Wedding videography and why we don't offer it

We got asked a lot if we offer wedding videography in Northern Ireland as well as photography, especially in the last few years. It has become a lot more common for photographers to offer video services and videographers to also provide photography. There are several reasons why we don’t.

For those that do offer both video and photo services, there tends to usually be 3 different types.

  • Wedding photographers that have added video services in recent years.

  • Wedding videographers that have added photography services in recent years.

  • Hybrid companies that have always offered both wedding photography and video.

We have worked with hundreds of videographers and spend a lot of time with them on a wedding day. We get to see up close and personal how they do things and the differences between the different types of businesses that offer both services.

Wedding photographers that now offer videography

New technology hasn’t just blurred the line between photography and video equipment, it has removed it completely. Every professional photographer in Northern Ireland’s equipment for photographing weddings can also be used for video as well. The only thing needed equipment wise over and above the equipment used for photography is better audio equipment and different editing software. Both wedding photographers and videographers use very similar specification of camera bodies, lenses and even lighting equipment. This means that the cost of offering wedding videography if you are already a wedding photographer is quite low, as you need the same equipment to provide photography anyway.

Many of the photographers that have added video services in recent years, will only book either photo or video on a wedding day not both. Realistically its practically impossible to do both yourself so unless they work in a team of two or more, they can only offer each service individually at a wedding.

Wedding videographers that now also provide wedding photography

Seeing the upsurge in photographers offering video services, some wedding videographers decided that they then had to offer both services as well so that they compete with other companies that offer both.

Some of these types of businesses just like the wedding photographers that now offer video, only provide one of the options on a wedding unless they work in a team of two or more people. Some when they are providing both services at the same wedding hire in another photographer or videographer for the day. This can often mean though that the photographer or videographer hired for the day is someone who they haven’t worked with before and may have a different style as they are often chosen a short time before and the choice of who to hire comes down to availability.

Wedding videography Northern Ireland

Some of the videographers that now offer “photography” don’t offer real wedding photography, they provide clients with still images taken from the video content they have captured during the wedding day. Images captured this way are not the same quality as images captured normally. They also lack the creative level of artistic input you would expect from your wedding photographer and offer nothing that you won’t receive in your video.

Hybrid wedding photography and video businesses

There have always been businesses in Northern Ireland that offered both services. Usually, they operate in teams of two or more with one person specialising in photo and the other in video. This type of business often tends to be a bit more old school in their approach and offer a more traditional style of photography and video. 

Can a wedding photographer provide a good wedding video? Can a wedding videographer provide good photography?

Yes, for some they can! For others not so much. It all depends on the ability, knowledge and experience level of each individual business. A lot of the skills from each genre are transferable to the other especially for weddings. Both genres require the technical capabilities to use the equipment and the knowledge of how light works to make the most of each shooting opportunity. For weddings in particular having experience of working with people on the day is vitally important as is the ability to rip up plans and to think on your feet when things need to be changed at the last minute.

Having worked with photographers that also provide videography at our own weddings we have noticed a much different way of working compared to the companies whose main focus is video. Even we can tell that some due to their experience level sometimes struggle and rely an awful lot on the equipment to do the work compared to the videography specialists who use their knowledge and skill to get the best results. We haven’t personally worked a wedding with a videography business who is shooting photo as we are always the photographer, but from conversations with dedicated videographers who have, they have said very similar things.

What are the advantages of using one business for both photo and video for a wedding?

It can sometimes be a little cheaper and some people might feel it is easier to make arrangements with one business rather than two.

What are the disadvantages to using one business for photo and video for a wedding?

The quality of photographs and video you receive may be at a lower level or produced in a style you don’t love. You may receive great photos but mediocre video or the other way around depending on what the business provides as their core service. If something goes wrong and the business disappears you have lost both your photographer and videographer.

So why don’t you offer wedding videography?

Being the best

This might sound a little bit big headed but we think that our work speaks for itself. As wedding photographers, we know that our photography work is right up there on the same level as the very best photographers in Northern Ireland and we are always striving to improve. If we were to offer wedding videography as well, while we know that we could do a competent job it would take a long time for us to gain the knowledge needed to provide videography that would be above the average level produced by the majority of photographers that also offer video. We always strive to do the best work possible so average is not good enough for us.

The impact on client experience

We want all of our clients to have the best possible experience when they choose us to document a life defining moment like their wedding. Offering videography, we feel would impact on that. While it’s tempting to think only about the business side of things in terms of the extra revenue videography would offer, the time needed to shoot and edit video would add additional workload that could potentially impact on our photography clients, with likely longer lead times for them to receive their images.

Lots of photo/video business now don’t do any post production work themselves. Many use other third party companies and many more use A.I software for both photo and video editing, we don’t. We edit all of our own work. Editing our own work allows us complete control and while it adds significant extra workload ensures that every client that chooses us receives high quality work in our signature style. While outside companies can match styles to a certain extent it is never exactly the same. A.I software can do a very good job and can be ridiculously quick. You can also make A.I software edit in the same way as other famous photographers using their style. Wedding photographers can use A.I software to choose images and edit a full wedding in just a couple of hours which is why so many now use it. A few hours versus a few days worth of work editing the way we do it, is a massive time saver.

A lot of the video guys have jumped on the A.I bandwagon as well. The vast majority of photographers and videographers who offer both services use A.I software. Having tested all of the A.I software currently available while it is very good, it is not yet at the level where we feel it could replace all of the hard work, we do to edit our clients images. It may be, that it works better for photographers whose style is different to ours. We have however seen other photographers level of work deteriorate after switching to using A.I for editing.

Working together as a Husband-and-Wife team of photographers

We are so used to working together from a photography point of view it would be difficult to change how we do things and adapt to one of us shooting photo while the other shoots video. We can imagine that doing that would cause all sorts of issues resulting in the quality of our work being impacted. It would certainly take away from what we offer working together as wedding photographers.

Living the dream

While a lot of the skills and knowledge needed to produce a high standard of work are transferable from photography to videography, we have never had the same love for video that we do for photography. It was always our dream to become professional photographers, video has never been a consideration. We absolutely love what we do and we feel that shines through in our work, we could never have the same level of affinity for video.

The advantages of being a specialist wedding photographer

Being a specialist in photography allows us to pour all of our time into our photography work without video becoming a distraction. We always want to improve and find better ways of doing things and being a specialist allows us the time needed to do that. Being a specialist also helps us to provide the best possible experience for our clients. There are always the exceptions to the rule but in general specialist photographers and videographers produce better work,

You have booked us for photography, but what do you do about video for your wedding?

If you have booked us to photograph your wedding and you also want a wedding video we are always happy to provide recommendations for wedding videographers who we have worked with previously who we know provide awesome work, and are great to be around on your wedding day.

Congratulations if you managed to make your way through all of that, we know it’s a very long-winded explanation of why we don’t offer wedding videography but as it’s something we get asked about a lot we felt it was important to provide the reasons why, rather than just saying “we don’t do that”.

Tommy + Laurene