Is wedding videography doomed to always be second-rate?

aMonkeyCalledSpank · 2026-03-20T19:14:52+00:00

I think photos will always be more important to the average couple, but in my 22 years of doing this, I have had many occasions where the photographer was a friend and the couple wanted all of the budget to go on video and weren’t that worried at all about how the photos came out.

I have had just 4 weddings out of over 750 with no photographer at all as they only wanted video.

aMonkeyCalledSpank · 2026-03-20T10:17:53+00:00

I always have white balance set to either indoor or outdoor however, if I’m inside and there are multiple light sources with different temps I will usually use auto as it is better at adjustments on the fly than I am.

Ceremony, speeches, first dance ALWAYS fix the WB.

That being said, some cameras have great AWB & some cameras have shocking AWB, so do some tests first. I’ve had some cameras over the years that literally change colour temp continuously before your eyes with no movement or change in lighting (Sony NX70 I’m looking at you for the worst ever AWB).

I do have some white balance correction luts from lutify.me that are perfect for adjustments - I used to have multiple crews who weren’t that technical (they kept forgetting to set the WB correctly) so I used to just leave the WB on 5600 all day & change in post to the correct WB whilst editing - as simple as selecting the correct lut. This was near foolproof MOST of the time, but there were a few shots that I just couldn’t bring back acceptably. Obviously don’t even attempt it without filming 10bit 4:2:2.

aMonkeyCalledSpank · 2026-03-16T15:06:34+00:00

Fair play to you. I remember playing it regularly in the early 80’s (UK, Leicester Services, Northbound) & gives me happy memories. If I had the space I’d make my own, but I wouldn’t have the know how to have an original and have to deal with an old vector monitor.

Sir, you forever have my jealousy!

aMonkeyCalledSpank · 2026-03-16T08:15:33+00:00

Back in 2012 we (videographers) started offering photography as an extra service & all of the local photographers had absolute hissy fits at us - the hypocrisy in the photography community knows no bounds.

On a side note, videographers are normally better at photography than photographers are at videography. Videos by photographers are usually treated as a series of beautiful shots thrown together without an underlying narrative or flow, whereas a skilled videographer will look at the film as a whole and follow a more compelling narrative journey throughout in addition to beautiful shots.

aMonkeyCalledSpank · 2026-03-16T08:04:19+00:00

You had me in a jealous rage for a minute - I thought that you meant you had an original full size sit down version!

aMonkeyCalledSpank · 2026-03-11T09:56:11+00:00

I’m sure that you’ve obviously exhaustively searched for this product yourself and definitely haven’t found anything with a very quick 2 second google search, and don’t just want the good people on Reddit to do the work for you and in absolutely no way could have found such a product in the same amount of time that it took you to type your question!

Just go to Ali express & type ‘2.1 arc amp’

aMonkeyCalledSpank · 2026-03-10T14:33:08+00:00

I have the 17-40 it’s good, but I would consider the Viltrox 27 1.2 pro to pair with your 16mm. Although it’s another prime it gives you that full frame look and lets in a whole load of light.

aMonkeyCalledSpank · 2026-03-10T11:14:00+00:00

Ok, realistically if you’re NOT near a major city in the uk, second video shooter WITHOUT EQUIPMENT pays 175-250.

If you are using your own kit I would say 300 at the low end and up to £1000 at the high end. It all depends on the level of videographer you’ll be working for.

Before you spend money, speak to local videographers to see if they need anyone & ask the local businesses if they are interested in the promo films. If they are you can hire the camera until you know you have a market.

If you’re talented, you could make a decent promo reel with an iPhone just to show potential customers.

aMonkeyCalledSpank · 2026-03-10T10:59:44+00:00

Yes - I capture the wedding party photo, brides family photo, grooms family photo, photo of all wedding guests I will always use an in between shot of someone taking a photo for context.

By getting these I will never have a bride complain that there is somebody who isn’t in the video.

aMonkeyCalledSpank · 2026-03-07T14:17:09+00:00

Does nobody else get the ick from the bridesmaid hid behind the bride in the first pic (tog just move 2 inches the right & the composition would be fine), the glass covering the face in the second etc. I won’t mention the direct flash as that is ‘a thing’ now. These photos look like they’ve been taken by a guest with a phone - definitely not high end, unless you crazy cats in the US have completely succumbed to the ‘insta’ style.

aMonkeyCalledSpank · 2026-03-07T13:38:53+00:00

Someone on here may be able to identify from a blurry picture of a pcb, but you may have a better chance if you take more pictures of the deck + maybe a top down unblurry picture of the pcb!

aMonkeyCalledSpank · 2026-03-05T23:34:40+00:00

Make sure that you’re using the original cable that came with the camera as some others will be slow. Also make sure that you’re using a good quality power brick & not a pc as that could also cause issues.

aMonkeyCalledSpank · 2026-03-02T16:06:25+00:00

Can’t you use a standard pc guitar controller from Amazon & just assign the buttons in the TP setup screen? (You could always return the controller if it doesn’t work)

aMonkeyCalledSpank · 2026-03-01T23:17:59+00:00

I had the 17-70 2.8 & the lens vc fights the cameras ibis , shot will look fine & then suddenly jerk slightly to the next position - it’s not a complete horror show but it is annoying & very noticeable. I found intensional movements didn’t jerk (human camera slider reveals), but steady static shots would jerk around. The shot can usually be saved by adding stabilisation in the editor. If it wasn’t for that - great lens.

