Luis Cuadrado was born in 1934 in the Zamora town of Toro (Spain). He studied at the Official School of Cinematography and introduced the visual style of the French nouvelle vague in Spain. He participated as director of photography or camera operator in numerous Spanish films of the 1960s and 1970s, alongside directors such as Carlos Saura (La caza, El jardín de las delicias), Víctor Erice (El espíritu de la colmena) and José Luis Borau (Furtivos).

A progressive blindness, which became total, deprived him of continuing with his work and already in Cría cuervos (1976) he had to be helped by his disciple, Teo Escamilla. He died on January 18, 1980, in Madrid.