Wedding photographers! Do you offer photo and video?

[haring]

This question is for wedding photographers.

I am in the middle of restructuring my business. I have been offering wedding photography for the last 14 years. I see more and more brides and grooms want the same service provider to provide photo AND video. I have started offering both.

I am just wondering whether some of you started offering video, as well, as photography and share some of their experiences? Any pitfalls I need to pay attention?

Some weddings, I am planning to shoot myself and some weddings I am planning to shoot as a photographer and bring my videography team.

Thanks for the help!

[Peter McLennan]

At the risk of sounding supercilious, film making is quite a bit more complex than still photography.  It's easy to underestimate the amount of work involved.  Hopefully, your video team is well experienced.

I've shot but one wedding.  My sister's. 

Never again. WAY too difficult.  Wedding photographers have my utmost admiration.

[Alan Klein]

As a past user of wedding pictures and video services, I know video adds a lot of money to the wedding costs.    On a separate point, as a guest, I find the whole process of cameramen and videographers and DJ's and entertainers and band leaders trying to capture everything and entertain to be too overwhelming.  It's hard to just relax and take it all in.  You feel you're part of a movie production. 

[Joe Towner]

You can be the photographer, or the videographer - but not both.

Videographer is constantly fighting to get a clear line of sight to the couple, same as the photographer.  The photographer will pose & direct a couple, to create that perfect scene.  Videographers are constantly shifting around, but silent.  You can pull frames from a video to use as a photo, but you're not going to do a large print of it.  You're not going to use speedlights with video.  Stabilizers and mic's and so much stuff keep the camera in landscape mode, while photographers will pivot to a portrait orientation a lot.  You know this stuff, hopefully this is taken as a gentle reminder.

Yes, setting up a few cameras & hitting record captures video.  But to accomplish what clients want, you need multiple people shooting at the same time for different results.  This isn't a solo endeavor.

[Alan Klein]

You can be the photographer, or the videographer - but not both.

Videographer is constantly fighting to get a clear line of sight to the couple, same as the photographer.  The photographer will pose & direct a couple, to create that perfect scene.  Videographers are constantly shifting around, but silent.  You can pull frames from a video to use as a photo, but you're not going to do a large print of it.  You're not going to use speedlights with video.  Stabilizers and mic's and so much stuff keep the camera in landscape mode, while photographers will pivot to a portrait orientation a lot.  You know this stuff, hopefully this is taken as a gentle reminder.

Yes, setting up a few cameras & hitting record captures video.  But to accomplish what clients want, you need multiple people shooting at the same time for different results.  This isn't a solo endeavor.

I agree from my own experience as a guest.  That was my last point.  All these photographers and videographers running around directing you as a guest like you're in a  Hollywood movie don't allow guests to just enjoy the affair.  Unfortunately, the ones paying for the affair are convinced they need all these things for a successful affair. 

Sometimes simpler is better.

[LesPalenik]

I agree from my own experience as a guest.  That was my last point.  All these photographers and videographers running around directing you as a guest like you're in a  Hollywood movie don't allow guests to just enjoy the affair.  Unfortunately, the ones paying for the affair are convinced they need all these things for a successful affair. 

Sometimes simpler is better.

Lucrative for the service providers, but for half of the buyers wedding photography and videography expenses are a bad investment. Most definitely, simpler is better.

Almost 50 percent of all marriages in the United States will end in divorce or separation.
Researchers estimate that 41 percent of all first marriages end in divorce.
60 percent of second marriages end in divorce.
73 percent of all third marriages end in divorce.

1. In 2019 (the latest data available), the marriage rate in the United States was 6.1 per 1,000 total population.
2. In the same year, the divorce rate was the U.S. is  2.7 per 1,000 population (with 44 states and D.C. reporting) This is known as the “crude divorce rate”. Although useful for describing changes in divorce rates over time, the crude divorce rate does not provide accurate information on the percentage of first marriages that end in divorce.
3. As of 2019, both marriage rates AND divorce rates in the US are decreasing – with the marriage rate dropping from 8.2 per 1,ooo people in 2000 to 6.1 and the divorce rate from 4.0 in 2000 to 2.7. Recent studies have shown that millennials are choosing to wait longer to get married and staying married longer and are the main driver in the decline of both the marriage and divorce rate in the US.u.s. divorce rate per 1000 married women
4.  Currently, the divorce rate per 1000 married women is 16.9.  Many experts feel that this is a much more accurate measure of true divorce rate than the crude rate.
5.  The divorce rate per 1000 married women is nearly double that of 1960, but down from the all-time high of 22.6 in the early 1980s.
6.  Almost 50 percent of all marriages in the United States will end in divorce or separation.
7.  Researchers estimate that 41 percent of all first marriages end in divorce.
8.  60 percent of second marriages end in divorce.
9.  73 percent of all third marriages end in divorce.
10. The United States has the 6th highest divorce rate in the world. Here is a chart of the top twenty:

HOW OFTEN DIVORCE TAKES PLACE IN THE U.S.(This information was recalculated based of newly released divorce figures from the CDC for the year 2019.  The true figures are likely higher, as the release only includes data from 44 reporting states)
11. Every 42 seconds, there is one divorce in America, That equates to 86 divorces per hour, 2,046 divorces per day, 14,364 divorces per week, and 746,971 divorces per year1
12. Every 16 seconds, there is a marriage in the U.S.  That equates to 230 marriages per hour, 38,762 marriages per week and 2,015,603 per year.
13. There are nearly 3 divorces in the time it takes for a couple to recite their wedding vows (2 minutes).
14. More than 172 divorces occur during your typical romantic comedy movie (2 hours).
15. 430 divorces happen during the average wedding reception (5 hours).
16. There are 5,975,768 divorces over the course of an average first marriage that ends in divorce (8 years).
17. Over a 40 year period, 67 percent of first marriages terminate.
18. Among all Americans 18 years of age or older, whether they have been married or not, 25 percent have gone through a marital split.
19. 15 percent of adult women in the United States are divorced or separated today, compared with less than one percent in 1920.
20. The average first marriage that ends in divorce lasts about 8 years.

https://www.wf-lawyers.com/divorce-statistics-and-facts/

[Alan Klein]

Lucrative for the service providers, but for half of the buyers wedding photography and videography expenses are a bad investment. Most definitely, simpler is better.

https://www.wf-lawyers.com/divorce-statistics-and-facts/

Another thing to fight over when getting divorced - the wedding album.

[kers]

Lucrative for the service providers, but for half of the buyers wedding photography and videography expenses are a bad investment. Most definitely, simpler is better.

https://www.wf-lawyers.com/divorce-statistics-and-facts/

I guess in the south states they will make divorce illegal after they have banned abortion...

[Alan Klein]

Divorce used to be illegal in most states even up in the north. Husband and wives would have to hire lawyers to catch their spouse's playing around as that was only one maybe two reasons you can get a legal divorce.  That was before "no fault" divorce.