Photography AND Video?

For those of you that offer photography AND video services for your brides and grooms, I have a few questions for you ...

I'm considering getting into providing both, as a package, or as stand alones. If you offer both, have you purchased the video equipment and then hire freelancers to shoot the video, or do you hire freelancers only if they have their own equipment. Also, who do you have do the post processing with the video work -- yourself, or the freelancer?

What do you see as the benefits and drawbacks of offering both photography and video services?

Thanks in advance,
Bob

I did this for the last two years, but decided to give up video this past year for a few reasons.
1. the post production on video is brutal
2. nobody is willing to pay what it is truly worth
3. the equipment is MORE expensive than photography equipment
4. Jack of ALL trades - master of none - meaning you don't really get noticed for either your photography or videography if you do BOTH.

I have been MUCH happier this year not having to worry about hiring videographers and editing the wedding videos.. MUCH happier.

We offer a video option add-on, where we also shoot key moments on video (bride arrival, ceremony, speeches, 1st dance), and then deliver a DVD video combining stills, video and music. We don't shoot the whole event on video.

We have everything in-house (our youngest son comes with us as video cameraman), but we were a multimedia production business before we started doing wedding photography - so we already had cameras, tripods, fluid head, editing software, etc, etc..

Take up is not huge, but we haven't been specifically promoting it. We have no plans to do standalone video - it will always be an add-on to stills coverage for us - but we do plan on buying HD cameras next year (already have HD software).

So long as you can afford the kit and have got the people to do the work, I think there's a place for a hybrid offering - stills and motion - but I also think HD video will be the key to this gaining popularity.

If we were having to hire in kit and people I wouldn't consider doing it ...for us, already having the kit and the capability, it's been an obvious thing to offer.

Rob

Toogy wrote in post #4181847
I did this for the last two years, but decided to give up video this past year for a few reasons.
1. the post production on video is brutal
2. nobody is willing to pay what it is truly worth
3. the equipment is MORE expensive than photography equipment
4. Jack of ALL trades - master of none - meaning you don't really get noticed for either your photography or videography if you do BOTH.

I have been MUCH happier this year not having to worry about hiring videographers and editing the wedding videos.. MUCH happier.

I agree with Jeff. I actually dabbled in focusing in video a few years ago. I had all of the equipment. The post production was freaking killer........... I always wanted hollywood quality work and it took me lots of very long hours and weeks to complete a project. I ended up selling my equipment at a loss to a nonprofit group that does relief work in Africa.

I have recently hooked up with a few video companies to provide that service along side of mine. I am not sure how it will work out yet but it will be nice working with people that I know and have some control of.

I've been asked if I do video, wedding invitations, if I sell frames, and if I sell easles. This isn't a one man band I just do photography.

No video for me... no way. Jeff said it perfectly. Jack of all trades, master of none. I'd rather be a master of one. (And have still a looooong ways to go)

Oh, I certainly don't plan on doing the video post processing work. I fully appreciate the amount of time it takes to put out quality video.

Do you think more and more clients are looking for the convenience of a "one-stop" shop that offers photography & video? I wonder how much potential business I'm losing by not offering video, in addition to photography.

R. Lawrence wrote in post #4183063
Do you think more and more clients are looking for the convenience of a "one-stop" shop that offers photography & video?

think about it. One stop shopping = Walmart, Target, Zellers, K-mart etc...

Do you really want to be known as one-stop wedding photo shopping? More importantly, do you really want your target market to be the types who WANT one-stop shopping?

Would you rather eat sushi from a restaurant that also serves pyrogies, pre-prepared ham sandwiches, schnitzel, and fries and mashed potatoes? Or would you rather go to a fine sushi restaurant?

Would you rather take your BMW to be repaired at a shop that does auto repair, but also repairs big rigs, RVs, tractors? Or go to a shop that's built and maintained award winning BMW race cars and collectors cars?


Sure, you CAN do it, but I think you'd be better off NOT.

picturecrazy wrote in post #4183134
think about it. One stop shopping = Walmart, Target, Zellers, K-mart etc...

