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New DSLRs For Weddings: Canon EOS-1D X Mark III & Nikon D780 digitalphotopro.com

The

Wedding Issue

Dacia Pierson The “First Look” James x Schulze The Power Of Partners Capture A Cinematic Wedding Video APRIL 2020

You capture exceptional images.

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EDITORIAL WES PITTS Editorial Director TERRY SULLIVAN Editor KRISTAN ASHWORTH Managing Editor

MARCH/APRIL 2020 Vol. 18 No. 2 digitalphotopro.com

DANIEL BROCKETT, MARK EDWARD HARRIS, WILLIAM SAWALICH Contributing Editors

Contents

ART & PRODUCTION CAROLYN V. MARSDEN Art Director

Departments

ALLYSON PREBLE Graphic Designer

8 EDITOR’S NOTE 12 NEW PRODUCTS 64 LOOKING FORWARD SALES & MARKETING

Portfolios 18 WEDDINGS IN BLUME How a photographic power couple blends smart business with fine art to create images their customers will cherish for generations

18

(617) 706-9110, FA X (617) 536-0102 ALEXANDRA PICCIRILLI Senior Media Solutions Manager CLIENT SERVICES clientservices@madavor.com TIM DOOLAN Social Media and Marketing Manager

By William Sawalich Photography by Phillip and Eileen Blume

TOMMY GOODALE Senior Marketing Associate

26 IN TRUTH, BEAUTY

SHAWN DANIEL Marketing & Media Solutions Associate

Wedding masters James x Schulze take a lowkey approach to elevating wedding photography to its highest form

ANTHONY BUZZEO Content Marketing Supervisor

By William Sawalich Photography by James x Shulze

SARAH MACDOUGALL Content Marketing Associate

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Printed in the U.S.A. Digital Photo Pro (ISSN: 1545-8520)–Vol. 18 No. 2–is published bimonthly except monthly in November and December by Madavor Media, LLC. Executive, editorial and advertising offices: 25 Braintree Hill Office Park, Suite 404, Braintree, MA 02184, (617) 706-9110. Periodicals Postage Paid at Boston, MA, and at additional mailing offices. Single-copy price–$6.99. Annual subscription in U.S., Possessions, APO/FPO–$24.97. Canada–$39.97; other foreign–$39.97, including postage and taxes. Payable in U.S. funds.

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EDITORIAL SUBMISSION: Digital Photo Pro assumes no responsibility for solicited or unsolicited contributions and materials. Otherwise, insurance for such materials, in transit or in our possession, must be the responsibility of the writer or photographer. Digital Photo Pro does not accept or agree to the conditions and stipulations printed on delivery memos, packing slips and related correspondence as they are presented without prior notice accompanying submission materials. Exceptions to this disclaimer of liability on the part of Digital Photo Pro must be prearranged, executed in writing and signed by both parties prior to the shipment of materials in question. SUBSCRIBERS: Any obligation we owe to you, including delivery of your magazine, is contingent upon you providing us with your correct mailing address. If the Post Office notifies us that your magazine is undeliverable, we have no further obligation to you unless we receive a corrected address from you within two years of the Post Office notification. BACK ISSUES are available for one year prior to the current issue. To order within U.S., send $9.00 plus $4.00 postage and hand-ling (Canada: $9.00 plus $5.00; International: $9.00 plus $10.00) for each issue to Back Issue Dept., 25 Braintree Hill Office Park, Suite 404, Braintree, MA 02184, or go online and visit the eStore. No orders processed without proper funds and specific issue information.

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by Marta Everest

2020 PORTRAIT PHOTO CONTEST

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CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS Madavor Media, LLC 25 Braintree Hill Office Park, Suite 404 Braintree, MA 02184

MARCH/APRIL 2020 Vol. 18 No. 2 digitalphotopro.com

OPERATIONS

Contents 36 CAPTURING A COUPLE'S "FIRST LOOK" Learn how one photographer approaches this key moment of the wedding day

36

JASON POMERANTZ VP, Circulation Strategy CHEYENNE CORLISS Operations Director ANDREA PALLI Client Services and Circulation Supervisor

