Wedding videography with inadequate gear.

[pgriz]

Yeah, I thought that would get your attention. And no, it's not for pay.

So here's the scenario. My oldest daughter's best friend is getting married this weekend at a very posh resort about three hours from us. My daughter's the maid of honour. We are very good friends with the family, so all that is cool. They hired a professional photographer to do the ceremony and the reception. That's excellent. Now the bride has asked me to do a video of the ceremony. I told her I just don't have the equipment to do it. She said, "but you take such good pictures!". Maybe, with a tripod, macro lens and a flash or two, my bug shots are decent. But that doesn't translate to photographing ceremonies. Still, she insists. Anything will be wonderful.

Sigh.

Now, I have a T1i (yeah, musueum-quality) with a 24-105 f/4 lens. My telephoto is a 70-200mm f/4 as well. So low-light performance will be lacking. Can't use flash (it's a video, remember?). Have no external mike for the sound. Have no idea what the lighting will be, but it is probably safe to say that it will be "intimate". I'm going to experiment with ISO 800, and see what kind of image I can coax out of it at f/4. Maybe the Magic Lantern hacks I've installed for photography will help. Have 1 day to see what I can come up with. That's complicated by having to supervise one client job and having to to inspections/quotes/presentations to two prospects. So I figure I can carve out maybe two-three hours of playing around until it's time to go. So, other than doing the rational thing and saying "no" and repeating until they understand, what else would you suggest I do?

Oh, and snarky remarks are OK. I do have a sense of humour.

 

[Juga]

Damn...

 

[The_Traveler]

So, other than doing the rational thing and saying "no" and repeating until they understand, what else would you suggest I do?

Oh, and snarky remarks are OK. I do have a sense of humour.

Get food poisoning.
Call the bride and tell her that you've been harboring an unending love for her and you can't come to teh wedding for fear of bursting out crying.
Rent/borrow/steal better equipment for the task.

 

[runnah]

You didn't mention anything about your audio setup?

 

[pgriz]

Damn...

Yeah. I know. :blushing:

So, other than doing the rational thing and saying "no" and repeating until they understand, what else would you suggest I do?

Oh, and snarky remarks are OK. I do have a sense of humour.

Get food poisoning.
Call the bride and tell her that you've been harboring an unending love for her and you can't come to teh wedding for fear of bursting out crying.
Rent/borrow/steal better equipment for the task.

Food poisoning? I thought about that until I remembered that there is a gourmet spread being put together. I will not want to miss that.
As for the bride, I've known her since she was 3 months old, as my wife and her mother met at a neighbourhood community group for new mothers, hit it off, and have been best friends ever since. My daughter grew up with the bride as her "other" sister, went to preschool, elementary school, high school and even college together. I'm the "other dad" to the bride, so missing this is not going to happen, short of an asteroid strike or the sun going nova.
Yeah, the beg/borrow/steal scenario sounds possible, and I am checking out the rental places - but it is short notice and I may not have the time to do it. I've got a call out to some photographer friends, and maybe, just maybe, something adequate will pop up. Guess I should start believing in miracles. Hey Lew, wanna lend me your gear? I promise not to spill anything sticky on it.

You didn't mention anything about your audio setup?

Audio setup? Non-existent. Well, I DO have a cheap microphone that I installed on the kids' computer a number of years back, but I don't think that would work unless I get the bride and groom to yell into it at close range. Even then, it seemed to operate in binary - on (noise) or off (no noise). Not quite the hi-fidelity material that would be needed.:blushing:

 

[amolitor]

You should simply stage a dramatic re-enactment of the wedding with sock puppets, after you rent some better gear. Then you can loop the audio, too.

 

[runnah]

Rent gear.

Well rent gear you know how to use.

I suggest 2-3 cameras and a decent shotgun mic and a wireless pack if you can plug into a soundboard. Have one camera wide in the back to catch the whole scene. Have one tight on the on the pulpit and use this on for the audio. Use the other camera to do shots of the crowds, b-roll and stuff like that.

 

[kathyt]

Rent gear.

Well rent gear you know how to use.

I suggest 2-3 cameras and a decent shotgun mic and a wireless pack if you can plug into a soundboard. Have one camera wide in the back to catch the whole scene. Have one tight on the on the pulpit and use this on for the audio. Use the other camera to do shots of the crowds, b-roll and stuff like that.

Keep it simple Runnah, he is not shooting the Grammy Awards!

 

[kathyt]

Would you be willing to rent a FF camera and a 24-70mm (the new version is amazing) for the event as a gift? The Mark III has a higher learning curve for video, but the Mark II would do really well with the 50mm 1.2 or a 24-70? That is my suggestion. I am not sure about the Rebel in low light unless you added lighting.

 

[runnah]

Rent gear.

Well rent gear you know how to use.

I suggest 2-3 cameras and a decent shotgun mic and a wireless pack if you can plug into a soundboard. Have one camera wide in the back to catch the whole scene. Have one tight on the on the pulpit and use this on for the audio. Use the other camera to do shots of the crowds, b-roll and stuff like that.

Keep it simple Runnah, he is not shooting the Grammy Awards!

That is simple.

 

[pgriz]

Would you be willing to rent a FF camera and a 24-70mm (the new version is amazing) for the event as a gift? The Mark III has a higher learning curve for video, but the Mark II would do really well with the 50mm 1.2 or a 24-70? That is my suggestion. I am not sure about the Rebel in low light unless you added lighting.

The T1i Rebel is crappy in low light (ISO 400 is the max I usually shoot stills unless I have to go higher). I've checked the rental places, and all the 5D III's are out. 7D and 6D are available, as is a T3i. F/2.8 versions of the 24-70 and 70-200 are available. There's also a 5D II available, but I don't know how the older compares in low-noise relative to the 6D. There is the FF/CF issue, but I'm not sure that it makes a difference given that only a portion of the sensors are used for video. According to the rental guy, the T3i gives pretty good video performance, and the other plus for me would be the user interface is familiar. On the other hand, the 6D "should" have much better noise behaviour at higher ISOs. Can anyone tell me what the 6D video is like in low light at (say) ISO 1600?

 

[pgriz]

Rent gear.

Well rent gear you know how to use.

I suggest 2-3 cameras and a decent shotgun mic and a wireless pack if you can plug into a soundboard. Have one camera wide in the back to catch the whole scene. Have one tight on the on the pulpit and use this on for the audio. Use the other camera to do shots of the crowds, b-roll and stuff like that.

Keep it simple Runnah, he is not shooting the Grammy Awards!

That is simple.

Maybe simple for you, but unfortunately, I know even less about audio than I do about black hole physics. So when it comes to audio, I'll be in the pre-noob stage.

edit: I appreciate your advice, but I don't think I will be able to put it to useful effect.

 

[Juga]

Paul, I have experimented with video at high ISO on my 6D. Go for it! ISO 1600 is a cake walk for the 6D. I had the thing cranked up to ISO 12500 and still faired pretty well. PM me your email and I will send a sample tonight with my 24-105 f/4.

 

[KmH]

How about as a gift to the B&G you hire a videographer to shoot the ceremony?

 

[Robin_Usagani]

Get a small audio recorder, put it in groom's suit with microphone pinned to the jacket. Merge the audio later.