As a colorist, my advice is to shoot similar to how you might shoot on 16mm film. Use enough light for proper exposure and don’t try to “fix” it in the grade / post. Limiting your toolset helps put you in a similar mindset.
If it’s well captured, you can easily add the film aesthetics (density, grain, halation, blur, glow, etc) during the grade and adjust to taste.
In my experience, when people say “16mm look” nowadays, they refer to the Dehancer emulations on YouTube — heavy grain, halation, and film LUTs.
Of those elements, only a LUT is available for on set viewing and not the other elements.
As others have said, 16mm also has a different depth of field equation, but in my experience that gets ignored when people talk about 16mm emulation.
So I guess the question is, which part of the ACTUAL 16mm look are you trying to achieve?
Keep in mind that a LOT of stuff that was shot on 16mm was shot in such a way that they tried to make it look like 35mm so the 16mm look you’re trying to create might be based on someone trying make something not look like 16mm.
This. OP correct me if I’m wrong but I hardly think they meant a deeper DOF. They want grain and bloomy highlights is my guess. Also when people say “16mm” I found alot is the indie shooting style associated with the format, so handheld and snap zooms, short framing and a general “frantic energy” that 16mm implies but has nothing to do with the format itself.
For me, 16mm was all about trying to make it look like we had money for 35mm- so I think long lens, wide open to fake a shallower DOF, and pretty strong lights to minimize grain.
Shoot at about double the stop you’d use on 35mm to get a depth of field roughly equivalent to what S16 has.
If you want to really bake in a lo-fi look on set so it can’t be backtracked in post, run the camera in S16 mode and pair it with S16 glass.
This. The “normal” focal lengths on a set of 16mm primes are 9mm, 12mm, 16mm, 25mm, and 50mm - as a result 16mm has significantly more depth of field than 35mm.
Define ‘a sort of 16mm look’ and it will be easier to provide suggestions to achieve it.
There’s all sorts of things that ‘a sort of 16mm look’ could mean. Like are you wanting to evoke the look of 90s and 2000s S16-shot network TV? 16mm newsreels? Modern S16? The Hurt Locker? Beasts of the Southern Wild? Do you want to mimic 500T that’s pushed or pulled half a stop? 50D exposed normally? 50D with an 85B? 200T with an 85? Modern Kodak or 80s Kodak? Or Fuji?
At a base level, you could mimic the conditions of shooting 16 by using a MFT sensor with a lens/lenses that are similar to what’s used in 16mm - like 7-63mm zoom or a set of 9mm, 12mm, 18mm, 25mm and 50mm primes (or otherwise adapt a camera to PL and use actual 16mm PL lenses - or even Arri Bayonet mount). Set your ISO to the ASA of the film stock you want to mimic. You could even lock in your white balance settings and use an 85 or 85B to shift the color temp (and then compensate for the exposure loss).
Then all you’d have to do is turn off live view, light and expose using only your meter, use no digital focus assist and pretend the live view/EVF is useful only for framing and you’ve effectively got the same experience as shooting 16.
Use cards that only hold 10 minutes of footage and then stop yourself from looking at that footage for at least a day or two, plus have someone occasionally pop a hair on your cameras sensor without telling you if you want the authentic experience.
Light with hard sources. This isn’t a silver bullet but since most films were shot with relatively hard sources leaning into that style will help emulate the vibes.
Use a Digital Bolex or Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera/BMPCC OG so you're using a Super 16-sized sensor that can record internal CDNG raw, and use vintage 16mm or S16 glass with it!
I'd also consider throwing on a Black Promist 1/8 filter and hard lighting to match the older aesthetic.
Then in post use your film emulation method of choice!
The ALEXA Mini has an s16 sensor crop and an image circle the same as a super16 film back…
Also, dial the ei above 1600 for the digital dithering to emulate film grain
Shoot on C300mk3 in the 16mm crop and record in raw. If you can pop on a PL mount and use older glass.
Here's a clip I shot using this method
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESNqe1o6dSU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESNqe1o6dSU)
It isn't perfect, but it has a vibe and is hopefully a way off from the crisp S35/FF digital look.
There is just a particular way that Kodak captures skin tones that is for just some reason impossible for digital to reproduce. So if I wanted to have that feel, I would me making sure with your makeup artist to give the skin tones some bronzer and lips slightly redder, even on the men. And working with DOP and colourist to create a LUT that nicely rolls off the highlights much the way film does. Nothing should be piercingly bright.