By Amy Touchette | Photography by Dacia Pierson

TONI EUNICE Operations and Front Desk Coordinator

42 AMBER'S STORY

ALICIA ROACH Human Resources Manager

The husband-and-wife wedding photography team chose to document their lives after Amber was diagnosed with breast cancer

By Mark Edward Harris Photography by Garrette Baird

48 LOVE STORIES TV: NOT YOUR OLD

TOU ZONG HER Senior Client Services Associate DARREN CORMIER Client Services AMANDA JOYCE Accounting Director

SCHOOL WEDDING VIDEO

TINA MCDERMOTT Accounts Payable Associate

Insights from an online video innovator and two Love Stories TV cinematographers

WAYNE TUGGLE Accounts Receivable Associate

By Jill Waterman DIGITAL OPERATIONS

42

LEZA OLMER Director of Digital RYAN GILLIS Audience Development Analyst MIKE DECKER Senior Digital Designer DAVID GLASSMAN WordPress Developer

EXECUTIVE JEFFREY C. WOLK Chairman & Chief Executive Officer COURTNEY WHITAKER Chief Operating Officer STUART CRYSTAL SVP, Sales & Strategic Partnerships MATT MARTINELLI Content Director In memory of Susan Fitzgerald, COO, 1966-2018

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MARCH/APRIL 2020 Vol. 18 No. 2 digitalphotopro.com

Contents

54

Equipment 54 WHAT MAKES A WEDDING VIDEO CINEMATIC? Two accomplished wedding videographers weigh in on what's cinematic in wedding videos

By Daniel Brockett

60 AUDIO ASSIST: RØDE NTG5 SHOTGUN MICROPHONE Find out if this new pro-level shotgun mic is a great value

By Daniel Brockett

60

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ON THE COVER: This joyous photo was shot by wedding photo pros James x Schulze who find working together essential to the process. “We cannot make the work without the collaboration...it really is a dance.”

digitalphotopro.com

Helping Photographers & Videographers Get Work In recent years, finding job opportunities for content creators—photographers and videographers of all genres— continues to be a challenge. But there are organizations working to change that trend, like Report for America, a national service program that places talented, emerging journalists—including photojournalists and documentary videographers—into local news organizations to

report for one to two years on under-covered issues and communities. We’ll be publishing more such news items in the coming weeks and months, so be sure to check our blogs and news sections regularly. Read this story here: digitalphotopro.com/newswire/job-opportunitiesfor-content-creators-report-for-america-wants-to-getphotographers-and-videographers-work/

HDVP: The Box Lens Goes Autofocus?

Cameras & Digital Imaging from 2010-2019: By The Numbers The camera market faced more disruption between 2010 and 2019 than it had in any other previous decade. To get a sense of what that change looked like, Editor Terry Sullivan compiled various stats, percentages, data points and more. See that story here: digitalphotopro.com/blog/ cameras-digital-imaging-from-2010-2019-by-the-numbers/

In one of his recent blog posts, contributing editor Daniel Brockett writes, “The past couple of years in camera technology have been kind of amazing if you look at the tools we’re now using objectively. One area that has grown in leaps and bounds is autofocus technology.” You can find out more about exactly which brands and what types of lenses are changing the industry here: hdvideopro.com/blog/autofocus-for-everyone/

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digitalphotopro.com March/April 2020 | 7

Editor’s Note To kick off our Wedding Photography issue, I chose two powerful images of a seemingly simple gesture: couples holding hands. For me, each conveys a sense that each person in both photographs has truly found each other’s soulmate.

But there’s more to see in each.

The resplendent color image on the right is of a young couple who appear to be on their way to getting married. It was shot by gifted photography duo James x Schulze and conveys so much of how I remember my own wedding day as well as those of many of my good friends—a feeling of anticipation and excitement mixed with an almost irrepressible sense of serenity and joy.

The remarkable black-and-white image on the left tells a more complex story. It was shot by veteran wedding videographer Garrette Baird of his 8 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com

wife and wedding videography partner, Amber Baird, who, as you’ll read in Mark Edward Harris’ story, was diagnosed with breast cancer in the spring of 2019. Yet, for me, this photo (along with the others in the series) really depicts so much about the depth, power and strength of marriage, commitment and love.

