Wedding Reception Lighting

A lighting kit is a good idea to have on hand at any wedding where there is even a slight chance of rain.
Most videographers use an on-camera light for those dark receptions, but what if the ceremony at the same location gets moved from an outdoor setting to indoors because of weather? Well, that on-camera light isn't going to cut it. Especially if they set-up right in front of a large window or glass paned door. Recently, I was at just such an occasion where the lighting kit proved necessary. The rain forced the ceremony indoors in front of a large glass paned door. This is typically a difficult situation to overcome, because it takes a great deal of light to bring up the lighting level high enough indoors to compensate for the outdoor lighting, and not get a blown-out look. I balanced my camera for sunlight and used a 1000 watt fresnel with a blue gel and a 500 watt light with no gel on either side of the ceremony to get a good mix of daylight and tungsten. Along with the indoor lights turned up, this created a nice balance of light and color.

Don't Expect Greatness From Amateur Video

I've seen this scenario too many times. You want to save some money on your video production or you need to stay under your wedding budget, so you hire a relative with a video camera. You then give the video a watch, and you can't believe how bad it looks and sounds. There are many reasons why a professional will deliver a quality video time and time again. Besides equipment considerations, you will often find similar characteristics in amateur videos. They're typically very shaky, framed poorly, not edited and often they've missed important moments. Additionally, proper sound recording is never even a thought. Don't set yourself up for disappointment, and make sure you consider hiring a professional for your event video.

A Look at Color

In the previous post, we explored what goes into a video production. I want to go a little deeper, and take a moment to talk about color grading. Color grading is an art form in itself. I almost never produce a video without some color correction. This is typically done last, when the edit is complete and all the sound design is taken care of. Not every shot, especially outdoor footage, is perfectly lit, and this is where I go in and adjust the brightness and/or contrast. Sometimes I will "warm up" a scene with some orange or yellow, or cool a scene down with blue. To give my productions a "cinematic" look, I will employ various filters to achieve certain effects such as a glow, black and white, or vignette's. And there are some productions where I need a "hollywood" sort of look, and use filters to achieve that as well. Whatever the case may be, color grading is something you may not be aware of since you don't usually get to see what the raw footage looks like, but it's very important to the final look of the piece.

What Goes Into Your Video Production?

Experience, talent and of course the right equipment. But behind the scenes, you may not realize how many different skills a video professional or production company needs to be able to produce a quality video. It's important to be aware of these aspects. They are: Shooting with the correct framing and technical skills, lighting (often for interviews and other indoor scenes but not limited to outdoor scenes), capturing audio during the shoot, post production (putting video and sound together to tell a story, includes sound design, which is not limited to color correction, filters, effects, graphic design and motion graphics) and final delivery (DVD authoring or internet video). This is just a brief look at a typical video production, but should give you some insight to what goes into your video production.

1-chip cameras VS 3-chip

One measure of the video quality of different cameras is whether the camera is 1-chip or 3-chip.

The 1-chip camera uses a single computer chip to process the colors the camera sees. The more expensive professional 3-chip camera has three separate computer chips. Each chip processes a separate primary color - red, green or blue. Because of this, the video quality is much better.

Professioinal cameras are often labeled as 3-CCD or 3-CMOS (CCD stands for "Charge Coupled Device, and CMOS stands for "complementary metal oxide semiconductor."

Great Sound is not an Accident

Good sound design is as important to video production as good camera work. It brings texture to a video production, a richness that music alone can't provide. Sound design begins with the assumption that what we hear enhances our appreciation of what we see. Like poetry, sound design is evocative: we may not actually see the source of a sound, but the presence of the sound evokes strong memories and images. Clever mic placement and solid audio editing skills can dramatically enhance a production.

Today's Wedding Videographer

Is your idea of a videographer someone running around with big clunky cameras and blinding bright lights? Like sequins, ruffles, and big hair, this wedding service has also evolved.

Today's wedding videos are shot with smaller, high-tech digital cameras that require less lighting, making the whole process less obtrusive. The video captured by these cameras is a higher resolution, resulting in clearer more vibrant images. Audio equipment has also become smaller, and capable of recording clearer audio signals. Editing techniques have also advanced, allowing videographers to turn out a wedding video that flows more like a feature film.

Today more than ever, through online content and social media, videographers and video producers like Treasured Moments have access to a wealth of information to stay current on video trends, techniques and new equipment. We can also see what other company's are creating. It pushes us to produce higher quality videos to stay competitive, which ultimately benefits you.