What if there was a way to make your photos look like stills taken from a movie? On the Sony a7CII, there’s a very cool feature that lets you add video markers to your display when shooting photos.

It makes a big difference to see an immediate feedback on how the photo will turn out while shooting. There’s no magic in all this—we’ve always been able to crop our photos to any aspect ratio in post. But being able to compose with the markers is very helpful.

Without the markers, you can try to compose a shot thinking you’ll crop it later. Imagine you’re trying to take a photo where a building is the main subject. You frame the shot, judging that there’s enough space above and below, but when you look at the photo on your computer at home, you realize the building doesn’t fit.

Trying to picture a certain aspect ratio in your head can be tricky, so the markers are really there to help you nail your composition: what you include in the shot, the perspective you take—whether it’s at eye level, closer to the ground, or high up with your arms extended.

There are several markers available, like 16:9 and 4:3, but the one that interests us today is the 2.35:1 ratio.

Being one of the most popular movie aspect ratios, it’s called CinemaScope or anamorphic widescreen. It was originally invented for anamorphic lenses that can squeeze a larger image onto standard 35mm film, which is then unsqueezed in post, allowing the user to capture expansive scenes, large landscapes, and ultimately a lot more horizontal space.

We’re not changing the properties of the gear we use—at least I haven’t shot with anamorphic lenses myself—so it’s just a crop applied to the photos. But using these markers can help us mimic this more epic, immersive, and dare I say it, cinematic look.

Before I show you how to turn on the markers, I just want to mention that as long as you shoot in RAW, you’ll have access to the full image when uploading the photos to your computer.

I’m having a lot of fun shaking things up with this way of shooting, but I really want to have access to my full files. In post, I might decide that the 2.35:1 crop looks less good than 3:2, or I might like a photo in this panoramic version for a while but use another crop when I revisit the picture later for another post, zine, book, or whatever I want to feature it in.

Sorry, I bought my camera in Japan, so I only have the Japanese menu, but it’s simple: go to the shooting Menu, number 10, Marker Display, and turn on the Aspect Marker. Below, you can select the one you want to use.

They let you choose the opacity of the markers, but I recommend making them fully black—it’s much clearer, and I think it’s easier to compose that way.

To make it easy to access, I used one slot in the FN menu to quickly toggle the markers on or off.

Since we’re not using native anamorphic lenses, I think using a wide-angle lens is the best option to create the illusion.

When shooting with a tighter perspective, the illusion can really start to fall apart. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why, but the images clearly look like they’ve been cropped into this cinematic aspect ratio and not shot with an anamorphic lens.

But the good news is that when you shoot at such a wide angle like 28mm, and when you focus on capturing large, expansive scenes, you don’t need the best of the best gear.

I don’t use bokeh or shallow depth of field when I shoot this way, meaning that you can use any sort of pancake lens or entry-level zoom lenses, like the F4 or variable aperture ones.

High-spec, fast autofocus isn’t needed either because, at least in the way I shoot, I am trying to capture larger scenes, sometimes involving human subjects, sometimes not. That means you can use a very basic method of focusing.

Single-point autofocus is an option—focusing on the desired element of the frame and recomposing. You can also use a manual lens or turn your autofocus lens to manual focus, take the time to focus on what you want, and grab the shot straight away or wait for the scene to develop.

Overall, it’s a way of shooting that, aside from the camera’s ability to show the markers on the screen, doesn’t rely on top-level, high-spec, recent cameras or lenses.

That made me think—I’ve seen some people tape their camera to physically add black bars to the top and bottom of their screen to help with composition.

That’s a solution, but I’m not sure about the glue sticking to the screen after removing the tape, so if you want to try it, do it at your own risk. Or get an a7CII because it’s a pretty cool camera. ;)

I think making progress and becoming a better photographer is simple, but it’s far from easy.

There might be more optimized routes, and your base inner talent plays a role in how fast you become a good photographer, but beyond that, what really makes the difference is just taking a lot of photos.

Month after month, practicing consistently in different scenarios, seasons, and light. It’s simple—the more photos you take and the longer you do photography consistently, the better you’ll become.

That’s the theory, and it sounds easy to apply, but we’re human, with feelings, changing levels of motivation, frustrations, and constantly questioning why we do photography.

All that to say, it’s hard to stay on track and stay consistent year after year. But tricks like the one I talked about today—shooting in a different aspect ratio—are one of many ways to keep your photography practice fun.

It shakes things up, forces you to adapt your shooting style, and creates a new challenge that can help keep the fire, your motivation to do photography, burning.

I’ve had a great time revisiting my surroundings—not going on trips to exotic locations, just doing photowalks starting from where I live, exploring the area again with this 2.35:1 crop.

I hope this article was somewhat interesting to you and that you found some value in it.

Becoming a good photographer is simple, but it’s not easy, so give this practice a try to see if it can make it just a bit less hard and, more importantly, fun.

Support me and this ad-free blog by having a look at my products below

Featured