One of my favorite parts of photographing a wedding is capturing the candid moments.
I first really discovered this as a style when working with Becca Spears from Wirken Photography. Becca, Tyler, and many others in the industry have an incredible talent at capturing those moments.
So what happens when you hire an incredible journalistic photographer and add a videographer into the mix? It could be a disaster.
One of the most important things on your wedding day is enjoying your day, getting great photographs and not having any drama. Part of that means your photographer and videographer have to get along. Unfortunately I had a woman recently tell me that several years ago at her wedding that wasn’t the case. The videographer kept getting in the way and fought with the photographer making things tense and ruining her day.
This should never happen.
Let’s talk about how to avoid it:
1. Hire your photographer first. Ask them who they recommend or who they like to work with for video.
2. Check your videographer’s experience. Have they worked with your photographer before? How many weddings have they shot?
3. Find out your videographer’s approach to working with photographers. If they don’t have one, it may be time to keep looking. (My approach: I walk in to every wedding I’m doing video for, find the photographer and say, “Hi, I’m Mike, this is your shoot, you are #1 here and I’ll be staying out of your way. If you need to walk in front of me at any point for a shot, feel free, I can edit you out.” This sets the stage for the whole day. I’m constantly aware of what they are doing, what direction they’re shooting and how wide of a lens they’re using. I don’t want or need to be in any of your photos as a videographer. I try to support the photographer in any way I can while still doing my job. I also don’t bring all kinds of gear with me that’s going to be in the background of your photos.)
4. Ideally, your photographer and videographer should be of the same caliber and respect each other’s work. If you hire a $4,000+ photographer and decide at the last minute to hire a $500 videographer, you’re asking for trouble. You get what you pay for in the quality of both your photos, your video, and the professionalism of both individuals on your wedding day. If someone is willing to film and edit a great video for your day, it’s going to cost upwards of $1500 in most markets.
I’m going to use a photo as an example here real quick. I recently shot Travis & Lisa’s wedding and had an amazing day. One of their family members set up a camera and tripod to film the day. That’s 100% totally cool with me. As a photographer, my mindset is to capture every minute possible and I’m really not giving a second thought to the video person being there. I want this to be clear though: I’m only using this photo because it’s one of my own – I had no problems with this at all -
As I set up to capture Lisa’s face as she spoke her vows, I’m concentrating on her, not the camera behind her. Luckily my lens has her in focus and him out to some degree, but it’s still obvious there’s a video camera back there. I still think the shot works fine, but I use it to point out that the photographer and videographer need to communicate what’s going to happen, and who’s going to be where. I also use it to point out that if you have a family member filming your wedding, you need to communicate to them that they should talk with the photographer before settling on a place to set up and what their plans are during the ceremony. In this case, we talked before hand and I was totally fine with him setting up right there and knew he wouldn’t be walking around during the ceremony. Having talked about it with their video person, I chose another angle for the vows -
It is an example though that if you hire a photographer to catch candid moments, you may not want a video person in the background of that shot. I know several major photographers in the wedding industry that don’t like to work with video folks at all and will recommend [not] having a videographer. That’s understandable if they’ve had a bad experience in the past.
My hope is to change that.
I love working with photographers as the videographer for weddings. Part of the reason is that I know and understand what they’re doing, what lenses they’re using and how to stay out of their pictures. I think all videographers can accomplish the same. We should be a fly on the wall capturing the moments, not trying to create them. We should support photographers as they are directing the entire day and helping accomplish sometimes impossible timelines to fit all the photos in. We aren’t there to tell them how to do their jobs, but to make their jobs easier by staying out of the way.
As a bride, you shouldn’t have to worry about any of this. You should be able to enjoy your day and not even notice your photographer or videographer. Just be aware of it in the planning process. Ask your photographer who they like working with for video. If you like their work and it works for your budget, you get the best of both worlds.
Let me touch on something else while we’re here: Photo/Video companies. Some companies can do both equally well. Other companies that start in video may decide they can do photography too, but may not be up to par, or may not be your style. The same is true with photographers that decide to offer video but may not be skilled in editing. I started as a photographer, but through all the other video production I do, I wind up doing 70% video and 30% photography. I know folks like RPM Entertainment do an excellent job of both.
The bottom line is it’s your day. Love your photo and video companies. It’s in the best interest of both vendors to get along well to provide the best product they can to you on your day. (Not to mention that their future business may be based on your positive referral.)