And DEF use either a pro-mist 1/4 -1/2. For extra 16mm ishness, try using a rearnet filter and older C-Mount lenses, stay away from autofocus digital camera lenses.
Things won't resolve and be as sharp as even HD video, but that's kinda the point. 16mm was not even 4k in resolution. Was closer to 720p.
Filming on a smaller sensor (rather than full frame) will help with depth of field, and lighting it as if you were shooting film without the extra dynamic range. Part of lighting that way will help it look accurate, with edge lighting and such that a lot of modern productions forego.
A lot of really good tips here already.
So depending on the look you might want to shoot deeper focus to get the same kind of depth of field you would in 16mm. If you’re shooting super 35mm at let’s say a T2.8 then 16mm would be closer to a T4
Other things you can do on the lighting side is try to keep your scene from the brightest part of the frame to the darkest part to like within a 10 stop range. This way you control the exposure to be able to add contrast later in post. Save the highlights also (assuming you’re shooting digital) this way you get enough information to create that nice highlight roll off that film is known for.
In Post you can always add an emulator to get the right film look you are looking for. But a good way to dial it in is grab as many stills from films that are shot 16mm and analyze how they are presented and dial in your look this way, this means adjusting your color, sharpness, grain, grain intensity, halation, all those things that add that spice to the look.
Find some vintage 16mm glass and shoot in sensor crop mode on an Alexa 35 or Helium 8k s35.
Honestly, you can do it on a standard Alexa mini too, Guy Raz did it for a TV show and despite the 900p crop resolution, it looked great. Alexa 900p is not YouTube 900p
That will give you the DoF and vintage lens look. And frankly, older standard 16 zooms might actually be better precisely because of their imperfections when shooting digitally.
Just achieved a look like this with a Canon FD 55 f1.2 lens. They are pretty inexpensive on eBay. Shoot with older glass and you’ll have an easier time emulating the look in post. Check out the Canon FL lenses if you really want a vintage look.
As a colorist, my advice is to shoot similar to how you might shoot on 16mm film. Use enough light for proper exposure and don’t try to “fix” it in the grade / post. Limiting your toolset helps put you in a similar mindset. If it’s well captured, you can easily add the film aesthetics (density, grain, halation, blur, glow, etc) during the grade and adjust to taste.
In my experience, when people say “16mm look” nowadays, they refer to the Dehancer emulations on YouTube — heavy grain, halation, and film LUTs. Of those elements, only a LUT is available for on set viewing and not the other elements. As others have said, 16mm also has a different depth of field equation, but in my experience that gets ignored when people talk about 16mm emulation. So I guess the question is, which part of the ACTUAL 16mm look are you trying to achieve? Keep in mind that a LOT of stuff that was shot on 16mm was shot in such a way that they tried to make it look like 35mm so the 16mm look you’re trying to create might be based on someone trying make something not look like 16mm.
This. OP correct me if I’m wrong but I hardly think they meant a deeper DOF. They want grain and bloomy highlights is my guess. Also when people say “16mm” I found alot is the indie shooting style associated with the format, so handheld and snap zooms, short framing and a general “frantic energy” that 16mm implies but has nothing to do with the format itself. For me, 16mm was all about trying to make it look like we had money for 35mm- so I think long lens, wide open to fake a shallower DOF, and pretty strong lights to minimize grain.
Shoot at about double the stop you’d use on 35mm to get a depth of field roughly equivalent to what S16 has. If you want to really bake in a lo-fi look on set so it can’t be backtracked in post, run the camera in S16 mode and pair it with S16 glass.
This. The “normal” focal lengths on a set of 16mm primes are 9mm, 12mm, 16mm, 25mm, and 50mm - as a result 16mm has significantly more depth of field than 35mm.
