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DIY Wedding Videography Tips for Amateurs

by James Hendrickson
1 comment

backstage-2101255_640Wedding videography is one thing that many people need but do not have the expertise to do. Because there are numerous video features on phones and computers, shooting your own wedding video should be a breeze. If you have a friend who is willing to play videographer on your big day, that would be ideal.

Designate someone else to be your videographer

There should not be any confusion when it comes to who will film your wedding. If you are asking a relative or friend, make sure that you have a clear conversation with him/her, where you spell out the duties. If you want to have several videos of your wedding, you should recruit more than one person to shoot the wedding video.

Use any camera you can get

Do you have Smartphones, DSLRs, regular camcorders, or tablets? You can use anything, including a laptop camera to film your wedding. You do not need to buy an expensive professional camera to record the most important day of your life.

If you are going to spend all that money on a camera, you might as well hire a professional like  Atlanta wedding videographer Rooted Pine Films, for example. However, if you just want to film your wedding day, it should not matter whether the videos are in HD or SD.

Buy a tripod

No matter which camera you are using, you need to purchase a tripod. One of the worst things about shooting a video while holding the camera is that images will be shaky and unstable, rendering it unwatchable. Any video that is longer than a minute needs to be shot from a tripod.

You just need to buy a cheap 5-foot tripod to make your video more watchable. If you are filming with an iPhone, you also need a good mount.

Move slowly

Your videographer needs to know that the goal is to have usable, steady footage. However, you should make it clear that you are not expecting a cinematic or artful video from them. The only goal is to place the camera on a steady spot and make sure that it is recording.

Unless your designated videographer has some experience with a camera, he should stay as still as possible to minimize shakiness. If the subject moves, the person taking the video should follow him/her slowly: the overall goal is to keep the camera as still as possible.

Talk to your videographer

Since the videographer will not be moving much, he should not get in the way of the photographer. If you hire a professional photographer, ask the person for tips on where to set up the video camera. This will ensure that the photographer stays out of the videographer’s line of sight.

Ideally, your photographer and videographer should work as a team to produce the best images and videos.

Stay close enough to hear

The only thing that is worse than a shaky video is a soundless one. You can watch a bad video with good sound but watching a good video with horrible sound is impossible. To make sure that your camera picks up conversations, you should position it as close to the subjects as possible.

Unless the person speaking is talking through a microphone, you should place your camera close to the action. If you can hear the conversation well, chances are that the camera can as well.

Make full recordings

Once you hit the record button, you should not stop recording until the ceremony is over. If you are recording a dance, you should hit record before it starts. The idea is to have full clips of everything instead of incomplete ones.

1 comment

hawaii videographer November 13, 2017 - 2:44 am

Emphasizing how your wedding video and photos are equally important to you, so you need both vendors to coordinate with each other.

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