Time and time again I hear brides asking their potential videographers and photographers, "Will I get to keep the raw footage?" You know, it really sounds like a reasonable question to ask. If you are paying them to be there for eight hours, why wouldn't you be able to receive everything that is captured, right??
"Snuggled up on a Monday evening, my new hubby and I are going to watch all that was captured from beginning to end," said I. Personally, I didn't care about receiving thousands and thousands of photos but I did care about getting all of the footage from my videographer. And I made that happen.
So the wedding came and went. We loved our photos and loved every minute of our wedding video. And then it was time to watch the rest of the footage that was captured.
Video 1...click.
We're about 10 seconds in...30 seconds in...1 minute in...and all we've seen is what looks like room full of girls just chatting away, nothing really happening. It wasn't exciting, to say the least.
That room full of girls was my bridesmaids getting ready. And it was BORING.
To make a long story short (well, really a very short story shorter), we clicked around on a couple of the videos that were captured and it wasn't exciting at all. And we've never touched it since!
It is an art.
Your photographer and videographer are artists. Not only do they capture beautiful images, but much of the work that you pay them to do is behind the scenes! They edit, make sure the color is right, pair up the right music, and ultimately, tell a story.
Everything they do on the wedding day is reflected in the final product, but that final product is what makes it so special, so unique. It is what makes you tear up and get the chills just reliving your day!
The Duplicates
Do you know how many photos a photographer takes on your wedding day? Of course, it varies from photographer to photographer and wedding to wedding...but thousands and thousands of images are captured.
But let's be real, you don't look beautiful in every single one. From just one single "pose" (for lack of a better word), a photographer may capture 3 or 5 or even 10 of the same image! In half of them you are not paying attention, a couple of them haven't got the lighting perfect, and another one just doesn't tell the story right. And the last one is just perfect!
When the photographer gets back to his or her studio, all of the "bad ones" are deleted so you don't have to scroll through them all. The best of the best are kept and given to you. Because who needs 10 of the same image anyways?
When it comes time to hire your photographer and videographer, just forget about the raw footage or making sure you have every single image that is captured. Believe me, you don't need it. They are artists and are hired by you to tell your story as best they can. They are there to capture the emotions and highlights of the day and to present it to you in perfect form. So let them do their work, and you just focus on having the best time of your life!
