In an age of ‘Fix it in Post’, committing to a look in-camera is making a comeback.

In writer-director Boots Riley‘s colourful and creative walkthrough of the process of making his film, cinematographer Natasha Braier shares handmade techniques she used to create the look of I Love Boosters (2026, from 1:32, via Panavision and NEON):

Natasha Braier explains how she was inspired by the in-camera effects of mentor and cinematographer Slawomir Idziak to create her own filters (via LG):

As he did on Dune parts One (2021) and Two (2024), cinematographer Greig Fraser employed in-camera techniques to achieve some of the stunning visuals in Project Hail Mary (2026):

Here’s a video I took while we were shooting. You can see on the upper right Tomas pouring water into a tube that runs between 2 panes of glass in front of the handheld camera Greig operates, giving a smeary, drippy look. Ryan stands in a cage of blinking IR lights which are… https://t.co/9B1w540Zfa pic.twitter.com/hVfYEJzsMY

— Christopher Miller (@chrizmillr) March 30, 2026

As co-director Christopher Miller explains: “Here’s a video I took while we were shooting. You can see on the upper right Tomas pouring water into a tube that runs between 2 panes of glass in front of the handheld camera Greig operates, giving a smeary, drippy look. Ryan stands in a cage of blinking IR lights which are invisible to the naked eye, but in the monitor it’s beautiful. We used this method for closeups. Medium-wides we did on the spaceship set with fewer lights & a lot of digital augmentation/replacement from ILM, and wides were fully digital from ILM, to match this look.”

(Sidenote – we take a bunch more lessons from the tactile, practical effects of Project Hail Mary):

Film School: Project Hail Mary (2026)

Try It Yourself

A roundup of tutorials in fun techniques and tools for creating your own lens effects:

Film School: Lens Effects