WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY & VIDEOGRAPHY
- THE KEY SIMILARITIES & DIFFERENCES

So those are some of the more obvious differences but there are many others too. The same scene can be captured equally creatively in both photo & video but the experience of viewing it will be very different. In photography we can capture that ‘decisive moment’ – the perfect fraction of a second where everything comes together from the expressions on everyone’s faces to the story all just coming together. Perhaps the moments before and after that photograph don’t need to be seen – perhaps it’s the element of mystery as to what sparked that reaction that makes the image what it was, or maybe it’s as simple as someone was pulling a less than flattering expression right up until that moment. In sparking perfect memories sometimes a fraction of a second is more powerful than seeing the scene through from start to finish.

On the other hand sometimes it’s the movement of the scene that’s important to the story. Sometimes you need to see how the moment unfurled in order to get the joke, sometimes a scene is just crying out for movement and a motion picture is the only way to truly capture it.

Whilst it’s difficult to describe exactly what it is that makes a scene work in either photo or film it’s something that we as the photographers and filmmakers instantly recognise and take into account in the scenes that we each choose to focus upon amongst a sea of potential opportunities. It’s why even if at times we’re looking to capture the same scene you’ll rarely see our photographers and videographers approach it from exactly the same angle unless it’s absolutely necessary to do so – a different composition will present different opportunities to exploit either movement or stillness and enable us to control the environment through our cameras to capture what we each need.

“In sparking perfect memories sometimes a fraction of a second is more powerful than seeing the scene through from start to finish. On the other hand sometimes it’s the movement of the scene that’s important to the story.”

In a video we need to both capture but also have a sense of control over the movement – we have to pick a composition and stick with it for several seconds so we need to account for people walking in and out of the scene and try to turn that to our advantage. For a photograph meanwhile we lack the potential advantage of that movement but have the opportunity to keep moving and recomposing our framing of the image as a scene unfolds which can be an equally significant advantage. It can even offer us as photographers the opportunity to create our own story by the way that we compose the image where perhaps a video of the moment might sometimes (but not always) be a little more literal.

Photos and films present us with different opportunities and it’s those opportunities that we look to exploit – the feel of our work is similar but the experience of looking through your photos and films will never be the same. Both should be powerful but different and to us that’s a wonderful thing. Whilst we naturally recommend it, the truth is that not everyone necessarily needs both a wedding film and wedding photographs – it’s very much a personal choice. But it’s important to recognise that the two are in no way the same. A photographic record of your day takes a different approach, includes different scenes tells different stories and presents a different viewing experience to your wedding video, and so it should. Each is a unique art form and equally creative process and only you can choose which is right for you and your wedding memories.