Soft cinematic lens look explained in detail. Read our tips, gear & workflows for stunning visuals with cinematic vibes. Also, explore the SIRUI Saturn anamorphic lens, which is recommended for the perfect film look.
Soft Cinematic Lens Look in the Real World
Ever noticed that the movies we watch in the cinema have a different feel compared to how your camera shoots back at home? This is the cinematic softness, which we can feel in a typical Hollywood movie, but a layman can’t explain how to spot and explain it in words. So to explain this softening effect, let’s get technical about it here.
This cinematic softness occurs when a special lens or shooting technique is used to maintain sharpness on the object but exhibits a dreamlike diffusion with gentle glow, haloed highlights, and lowered contrast, giving the impression that the subject is becoming out of focus on the edges. In other words, the center of the frame might be very sharp, but this sharpness will gracefully fall off towards the edges.
In other words, this sharpness feels like an organic one, not a digital treatment on the video. This look is used to naturally bring the viewer's eye to the subject, make the scene more immersive, and not feel artificial. Commonly used in the cinema industry, this look softens the harsh skin details and adds an ethereal aesthetic.
Common Ways to Achieve the Cinematic Softness
1. Soft Focus Lenses:
There are many special-purpose lenses that are made to bring this soft focus to the subject and create a soft cinematic lens look in the frame. A few examples are the Canon EF 135mm f/2.8, Tokina Vista, and Contax Zeiss Super Speed soft lenses. All these lenses are designed to bring in that cinematic softness around the subject.
2. Filters & Modifiers:
You can also use soft focus and diffusion filters to get a similar soft cinematic lens look in your videos. Soft focus is quite a popular option for portraits and narrative filmmaking and does the job without sacrificing overall image clarity. Diffusion filters are used when filmmakers seek a dreamy, glowing softness in the frame while also softening the skin tones and any elements in the background.
3. Aperture Control
Cinematic softness is directly linked with the softness in the frame, which is controlled by the aperture. How much the aperture is opened affects the depth of field, image sharpness, and the quality of background bokeh. If you are using a lens with a much wider aperture, somewhere around f/1.4, f/1.8, or T2.9, the lens can create a shallow depth of field around the subject with a blurred background. This also brings in more attention to the subjects and smooths out the entire frame. Having said that, the falloff effect of specialty lenses, which moves towards the edges of the subject, just isn't there.
4. Post-Processing
By using highlight roll-off combined with color grading & balancing, the over-stylization is done to get that cinematic softness. Editors adjust subjects’ shadows, mid-tones, and highlights to get that same soft feel with warm, natural colors that feel more real.
5. Anamorphic Lenses
These lenses are frequently used in professional movie production houses for their cinematic softness. Built with special optical elements, these lenses can naturally compress the horizontal field of view, which is recorded on a standard sensor and later de-squeezed to get an ultra-wide, expansive aspect ratio.
This ultra-wide aspect ratio is then combined with creamy bokeh as horizontal ovals or ellipses in the frame, resulting in a soft cinematic ambiance. The horizontal squeezing with the optics of an anamorphic lens requires more focal length than an ordinary spherical lens would require at much less focal length.
This also pushes more depth of field, perceived shallower focus, and softness in the frame. The optics of these lenses also render signature elongated lens flares in the frame, which diffuse bright highlights around the subject and give an artistic feel to an already soft cinematic lens look. This is why movies use these lenses as a standard way of production and make full use of their optical compression, creamy bokeh, and soft filtering with immersive effects.
Best Anamorphic Lens in 2025
Such lenses were once considered exclusive to Hollywood due to their high price tag and the special equipment needed to make them work. In 2025, this is changing fast with the arrival of new options like the SIRUI Saturn 35/50/75mm Full-frame Carbon Fiber Anamorphic Lens kit.
Designed in the most common focal lengths of 35 mm/50 mm/75 mm, these lenses are built for creators and professionals who are looking to get that same Hollywood-style cinematic softness in their content. Priced reasonably, the lens series features a T2.9 aperture, which, combined with the anamorphic properties, creates incredibly creamy and immersive bokeh and an immersive feel in the video frame. A must-have lens in 2025 for true cinematic shooting.
Wrapping Up:
There is a high demand for a soft cinematic lens look in video creation, which can be achieved using special lenses, post-processing techniques, and lens filters. To get the most authentic results, the SIRUI Saturn lens kit is a worthy option this year. This lens series delivers anamorphic characteristics of cinematic softness to independent filmmakers and costs a fraction of similar-performing lenses in the same tier.
