Should you consider a jack of all trades for your wedding? I will define what I mean to ensure we are all on the same page. Im talking about what we call hybrid shooters. Folks that feel they are equally as good at executing both photography and videography professionally. These hybrid shooters have marketed themselves as a one-stop shop for wedding clients looking to save money by hiring just one person to do the job of two. Consider your budget and if it’s really worth it.
I’m not implying a photographer can’t be good at filming or videography. I’m not saying a videographer can’t be a talented photographer. What I am saying is that it is challenging to do both at the same time, especially at a wedding. I feel one will suffer as you focus on the other. For example, if I’m taking pictures, I can’t get a close-up steady moving video of the bride coming down the aisle. I would have to rely on a stationary camera that would end up recording my back. That same camera would have to be positioned in a way to get the best shot. You just have to pray nobody moves. Videographers that need photos rely on high-resolution images from their videos and claim their clients love it.
After seeing a potential client post in an online Facebook group about hiring a Hybrid Shooter, I needed to ask other professionals their thoughts on how they felt about it. Here are the results of a poll I created with 146 responses. I also included several quotes from wedding videographers from all over the country.
Poll Results Out of 146 Videographer Submissions Across USA.
57% – 82 Said No, I would never try to do both
31% – 46 Said I could try to do both, but one or the other would not be my best work.
12% – 18 Said Yes, I could do both by myself
As a professional, I want to believe we are all capable of doing both, but the issue is whether we can do both well simultaneously. Knowing myself, I don’t believe I could do both without one or the other suffering in quality. For anyone looking to make this work for you, I salute you. Just remember that we are obligated to give our clients our absolute best at all times. Never let money motivate you to sacrifice your integrity or quality of service.
Quotes:
“I have done Hybrid for 3 years. Seeing these comments is very interesting to me. So many people feel that either one or both would suffer greatly.”
“The workload is substantially higher. I feel like I’m constantly editing.
I do about 50 weddings per year on average with about 15 or so being hybrid, around 10 being video only, and the rest photo only.”
“I started doing full-time as photo only about 6 years ago. When I added Hybrid, my income more than doubled. More and more couples want this these days and are seeing a value in it.”
“I do feel like it would be extremely difficult to do a hybrid wedding alone, though. I always have a second shooter who does photo and I depend on them for moments like the bride walking down the aisle and the kiss. I get photo and video of most everything else.”
“I do not use a gimbal. I have two Sony A7IV’s and they easily switch between photo and video modes. I will sometimes have a third one on a tripod if the couple has requested a full video of their first dance, the ceremony, etc.”
“I’ve never had couples be anything but head over heels when they receive their photos and their video. But I also set expectations accordingly. If one aspect were to suffer from doing both, it would be video. It is definitely very difficult to constantly switch mentally between the two approaches.”
“But I feel like I do a pretty darn good job!”
“I think its doable, but you will be sacrificing the quality of one of the two. It works best for elopements since you can redo things as much as you want but weddings are different.”
“I’ve done this before and will never do it again. For 1 year I covered both video and photo alone and I loved it and hated it. I did miss out on many things on video because my main passion was photos. Clients never complained as they were happy but I felt I lacked in so many things and I made up my mind never to cover both alone! I love the luxury of taking just photos or just videos.”
“Photographers are best at photography and videographers best at video. Frustrating how many people want someone to do both.”
Just because being a jack of all trades hybrid shooter isn’t something most of us feel we can do well doesn’t mean folks shouldn’t do it. There are some out there that have it down to a science, and they’ve been very successful at what they do.
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