How to Work with the Wedding Photographer as Videographer

Creating professional wedding video is a complex job. You have to take many factors into consideration.

The preferences of the bride and groom, the venue, the light conditions and the weather all play a role. Depending on these specifics, it becomes nearly impossible for a single person to complete all of the steps required to deliver a quality product.

Add the fact that you have other people trying to do their job at the wedding and you get a very sticky situation. For some time, there has been a stereotypical animosity between wedding videographers and photographers. Seasoned professionals, however, know that good interactions between photographers and videographers can be mutually beneficial.

Communicating with the wedding photographer can help you do a good job. It’s not difficult to work together, especially if you’re open to discussing new ideas.

Get Contact Information from the Couple

Once you get hired to create a professional wedding video for the couple, you’ll need to sort through several essentials.

Get contact information from the bride and the groom to start interacting with other professionals involved in the wedding. A videographer can easily partner up with the photographer and even the wedding planner to organize work and help each other.

Call the photographer as early as possible to inquire about the way they’re going to approach the project, the types of cameras they’ll bring and whether they’re open at all to helping each other.

Discuss Timing

After you get the lines of communication open, you will need to discuss some of the most important aspects of working together. Timing is one of the biggest factors and one of the most serious challenges at the same time. Usually, timing is also the main cause of disagreement between professional wedding video creators and photographers.

Depending on the event and the elements of the ceremony, there may be too little time for both the photographer and the videographer to capture the shots required to give the couple a good product. Thus, collaboration in such instances is going to be essential. Visit the wedding venue together. Tell the photographer where you plan to position your equipment and how you are going to move around the venue to capture the wedding video footage.

Even more importantly, get a timeline from the couple and use that information to rehearse your interactions with the other visual professional who will be attending. In some instances, it will be possible to shoot instantaneously but this isn’t always a viable option. Plan for a worst-case scenario so that you’re prepared to address all kinds of unforeseen circumstances during the wedding day.

Exchange a List of Planned Shots

While communicating with the photographer, you may want to exchange a list of the shots that both of you plan to create. A wedding videographer can find it very difficult to capture all moments in the event of a large ceremony and reception. The same applies to the photographer. If the couple is ok with such an arrangement, you can “split” the task between the two of you.

The photographer will capture the moments that will produce the most stunning pictures while you will be left with documenting the instances that need to be captured with audio and motion. In this sense, the professional wedding video and the photo album will work together to produce one comprehensive wedding kit.

There’s no need to focus on one and the same thing during the special day. Knowing the planned shots in advance will reduce the burden without causing a quality compromise.

Come Up with Signals to Use during the Wedding

Once the actual wedding begins, chaos could ensue. It will be impossible to talk to the photographer and tell them to get out of the way or vice versa. You should come up with signals or gestures that you’re going to use during the wedding.

Determine which signal will ask the other professional to get out of the way because they’re being featured in the shot. After coming up with such an arrangement, you will need to respect and honor it (even if it makes your life much more difficult). Both of you are attempting to do a good job and a little bit of work ethics can go a long way.

Have Fun with the Presence of the Other Person

When working on your prep shots, you can actually feature the wedding photographer in the film to paint a comprehensive picture. There are no strict rules when it comes to putting together the perfect wedding video.

Featuring the photographer in some of the footage will give the bride and groom a nice memory and a reminder of what their wedding day was really like.

Obviously, you shouldn’t overdo it and you should get the consent of the photographer in advance. The same arrangement can also work the other way. The photographer can feature you in a few of the pictures to make the wedding album more fun and dynamic.

Final Verdict

Being courteous and open to communication can result in new opportunities that will enhance the work that you do. There’s really no need for wedding photographers and videographers to be at each other’s throat. Sure, such professionals can get in each other’s way when attempting to capture some of the most important shots.

That is a normal aspect of capturing the wedding, however, and it shouldn’t become a reason for conflict. Even if it’s not possible to meet in advance and have a detailed conversation with the photographer, arrive early enough to the venue. Introduce yourself and share information about what you intend to do. Such a simple, 10-minute conversation can take a lot of the stress out of the equation.

Eventually, you can end up building respectful and meaningful professional relationships. Couples often ask their photographer for a recommended videographer and vice versa.

Being polite and open to interacting with other visual professionals can result in new business opportunities. You need allies to ensure the long-term success of your studio.