The good ways to learn photography is by watching great cinematographers. The first one to come to my mind is late Conrad l. Hall. Among many films he did, Road to Perdition stand out like real masterpiece. That is his last movie and he won an Oscar for best cinematography in 2002. If you have not sean it, I envy you. If you did, watch it again and pay closer attention  to cinematography.

Of his photography, Hall notes that “I’m not trying to characterize the people in the film; the actors do that. I’m trying to frame them in an appropriate emotional context for the scenes. How are their characters behaving in those scenes? Are they behaving like human beings? My goal is to make a given scene emotionally accessible for the audience. I just try to make it real. Whatever the story is trying to say to the audience dictates to me the mood I should use to reach that audience. In this case, the film is about a father who’s trying to raise his son so that the boy won’t grow up to be like him. It’s a powerful story with great performances, but it’s not a fun-and-games type of movie. It’s a stark story set in the Depression, and it has a serious message.”