An actual anamorphic lens changes the geometry of the image before it ever reaches the sensor, so the effect is partly optical and impossible to reproduce perfectly afterward. Still, a surprising amount of the “anamorphic feeling” can be recreated in post processing. The trick is to think about what visually defines anamorphic imagery. Three things usually stand out: an extremely wide cinematic frame, horizontal light streaks, and the distinctive oval shape of out-of-focus highlights.

Anamorphic photography has a rhythm that feels a bit different from normal shooting. The whole process begins with an image that is intentionally distorted and squeezed inside the camera, and only later unfolds into the wide cinematic frame people associate with anamorphic cinema. When you first see the raw image coming off the camera, it often looks strangely tall and compressed—faces narrow, circles stretched vertically. That’s normal. The lens has squeezed the scene horizontally so that a wider field of view can be recorded onto a standard sensor.