Choosing the Perfect Wedding Cinematography & Photography Team for Your Celebration
When it comes to hiring both a photographer and cinematographer for your wedding day, there is quite a lot to consider. Each artist has their own unique style and approach to creating visual imagery, so ensuring these vendors are a cohesive, collaborative, and professional team is vital to receiving the best quality end product.
If you plan to hire both a photography and cinematography team for your wedding celebration, we recommend you ask your first-hired vendor for suggestions for the other half of the team. Experienced wedding photographers and cinematographers will typically have a recommendation for someone who they know works well with their own style of documenting an event. If your photographer and cinematographer team's styles are not cohesive, it not only affects the final photo and video products, but can also create tension or conflict between the photographer and cinematographer on your wedding day.
When researching a photography and cinematography team, remember the following essential factors:
Consider Style + Approach
There are many approaches to documenting a wedding, but the majority of modern day professional photographers fall into the categories of editorial, photojournalist or a blend of the two. Editorial style photographers are typically detail-oriented and prep their clients in advance for clean images. This may include tidying up a room before getting dressed into wedding attire. Photojournalist style photographers may make several suggestions leading up to the day, but will typically capture moments as they happen.
Likewise, there are a variety of approaches and styles of filming a wedding day as a cinematographer. Some cinematographers film in high-definition, 4K, Super 8mm, Super 16mm or a blend of analog film and digital cameras. Some cinematographers prep their clients with creative direction for artistic shots, while others document the day as an event. Being on the same page for these various styles helps to achieve a cohesive final product all around.
In addition to shooting style, the editing style plays a key role on the wedding day. Some cinematographers build their films to music (without any spoken audio), while other cinematographers are audio-driven. Audio driven cinematographers typically tell the story of the day through a narrative - such as audio from dinner toasts, ceremony vows and written letters. Clean audio is also important to the quality of an audio-driven film. If you are choosing an audio-driven cinematographer to document your wedding day, make sure to consult with both your photographer and cinematographer regarding their individual needs for receiving the highest quality photo and video products.
Consider Lighting
There are many different styles of photography, but the majority of photographers are either primarily natural light based or artificial light based. Natural light based photographers typically shoot with little to no artificial lighting — unless deemed necessary. They may use artificial lighting for parts of an event day, but typically only for indoor, dark or late night portrait photographs. Artificial light based photographers will frequently set up off-camera lighting for both indoor and outdoor photographs.
The majority of cinematographers rely on consistent lighting conditions for a beautiful end product, whether that be consistent natural light or a video light.
Consider Experience
Regardless of the style you choose for your wedding day, hiring an experienced wedding photography and cinematography team is a one of the best decisions that can be made when planning your day! Most seasoned professionals have worked together with a variety of wedding vendors. Having the skill and knowledge of working weddings is key to anticipating and capturing moments on one of the most important days of your life!
This article was originally written on behalf of Style Me Pretty as part of their #SMPWedding101 series. You can view their copy of the article here.
Photos contained within this article are courtesy of Serena Jae.