Do you really want to be known as one-stop wedding photo shopping? More importantly, do you really want your target market to be the types who WANT one-stop shopping?

Would you rather eat sushi from a restaurant that also serves pyrogies, pre-prepared ham sandwiches, schnitzel, and fries and mashed potatoes? Or would you rather go to a fine sushi restaurant?

Would you rather take your BMW to be repaired at a shop that does auto repair, but also repairs big rigs, RVs, tractors? Or go to a shop that's built and maintained award winning BMW race cars and collectors cars?


Sure, you CAN do it, but I think you'd be better off NOT.

LOVE your analogies!

R. Lawrence wrote in post #4183063
I wonder how much potential business I'm losing by not offering video, in addition to photography.

I doubt you're losing any potential business - brides & grooms currently tend to look in different places for stills photographers and videographers - we don't advertise as videographers, it's just an option available if people book us for stills ...and, because of the way we do it, it doesn't compromise our stills coverage.

picturecrazy wrote in post #4183134
think about it. One stop shopping = Walmart, Target, Zellers, K-mart etc...

As I've said to you before Lloyd I feel you're over-egging this one-stop thing a bit - stills and video are associated visual media - it's not like we (and others) are trying to be photographers, and wedding coordinators, and the DJ, and the caterer. Now THAT would be a one-stop shop. Nor are we trying to do all this single-handed as a one-man band - that would be plain stupid.

I remember a thread sometime back (not sure if it was here on POTN) where someone showed examples of short video bursts for weddings shot on stills cameras, and encouraged photographers to try different things. I feel there is a new potential market waiting to emerge. I'm talking about a hybrid service that combines the output of stills and video while also giving the bride/groom their normal expectations in terms of stills (albums, prints, digital images, etc.). I'm NOT talking about 2 separate packages, stills AND video. This hybrid is a market that doesn't really exist right now, but I suspect that could well change over the next few years, especially as HD video comes of age, and the YouTube generation start getting married.

Perhaps I'm talking rubbish, perhaps I'm on another planet - who knows! ...but I do know there are others who are looking at this, even if they won't come out and say so in public.

A few years back who'd have thought we'd be happily using digital cameras for professional work, and getting great results?

Rob

well rob, I'm glad we have differing opinions which makes this thread more objective and useful.

I just don't feel I can really really excel as a photographer if I had video as an option too... even if I didn't do the video production or shooting. I'm sure I could be good, but good isn't enough for me. I know my limits and want to be the absolute best I can be in my chosen field.

Maybe you are one of the super duper talented people who can concentrate and focus on multiple things at the same time and excel amazingly at all. Well, most of the world isn't quite that talented, including me.

picturecrazy wrote in post #4184448
well rob, I'm glad we have differing opinions which makes this thread more objective and useful.

I just don't feel I can really really excel as a photographer if I had video as an option too... even if I didn't do the video production or shooting. I'm sure I could be good, but good isn't enough for me. I know my limits and want to be the absolute best I can be in my chosen field.

Maybe you are one of the super duper talented people who can concentrate and focus on multiple things at the same time and excel amazingly at all. Well, most of the world isn't quite that talented, including me.

That feels like a cheap shot, so I see no point in continuing any discussion on this.

Rob

what? how is that supposed to be a cheap shot? it isn't, and wasn't intended to be.

I see no cheap shot, I think Rob may have taken something other than how it was intended. At least with me you know if i'm trying to be offensive

I couldn't offer video and photo, I don't think I could hold both cameras at once.

It sounds like one of the things your considering is basically just owning a videography company and having somebody else run it more or less. I can see that. A lot of people in the financial position to do so start companies that they really have nothing to do with except they get the profit, and it sounds like the money is what you're in it for anyway. If it's specific to weddings, you're already in the right places for marketing, etc.

The major disadvantage is the perception from potential clients that neither the photography or the videography will be excellent (the one stop shop theory), so I'd probably consider positioning them as affiliated businesses and not trying to market it as one single entity. But I don't know much...