Books by Jay Holben

06/02/2025

The latest from Jay Holben - The Director's Guide to Everything. 600 pages covering every aspect of filmmaking from prep to release offering insight to the director on how to best collaborate and communicate with every department.

The Director’s Guide to Everything is the ultimate road map for mastering the craft. More than just a guide — it’s a masterclass in how to turn your vision into reality. A comprehensive, no-nonsense education in the art and science of directing — with practical knowledge drawn from decades of experience in the trenches of motion picture production.

Inside:
• The language of every department — how to understand and speak it fluently.
• Deep dives into producing, writing, acting, cinematography, production design, editing, color, sound, and beyond.
• Tips for building trust, loyalty, and artistry across your cast and crew.
• Manage the pressures of a real-world set — budget, time, communication, and safety.
• Proven strategies for avoiding costly mistakes on set!A candid, inspiring love letter to filmmaking — from a working professional who’s done it all. Whether you’re a first-time filmmaker or a seasoned pro ready to sharpen your edge, The Director’s Guide to Everything will change the way you see the job — and the way your crew sees you.

Master the craft. Lead with passion. Tell your story.

Available for presale now - www.adakinpress.com and releases July 1, 2025!

10/21/2024

Newest book available now! Covering everything I learned from these masters of Cinematography over the last 27 years.

www.adakinpress.com/lessonsfromac

10/12/2023

My latest book has just dropped - American Cinematographer's SHOT CRAFT: Lessons, Tips & Techniques on the Art and Science of Cinematography. A collection of the first five years of my Shot Craft column for American Cinematographer Magazine. 30 years of cinematography experience compiled into one text!

www.jayholben.com/shotcraftbook

03/05/2023

Come on out to Cine Gear New York and say hi! https://www.cinegearexpo.com

04/08/2022

With The Cine Lens Manual finding a home in the world, Jay's previous book Behind the Lens still has wonderful success.

Featured on all of these lists:

One of the Best Cinematography Books of 2020 - No Film School
One of the 30 Best Cinematography Books that Truly Inspire - Studio Binder
Best Cinematography Books to Buy Right Now - Indie Wire
Best Cinematography Books of All Time - Book Authority
One of the 8 Books On Cinematography That Are Essential Reading - Flickside

Find Behind the Lens on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Behind-Lens-Dispatches-Cinematographic-Trenches/dp/1138813486

and Cine Lens Manual is available at www.cinelensmanual.com

BYJAY HOLBENCHRISTOPHER PROBST, ASC Buy the book $175   It is the camera that separates cinema from other art forms and the lens that allows a scene to be captured by the camera. The cinema lens, therefore, is at the heart of filmmaking. All aspects of a production are carefully crafted with the in...

03/22/2022

After 8 long years of work, The Cine Lens Manual - The Definitive Filmmaker’s Guide to the Design, Implementation and History of Motion Picture Optics is finally here! Get your copy now of this exhaustive work covering all imaginable topics on cinema style lenses! 836 pages packed full of information! Link in bio to order your copy!

11/21/2021

It’s really coming soon! The Definitive Filmmaker’s Guide to the Design, Implementation and History of Cine Optics - The Cine Lens Manual! 840 pages, 1500 images and illustrations, 200+ families of lenses discussed in detail, 2,000 film and TV credits associated with the lenses, full history of Cine lenses from the 1880s to today, fundamentals of optical design, optomechanical design, testing, modifying, care and maintenance… it’s all in there… 8 years of painstaking work to put this beast together… very soon, it can be yours! Stay tuned for more details.

10/20/2021

The Cine Lens Manual co-author, Christopher Probst Asc on rehousing lenses in American Cinematographer Magazine

Christopher Probst, ASC on the resurgence of vintage optics and why rehousing them is a good thing. Full article: bit.ly/ACVintageOptics


ascmag.com

09/29/2021

The Canon K-35 25-120mm T2.8 Macro Zoom was released in 1970 as the product of a collaboration between Canon optical and mechanical designers (including Jiro Mukai and Ryusho Hirose) and Wilton R. Holm, executive director of the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers Research Center. Two years prior, in 1968, the AMPTP Research Center set out to find a manufacturer to develop a high quality anamorphic zoom lens for 35mm motion picture photography. Few manufacturers were willing to answer the call, but Canon was in the middle of a designing renaissance at the time, pioneering many revolutionary lens designs and manufacturing processes — including growing the first synthetic fluorite crystals (aka calcium fluoride (CaF2)) and the mass production of aspheric lenses. The Japanese manufacturer jumped at the chance and designed not only the lens pictured above, but also 2 front anamorphic macro zooms: a 40-135mm T4.5 and a 60-200mm T4.5.

Unfortunately, the anamorphic zooms remained as prototypes, never moving into production, but the spherical 25-120mm was unveiled in late 1970 (pic #1) and was accompanied by a matched 2x doubler and an 18mm T2.8 prime lens; expanding the entire package’s range from 18mm to 240mm. One thing to note about the 18mm T2.8 prime (pic #2) is that it actually has little in common with the later K-35 asphericals cine primes (pic #3), release over the course of 3 years starting in 1973. The 18mm does not cover full frame (it was only designed for Academy) and has no aspherical elements in its optical design.

06/18/2021

A short film demonstrating the Atlas Orion SE lenses written and directed by Jay Holben. Photographed by Kaity Williams

03/07/2021

The venerable Variable Prime. Introduced by Arri and Zeiss in 1994, these large, heavy, short-range zooms provide exceptional image quality throughout their range. Historically, zooms were designated as optically inferior to primes - a photographic compromise - and Arri/Zeiss were looking to buck that concept by providing a set of fast (T2.2) zooms that were just as good and could be used in place of primes. Arri/Zeiss weren't the first to introduce this concept, however. The first use of "Variable Prime" that we found was from the equipment distributor F&B/Ceco in 1973 in an advertisement for the Cooke Varotal 20-100mm f/2.6 zoom lens. They touted its "remarkable resolving power that gives prime image quality." They used the same marketing term for advertising the Angénieux 20-200mm f/2.6 in 1975 and then Angénieux themselves jumped on the bandwagon with their advertisements for the 2.8x16B 16-44mm T1.3 zoom for 16mm cameras in 1978. But Arri and Zeiss were the ones to really lean into the concept and name this series of zooms the Variable Primes. The three lenses are VP1 16-30mm, VP2 29-60mm and VP3 55-105mm, which were awarded a Sci-Tech Academy Award in 1998. They've fallen into dusty disuse in modern days as today's zoom lenses have extraordinary optical performance and can be considerably smaller, lighter weight and even faster, but they shouldn’t be dismissed! Today you'll often find the term "variable prime" generically used to describe any situation where a zoom is used not to zoom in-shot, but merely to quickly and conveniently alter focal length between shots. @ Los Angeles, California