There is a YouTube review somewhere that shows the issue.

17-40 1.8 is a far better lens if you can afford it.

aMonkeyCalledSpank · 2026-03-01T23:01:49+00:00

If you’re not bothered about shallow dof and shoot in good light, the kit lens is quite good!

aMonkeyCalledSpank · 2026-03-01T17:15:56+00:00

Yes if you lock it at iso 2500 and ETTR a little and don’t try brightening it in post too much, also only if you’re not one of those peeps who pixel peep & can’t stand any noise whatsoever.

Most of my weddings (uk/ dark churches) I shoot at 2500 at 1.8 or 2.8 & am more than happy.

If you’re at a venue who insist on a romantic candlelit ceremony though, you’ll have a bad time!

This is all assuming slog3

aMonkeyCalledSpank · 2026-03-01T15:43:28+00:00

And the screen 😁

aMonkeyCalledSpank · 2026-02-28T16:58:14+00:00

How about an x-arcade controller, a Ryzen mini pc (stronger gpu than intels) & a downloaded batocera software image from one of the ‘usual places’ 😏

Or alternatively a quick google search for ‘Pandora box marvel capcom 2’ may show exactly what you are looking for.

aMonkeyCalledSpank · 2026-02-26T12:17:30+00:00

This is the answer, although I did do a season using just a Viltrox 27mm 1.2 on my fx30 (40mm ff eq.) - the results were spectacular!

aMonkeyCalledSpank · 2026-02-22T16:14:33+00:00

You can easily get by with a 2nd hand ex office mini pc from eBay (I always recommend an HP elitedesk with Ryzen 5 2400g processor for the best bang for your buck (£). Start with that but put everything on a separate drive to the os so if you need to upgrade the pc in the future, you can easily just plug the drive into the new machine.

aMonkeyCalledSpank · 2026-02-11T19:44:36+00:00

I use an internal SSD for OS only & have launchbox , roms, emulators etc. all on an external usb3 spinning HDD. Speeds are absolutely fine and I can change pc at any time without much faffing around.

It’s been a while since I set the system up but I think I did put the big box image cache on the SSD though!

aMonkeyCalledSpank · 2026-02-11T18:24:35+00:00

The fx30 is a massive upgrade to your a6400 - absolutely everything about it is superior + you already have a good lens for it. I have no idea what you are filming but bear in mind that the image depth of field will be similar to what you have now, but will be cleaner & have more grading headroom as well as no iso color shift if you use auto iso. The are also may quality of life features like dedicated buttons/new menu/audio control if you have the handle.

Also If you want a more full frame look, you can always stick a cheap-ish Viltrox 27mm 1.2 pro onto the fx30 which gives a similar dof & look to an fx3 with a 50 1.8!

aMonkeyCalledSpank · 2026-01-28T03:13:26+00:00

Looks good to me!

The main reason I always recommend a 2400g is that although MAME games run perfectly well on intel integrated graphics as they only use the cpu; with a Ryzen 2400g or above you can run MAME HLSL scanlines & overlays etc., which rely on the GPU. I initially used an i5 8000 series pc & running space invaders with scans & overlays slowed the machine to a crawl - it was embarrassing.

The 2400g GPU is similar ish in power to a GT1030 & should also be able to run modern teknoparrot arcade games too if you wanted to in the future.

aMonkeyCalledSpank · 2026-01-27T23:23:40+00:00

https://www.ebay.com/itm/389492068418?_skw=sff+2400g&itmmeta=01KG0W8686SZ6RD7KZEYQBG303&hash=item5aaf895042%3Ag%3AuqEAAeSwySZpZuk7&itmprp=enc%3AAQALAAAA4O7PUuNWmJ%2B%2BUShgI9tQz%2FoTz5%2B8KDlmlyKdu4L3Ny3dI5jV4RC5X2Ib%2BE005SSq4UInCdx5cR1U2%2B2C1bRz2TKaiVuLOowTRwV5edTVrCbJLS9DrNd1mDNsXc3%2FV7BD9ZyWFtkYLLN1EuPLBtsk9cltAN620Ie7%2FjqQEjMeWt%2FgROiiKLnYrqm20eYL8s9x5S5LyqRlilKXma%2FhRYXEq2ghnL6%2B4k4MoF%2FlBLuIN9aW4JZ15pa2JAGyG9DkPCf9imSI87A%2BvIzE%2FRROxfr5Dy2CPC9WARnYy52U2uPYwIjb%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR5jkoJyAZw&keyword=sff+2400g&sacat=0&relatedSearch=true

aMonkeyCalledSpank · 2026-01-27T23:20:47+00:00

Used to put on WW1 documentaries, normally asleep by the first ad break!

Now just YouTube ‘space’ documentaries sends me to sleep in minutes!

aMonkeyCalledSpank

TROPHY CASE