Sarah & Ben's wedding highlights (& my new toys)

This is the first time I shot a wedding video with a more 'cinematic' approach. Normally I shoot documentary style but I've been wanting to make the transition into cinematic wedding videos for a while. This was my first time shooting a full wedding with a DSLR.

I would love to get some feedback!

Sarah & Ben's Wedding Highlights on Vimeo

Shot with a 550D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8, Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8, Pentax 50mm f/1.7, Flycam Nano & Pro-aim Slider. I used a Zoom h4 to record the audio from a G3 wireless lav, and a Rode Videomic mounted on the 550D.

[James Strange]

Overall I liked it, really liked the song, seemed to fit well with your edit.

As for constructive criticism, there were a couple of things that stood out

* The cutaway you used during the grooms vows of some of the audience (guy with a beard) I feel was a bit distracting, as you've got the grooms voice, but a random audience member moving his lips (maybe the other shot of the Bridesmaids that you used a few seconds later would have fit better?)

* The flycam shots, these are soooo tricky, as they need to be damn near perfect or they are distracting (imho) and in most of your flycam shots, there was a 'bump' or 2 in the motion.

I too find these very tricky, I've bought the DSLR motion-cam from cameragrip.co.uk, and have yet to master it.

But those points are very small, and I think the video is good, keep it up!

James

ps, did you license the songs / know the artist? Or did you just put the album art and credits at the end ala TV style?

[John Wiley]

Thanks for the comments James.

The song is from Jamendo, and has a creative commons attribution license attached, hence the credit.

The problem I was having with the flycam was that I would have it setup perfectly, use if for one or two shots, then put it aside, shoot with a different lens, and then I'd put everything back to how I had it set when I balanced in earlier (same lens, zoom setting, lens cap off etc) and it would be slightly off. I don't know if it's because I'm bumping something on the flycam and ruining the balance or if I'm missing something on the camera (maybe the generic batteries aren't exactly the same weight as the original one?). Still, for my first time using it I was fairly pleased.

[Greg Fiske]

John,

One thing I noticed was that the hd version on vimeo looks better than the one posted on the board? I don't know if there is a setting to get rid of the sd version? Or how did you set your settings to output to vimeo? For example the footage at :44 looks soft, like you've got a softening filter on it? Maybe its that your lens lineup differs in performance? Might be worth ditching underperforming lenses for antique manual lenses. I can't tell if its the compression or the lenses that are causing the problem though. Look into your output settings or add some unsharp filters cause dslr footage should be very clean.

If you are shooting in neutral, make sure you add a tiny bit of contrast in post to get the grey out of the skin tones.

Agree with the voice over. Maybe use the voice over ontop of other footage, or just him talking, but both didn't seem to cut properly? Some of the footage appeared dark, don't be afraid to drop down to 1/30 shutter, or bump it up in post with some noise correction. Software like prodad or cs5.5 warp stabilizer can clean up the steadycam footage really well. It will get rid of the "on a boat" type rocking.

Welcome to the dslr club! You've got the focusing down which is the hardest part.

[Jeremy White]

Good job overall. I felt some of the prep shots were a little dark. Generally I like my films to have a "lighter" feel. Good movement. I was really impressed with that.