Instant Advice

The right service

In what would seem to be a simple process, many companies and individuals find out that choosing a Photographer and/or Videographer is a fairly complicated process.

Why is this?

To put it in reverse, if every photographer/videographer had the same attitude, same equipment, and same training/experience, then the choice would be simple: Who can offer the package I want at the best price.

It boils down to those three issues: Attitude & Attire, Equipment, and training/experience.

Is it supposed to look like that?

Of course you want someone who knows what they are doing, and the two ways they can know what they are doing is training and/or experience. You can find a great videographer who may only have one of those attributes, certainly the best is if they have had training and have had a lot of experience. The one failing of training alone is knowing what to do when a situation arises, those situations build up a person's experience so when it happens again they know how to address it quickly and efficiently. If someone claims to have little experience but is well trained, ask for more detail about this training. If they claimed to be trained in a school and their final grade was a C- ...You get the point.

Grumble Grumble

Not everyone is a sweetheart, in fact there are many unpleasant people out there, and yes many of them provide services. When looking for a provider keep in mind how you prefer them to act and present themselves around you and more importantly any guests you may have at your event.

Also inquire as to what they will be wearing to your event, their attire should not stand out in a crowd, but does not need to be overdone. For instance, should you have a wedding where everyone is wearing tuxedos, any photographer/videographer should wear at the minimum dress pants and dress shirt (preferably both black). Should you end up with a grunt of a worker at your event, your pictures and video which you were expecting to have smiles may come out as awkward frowns which begs for the caption: who is this person and why are they taking my pictures?

Is that VHS?

Your videographer should be well equipped to handle your event. The usual advice in this arena is to make sure a 3-chip camera is used, this used to be a good gauge but in our ever advancing culture there are more and more consumer cameras popping up on the market which have 3 chips. A better gauge is to ask them what size sensor their camera uses. If they say 1/3", 1/2", 2/3", then you are good to go. Anything under 1/3" in size will likely yield a poorer quality image, most notably in low light conditions.

Just as important is audio, if shooting anyone talking directly to the camera, at a minimum a videographer should be using a shotgun microphone mounted to his camera, if they are getting paid for their work they should not be using an onboard microphone. Reason being onboard microphones capture sound from many directions, whereas shotgun mics capture more or less in a strait line, to capture just the person it is pointed at.

More important to a photographer is his or her lens selection. Depending on what they are shooting they should be equipped with the proper lenses. Generally speaking longer lenses 70mm & up for portraits and wider angle lenses for tight spaces. They should also be prepared with flashes, or if you prefer not to have flash photography at your event they should have a fast lens, f2.8 or lower.