AI overview
The director of photography (DoP) plays a crucial role in shaping the visual storytelling of any film or video content, ensuring that the creative vision comes to life through lighting, framing and camera movement. As AI assistance and tools in visualisation, camera automation, lighting adjustments, and even scene composition become more sophisticated, freelancers in the camera department see growing opportunities to benefit.
Automation of the manual on-set operations, with cameras and lighting, has been around for many years, but these have often been operated with complex and unintuitive control systems, closer to ‘programming’ than the immediacy of creative tools. As AI improves and enables access to these systems in new ways, the role of the DoP may start to include the oversight and direction of these kinds of systems more directly, or enable faster and more rapid changes to plans without long setup hours. This can give the DoP more time to refine the visual style, provide creative input, and make critical decisions. Decisions such as interpreting the emotional tone of a scene or working closely with a director to capture the nuances of human performance, ensuring that automated camera systems deliver the right aesthetic, while making adjustments on the fly to achieve the desired look and feel. Ultimately, being able to respond more effectively to the moment at hand.
Communicating a vision has become a time-demanding task for a DoP, with expectations for ever more accurate and graphically representative visualisations in the planning stages. AI systems can contribute meaningfully to these kinds of tasks, allowing a DoP to quickly mock up a scene or concept as a video or photo-realistic image to present to others, or record and transcribe meetings into notes and action points.
While AI can assist with technical and administrative tasks, it is often perceived as lacking the human intuition and nuanced understanding essential for storytelling, and crucially, it will never have each individual's unique human experience, one that forms us all. Even with advances in AI, DoPs remain vital to connect with audiences. This emphasises the importance of the DoP's artistic eye and expertise in visual storytelling, ensuring that technology supports, rather than replaces, their creative role
So what is AI?
Put simply, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a goal. It’s an ambition to program machines and software to behave in a way that seems human-like or is ‘intelligent’.
Rather than simply obeying instructions AI systems aim to reason, learn, communicate and make decisions – mimicking the kind of traits we associate with humans.
Before you read further, have a look at the ScreenSkills AI 101 page (also linked in the resources section below).
How are directors of photography starting to use AI in 2025?
Script analysis and visual planning
-
- AI supports script breakdowns, generating a quick guide image or video “two people in a car, mid-shot, light coming from the left.”, and translates rough notes or doodles into shot lists, lighting diagrams, and camera plans.
Creative concept visualisation
-
- Turns sketches, written ideas or references into immersive concept images, videos, or previsualisations. Useful for communicating visual intent to directors, production designers and crew.
Technical prep and tool creation
-
- Assists with camera/lens package generation, lighting inventories, and sensor calculations (e.g. for moiré avoidance or DoF) — and can even help code custom mini-apps to automate calculations and workflows.
Data organisation and workflow optimisation
-
- Catalogues visual references and notes; tracks to-dos and conversations through transcribed meetings; suggests overlooked details or alternatives; proofreads and expands documentation for clarity.
Virtual production and VFX planning
-
- Aids in creating virtual locations or environments and estimating cost/logistics for virtual production setups, including risk and scheduling assessments.
Intelligent camera systems
-
- Enables intent-driven control of drones, gimbals, or robotic rigs (e.g. “follow this person” instead of manually inputting camera moves), including obstacle avoidance, framing assistance and smart stabilisation.
Live tracking and motion systems
-
- Machine vision enables live object and motion tracking (e.g. camera position inference, costume/prop/actor continuity, onset motion control via robotics or stunt automation).
Spatial capture
-
- 3D inference via stereo vision or AI tools like Gaussian Splatting enables spatial scene capture, both live onset with virtual production and for later use in VFX pipelines.
Continuity review and asset matching
-
- AI tools assist in tracking continuity across shots and scenes, identifying inconsistencies in costume, props or staging using recorded footage or onset captures.
AI-assisted content replacement
-
- Replaces expensive VFX or reshoots with AI generated background plates, visual effects, or entirely simulated shots where appropriate, saving time and budget.
How is AI limited in helping a director of photography?
AI can have a place supporting and enabling this to be even better, perhaps even creating new art forms alongside traditional film and TV. But ultimately, as long as we continue to value collaboration, AI is unlikely to replace this creative drive or the authentic story and performance.
The collective and detailed creative decisions happening in real-time between the DoP, focus puller, camera operator and dolly grip highlight this kind of collaboration, each imparting their interpretation and impacting the captured moment through their contribution.
Care must be taken around the use of AI assistants and automation in real-time moments, especially if it might interrupt the instinctive, immersive creative flow. The value of analogue and tactile modes can be meaningful and helpful when compared to immersive digital tools that require constant context switching.
Preparing for the future as a director of photography
To prepare for the future, DoPs can consider learning about emerging AI-driven tools that support creative processes, improve efficiency, automate complex or difficult-to-control workflows, create new ways of working and critically enhance communication with others.
AI can support processes like initial colour grading, providing a starting point for further refinement. Or assist a focus puller to automatically track certain objects in shot, allowing creative ‘override’ at the crucial moments. By using AI as a collaborative tool, DoPs can work more efficiently and explore new creative possibilities, all while maintaining control over the artistic elements of their work.
Think about how you could start to archive and collate data with your colleagues around repetitive tasks or low-level decision-making, such that an AI assistant could automate those kinds of operations in the future, freeing you up to spend more time thinking through critical, creative decisions. An AI can help with that data archiving and labelling process as well.
It is also worth considering how virtual production and AI tools will impact the methods used for content capture in the future, for example, new systems using AI and camera arrays, enabling DoPs to create a full volumetric model of the stage during shooting. These are starting to allow camera or lens positions to be moved or adjusted during the editing process, or previously ‘impossible’ shots to be achieved.
Consideration could also be given to some of the developments in real-time processing and the ability to create looks and VFX on the fly. Informing the creation of the shot directly and allowing everyone on set to understand the purpose behind the moment.
We are gradually transitioning from a world of spreadsheets to one of AI assistants with much larger data sets and automation processes. Future skills in creating simple automated routines with a few different AI algorithms linked together for repeated tasks could be leveraged for great efficiency and insight. Becoming familiar with the kinds of tools on offer now will stand you in great stead, as they become more effective and powerful; expect a lot of change and improvement quickly.
AI has the potential to serve as a great ‘gateway’ tool for training new people for roles in film and TV production. Building increasingly more accurate simulations is starting to enable young filmmakers to practice their jobs with quite high levels of accuracy, in safe, cost-effective environments.
Engaging in training through ScreenSkills and other resources will be valuable for directors of photography aiming to stay at the forefront of the industry. DOPs who embrace these new technologies will be better equipped to lead their departments. Delivering a blend of technical understanding and precision with great creative flair.
Embracing AI as a director of photography
AI offers DoPs a unique opportunity in creative and technical filmmaking. Putting effort into automating repetitive tasks and adopting innovative tools for visualisation and precision, can enable DoPs to focus on aspects of storytelling and artistic expression. This craft of cinematography, capturing emotion, atmosphere, and meaning through visuals, remains a deeply human ability. Embracing AI as a collaborative partner, DoPs have the opportunity to elevate their work, adapting to modern production demands whilst staying true to the artistry of their role.
Links to other ScreenSkills resources
Read the director of photography skills checklist
Explore more AI-related training, events and opportunities with ScreenSkills
Read AI 101, an overview of some aspects of AI in the UK film and TV industry