I believe that the title Director of Photography originated in labor unions, which define the term pretty explicitly. A DP is as an artist, a scientist, a manager, an employee, a student and a leader: each of these in about equal measure. I find that most people often disregard most aspects of the last five jobs when they think about or work as a Cinematographer-- which is a bad idea.
A Cinematographer should not be thought of as some sort of lone artiste who bought a trendy camera and then made an awesome reel. Filmmaking is best as a team sport; diversity of ideas and bonds between people tend to make any endeavor much better. A Cinematographer, even with a small or even non-existant crew, has to work with other people to get anything good done. Hence the term
Director of Photography-- it's a management job. Frankly, the gear, which most people focus on, is much, much less important than the people.
A good cinematographer is a designer, who helps the Director and the production design the cinematic storytelling, in very practical and specific terms, beforehand. This requires the cinematographer to gain the trust of these people early on and to make sure that this happens. You have probably found this in your wedding films: it's the same on Hollywood movies.
A good cinematographer is a scientist, who experiments beforehand to find out the best technical practices, and an engineer who knows how the gear actually works. Also a student, who constantly studies everything about filmmaking (and everything else). I've been a DP for decades, and I still study every day.
A good cinematographer is a responsible manager: the buck stops with you.
Last, and not at all least, a good cinematographer is a good employee who helps his or her employers make money (or, in the case of wedding films, enjoy their wedding).
YouTube, film school and making your own films are great, but filmmaking cannot be adequately learned from any of these. After you start making your own films, find a way to get on the most professional sets that you can; try to learn how professional films have been made for the last 100 years-- not just how student / indie films are currently made, which is not at all the same thing. Working as a background actor or publicist are two great ways to do this (see
How to get trained).
Don Starnes
Director of Photography
IATSE Local 600
donstarnes.com