Cinematography
Etymology
From Greek "kinēma" (movement, from "kinein," to move) and "graphein" (to write, record), by way of the French "cinématographe," the Lumière brothers’ camera-projector. Literally "movement-writing" — the recording of motion in light.
noun · /sin-uh-muh-TOG-ruh-fee/
The craft of lighting and photographing a film — camera, lens, movement, and light.
What it names
The layer of filmmaking responsible for how a movie looks, separate from its writing or editing, so you can credit the image itself rather than the story.
Example
The plot was thin, but the cinematography — all low sun and long shadows — was worth the ticket.
Related idea
Cinematography is how the image is captured — light, lens, framing; mise-en-scène is what is placed before the camera to be captured — sets, actors, props. One shoots the scene; the other stages it.