What Microphone (s) > Redwood Wedding ??

I've done photography for several redwood weddings, but never any video. I have one more coming in November. The couple will hire me regardless, but sent an extra email asking if I could do video of ceremony, or whether they need to hire a videographer. Their budget is very small, already cutting into their moving-over-seas fund for the wedding. It came to mind that I could set up my extra camera (Canon 5D Mk iii or 5DS) on a tripod pointed at them and the officiant while I take photos. If I do this, I want to get a microphone.

Any suggestions for microphone, whether wireless lav, or shotgun mike? Usually is very quiet. Breeze sound is often 250 to 300 ft overhead and sounds like the ocean if there's even any wind. And an occasional raven once in a while. So ambient sound is minimal.

I'm also curious about using a small mixer with a combination of lav PLUS shotgun. And I'm also wondering if a lav microphone placed on the groom or officiant will pick up all three voices clearly.

Using an overhead boom mike placed as close the the subjects face as possible without getting in the shoot is a good way.

I don't think most weddings would want a boom mic.

I've seen wireless lav mics used a lot. I used to work for a church as the audio tech and we did that all the time for the house sound. We put one on the groom for him and the bride and the officiant had a wireless headset mic.

I would pick a Sennheiser wireless mic like THIS. It is a very reliable and popular wireless mic. You may need to adjust the levels for each voice when editing the video but that is not hard to do.

bpalermini wrote in post #18478302
I don't think most weddings would want a boom mic.

I've seen wireless lav mics used a lot. I used to work for a church as the audio tech and we did that all the time for the house sound. We put one on the groom for him and the bride and the officiant had a wireless headset mic.

I would pick a Sennheiser wireless mic like THIS. It is a very reliable and popular wireless mic. You may need to adjust the levels for each voice when editing the video but that is not hard to do.

You are probably spot-on about the boom. Given the nature of a redwood wedding in old growth environment, a boom and stand amidst pristine redwood forest would probably look awkward.

That link you sent is a brand I heard about on one Youtube review by Tony Northrup, but it's way outside my budget. There almost isn't a budget for a mic. I could afford something like this:

https://www.amazon.com …smid=A2LXBKOLL3​J3K6&psc=1

My working range would be about 15 ft. away. Usually couples follow my advice for where to gather. I could probably hide a camera and tripod where's it's barely in view of the still image photography. I can probably get camera within 8 ft. of them, but anywhere from 8 ft. to 15 ft. Could go farther if need be. There will probably be ferns for cloaking too.

Dare I say none? If the church has a sound desk at the rear centre of the church, you can put a tripod up by the desk, and run a line out to the mic input on your SLR. However, there would need to be a mic by the couple. Some churches do this, most don't. Failing that, the defaqto standard for live recording is the Sure SM58 which costs, £100/$120. Great sound, just put it on a straight up mic stand between the couple (most churches WILL have one of these). A great budget mike is a Beringer XM8500 @ £20 $25 (261 5* and 62 4* reviews out of 363 on Amazon UK). I have P.A. experience with both of these mics and can vouch you wont be disappointed with either.
Enjoy the video taking.

Colin Glover wrote in post #18478539
Dare I say none? If the church has a sound desk at the rear centre of the church, you can put a tripod up by the desk, and run a line out to the mic input on your SLR. However, there would need to be a mic by the couple.

Thanks, Colin ... but the "redwood" in the thread title is literal. This won't be a church near redwoods or one of the privately owned redwood wedding venues. It's going to be pristine old growth coast redwood forest with huge trees, giant ferns, and somewhat secluded.

You can rent the Sennheiser wireless mic that I mentioned for $52 per week from LensRentals.com or from most of the photo equipment rental places.

The mics I mentioned don't need power, just an adapter to fit the jack, 3.5mm on most DSLR's. And you can get a splitter to put 2 mics on 1 input. No lead is supplied so you'll need an unbalanced XLR to 1/2 inch jack, and a 1/2 inch to 1/4 inch (3.5mm) jack adapter.just put it on a stand pointing vertically up between the couple and celebrant. Make sure you buy a long enough lead so your camera isn't in the way. Reproduction will be excellent with either mic as long as they don't stand too far away from it, so 2 feet from it should be ok. If its in the woods, how will they be playing music? CD boom box, or live playing?

bpalermini wrote in post #18478302
I've seen wireless lav mics used a lot.

this.

Colin Glover wrote in post #18479807
The mics I mentioned don't need power, just an adapter to fit the jack, 3.5mm on most DSLR's. And you can get a splitter to put 2 mics on 1 input. No lead is supplied so you'll need an unbalanced XLR to 1/2 inch jack, and a 1/2 inch to 1/4 inch (3.5mm) jack adapter.just put it on a stand pointing vertically up between the couple and celebrant. Make sure you buy a long enough lead so your camera isn't in the way. Reproduction will be excellent with either mic as long as they don't stand too far away from it, so 2 feet from it should be ok. If its in the woods, how will they be playing music? CD boom box, or live playing?

I don't think they have any music planned. If they were to have music, the redwood parks would require an actual instrument like acoustic guitar or human voice. No powered music.

Tascam has a good mini recorder with lav mic. It records an extra safety track. Stick it on the groom and get everything said during the ceremony loud and clear. As long as nobody moves away from the groom. Ask the officiant about this if you can.

Or you can just mount a shotgun mic on the camera but it'll need to be close to get quality audio. Yes, a mixer will help but ideally you'd need to man it and adjust levels.

You can also get a small Zoom or Tascam recorder with built in mics and hide it near the ceremony.

Grab a Zoom H1 and a decent lav mic. Pop it on the groom and put the Zoom in his pocket. Put some gaff tape over all the switches so it doesn't get bumped and change settings and hit record.

Take a second Zoom and put it somewhere close up front. Podium or behind or under a sand ceremony table for example.

You can set them to record WAV or MP3, depending on how long you'll be recording, and the sound quality is great. I shoot 40+ video gigs a year and this has always given me more than acceptable sound quality. Just remember to put in fresh batteries for every gig and tape off those switches because they will get bumped and moved.