aspect ratio, turn on your camera’s panoramic frame lines so you can frame with it in mind.

7. Choose the right camera

Which cameras are good for filming with anamorphic lenses? You can use any camera with a suitable lens mount. If you fancy it, you can even use an anamorphic adapter on a camcorder. But there are some cameras with features dedicated to filming in anamorphic.

Besides high-end cinema cameras, some mirrorless bodies—like the Sony FX3, Sony FX30, Panasonic DC-GH5 and Panasonic DC-GH6, or the full-frame Panasonic S line—have the anamorphic de-squeeze built-in. Thanks to this feature, you don’t have to use an external monitor to see your footage with a correct aspect ratio. The Panasonic cameras are an especially great fit for this purpose as their sensor stabilisation works well with anamorphic lenses.

You may need to use an external monitor with a de-squeeze feature when using other cameras. But remember, this will make your setup much bigger and heavier.

Conclusion

Anamorphic lenses are specialised tools, and they may not suit every project. Always buy used, or try more of these techniques first, and save money towards hiring an actor or building props for your next film.

Check out more tips and techniques, including our guide to videography shots and how to shoot establishing shots, on the MPB content hub.