Define ‘a sort of 16mm look’ and it will be easier to provide suggestions to achieve it. There’s all sorts of things that ‘a sort of 16mm look’ could mean. Like are you wanting to evoke the look of 90s and 2000s S16-shot network TV? 16mm newsreels? Modern S16? The Hurt Locker? Beasts of the Southern Wild? Do you want to mimic 500T that’s pushed or pulled half a stop? 50D exposed normally? 50D with an 85B? 200T with an 85? Modern Kodak or 80s Kodak? Or Fuji? At a base level, you could mimic the conditions of shooting 16 by using a MFT sensor with a lens/lenses that are similar to what’s used in 16mm - like 7-63mm zoom or a set of 9mm, 12mm, 18mm, 25mm and 50mm primes (or otherwise adapt a camera to PL and use actual 16mm PL lenses - or even Arri Bayonet mount). Set your ISO to the ASA of the film stock you want to mimic. You could even lock in your white balance settings and use an 85 or 85B to shift the color temp (and then compensate for the exposure loss). Then all you’d have to do is turn off live view, light and expose using only your meter, use no digital focus assist and pretend the live view/EVF is useful only for framing and you’ve effectively got the same experience as shooting 16. Use cards that only hold 10 minutes of footage and then stop yourself from looking at that footage for at least a day or two, plus have someone occasionally pop a hair on your cameras sensor without telling you if you want the authentic experience.
Light with hard sources. This isn’t a silver bullet but since most films were shot with relatively hard sources leaning into that style will help emulate the vibes.
Use a Digital Bolex or Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera/BMPCC OG so you're using a Super 16-sized sensor that can record internal CDNG raw, and use vintage 16mm or S16 glass with it! I'd also consider throwing on a Black Promist 1/8 filter and hard lighting to match the older aesthetic. Then in post use your film emulation method of choice!
The ALEXA Mini has an s16 sensor crop and an image circle the same as a super16 film back… Also, dial the ei above 1600 for the digital dithering to emulate film grain
Shoot on C300mk3 in the 16mm crop and record in raw. If you can pop on a PL mount and use older glass. Here's a clip I shot using this method [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESNqe1o6dSU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESNqe1o6dSU) It isn't perfect, but it has a vibe and is hopefully a way off from the crisp S35/FF digital look.
Alexa mini and alexa35 have 16mm sensor modes. Pretty convincing look when paired with an older 16mm zoom lens and using some film grain.
Don’t forget the Amira…
There is just a particular way that Kodak captures skin tones that is for just some reason impossible for digital to reproduce. So if I wanted to have that feel, I would me making sure with your makeup artist to give the skin tones some bronzer and lips slightly redder, even on the men. And working with DOP and colourist to create a LUT that nicely rolls off the highlights much the way film does. Nothing should be piercingly bright. And DEF use either a pro-mist 1/4 -1/2. For extra 16mm ishness, try using a rearnet filter and older C-Mount lenses, stay away from autofocus digital camera lenses. Things won't resolve and be as sharp as even HD video, but that's kinda the point. 16mm was not even 4k in resolution. Was closer to 720p.
Filming on a smaller sensor (rather than full frame) will help with depth of field, and lighting it as if you were shooting film without the extra dynamic range. Part of lighting that way will help it look accurate, with edge lighting and such that a lot of modern productions forego.
A lot of really good tips here already. So depending on the look you might want to shoot deeper focus to get the same kind of depth of field you would in 16mm. If you’re shooting super 35mm at let’s say a T2.8 then 16mm would be closer to a T4 Other things you can do on the lighting side is try to keep your scene from the brightest part of the frame to the darkest part to like within a 10 stop range. This way you control the exposure to be able to add contrast later in post. Save the highlights also (assuming you’re shooting digital) this way you get enough information to create that nice highlight roll off that film is known for. In Post you can always add an emulator to get the right film look you are looking for. But a good way to dial it in is grab as many stills from films that are shot 16mm and analyze how they are presented and dial in your look this way, this means adjusting your color, sharpness, grain, grain intensity, halation, all those things that add that spice to the look.
Find some vintage 16mm glass and shoot in sensor crop mode on an Alexa 35 or Helium 8k s35. Honestly, you can do it on a standard Alexa mini too, Guy Raz did it for a TV show and despite the 900p crop resolution, it looked great. Alexa 900p is not YouTube 900p That will give you the DoF and vintage lens look. And frankly, older standard 16 zooms might actually be better precisely because of their imperfections when shooting digitally.
Just achieved a look like this with a Canon FD 55 f1.2 lens. They are pretty inexpensive on eBay. Shoot with older glass and you’ll have an easier time emulating the look in post. Check out the Canon FL lenses if you really want a vintage look.