For me, the photo has a profound, almost allegorical quality. You first notice it depicts Amber and Garrette holding hands as she’s walking away from the camera, as if they’re embarking on a journey. But Garrette places the foreground and background out of focus. In fact, much of the picture is blurred, which makes the viewer search for sharp details and clarity. The room in the distance appears to be at a slant, adding to the slight disorientation. But your eyes soon find the clasped hands,

with Amber’s ring reflecting several lights above the couple (as you also notice her other hand reaching for a piece of medical equipment). I could go on, but for me, this picture literally makes visible a phrase so often heard at weddings: “…to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse; for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health…”

Amber and Garrette are both incredibly brave and remarkable filmmakers and photographers, particularly in choosing to create their film, which includes exceptionally moving photos.

And I’d like to thank them for sharing their unfolding story with us in this issue.

— Terry Sullivan Editor editors@digitalphotopro.com

TELL US YOUR STORY CONTEST WINNERS C

ongratulations to the winners and finalists in Digital Photo’s Tell Us Your Story photo contest. Featured here are the first, second and third Prize winners. See all of the finalists at dpmag.com/photo-contests/tell-us-your-story.

FUJIFILM X-T2, FUJINON XF23mmF1.4 R. Exposure: 1/200 sec., ƒ/2.5, ISO 1250.

FIRST PRIZE Tea Time

By Justin Sheely “I cherish the daddy-daughter days with my 2-year-old. Every Friday, we have the whole day to ourselves. On one occasion, my daughter wanted to gather her bears in the kitchen for a tea party, but we lacked a fitting table and chair set for her friends.

“We got creative with a wooden stool and some baskets. I carefully propped the bears, but they toppled over several times. Finally, she decided to grab her dearest bear and held it with her tea

without saying a word for a few minutes.

This was when I reached for my camera.

“She enjoyed a quiet moment with her friends, apparently content. It felt like a small reward after several minutes of fussing, propping and some frustration, but for my daughter the scene was perfect. For me, capturing this moment with some direct window light on her face was very gratifying.”

Follow Justin Sheely on Instagram @justin_sheely.

digitalphotopro.com March/April 2020 | 9

SECOND PRIZE Ortiz Vs. Alexander

By Herman Delgado “I was one of about 10 photographers at ringside for the Premier Boxing Champions event at the Don Haskins Center in El Paso, Texas, on February 17, 2018. I received special accommodations from the promoter because I used to be a professional heavyweight boxer, and I had accommodated him with some training equipment for Oscar De La Hoya to use in preparation for his fight against Patrick Charpentier back in June 1998.

“I have photographed many of the amateur and professional boxing shows in El Paso, and it’s nicer to be covering the action outside the ring than to be getting hit in there.”

10 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com

Canon EOS 7D Mark II, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II. Exposure: 1/400 sec., ƒ/5, ISO 2500.

TELL US YOUR STORY CONTEST WINNERS THIRD PRIZE Welcome to the World of San Francisco

By Tosin Arasi “It had been about seven or eight years since I had last visited this spot on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco. On my previous visit, the Transamerica Pyramid was flirting with the fog, lending a very enigmatic ambiance that I liked back then. During this recent visit, however, the fog was on hiatus, and Transamerica was a bold vision to behold between the two row houses in this narrow alley.

“As I prepared to capture the scene, a young fellow approached and waited courteously for me to finish. When I lowered my camera, he said politely, ‘I don’t want to interfere with your photography.’

I was slightly caught off guard by his good manners since they’re traits painfully lacking in ordinary conversation between people today.

I responded, ‘By all means, please interfere. You may actually add to my composition and add the element I’m missing.’

“The fellow, who was likely in his early to mid 20s, smiled and proceeded to walk down the steps and through the alley.

What I found fascinating was that as he walked farther away, deeper into the frame, his height and size became more diminutive and appeared like a child curiously walking into the realm that we know as San Francisco. He was, indeed, the missing element for what has become one of my alltime favorite images of the City by the Bay.” Sony a99, Sony 28-75mm F2.8 SAM. Exposure: 1/1600 sec., ƒ/2.8, ISO 200.

digitalphotopro.com March/April 2020 | 11

NewProducts

New Tools Of The Trade

>> Nikon Unveils D780 DSLR, Two Lenses And The Nikon COOLPIX P950 In the past year and a half, Nikon has aggressively promoted its Z Series full-frame mirrorless system.

However, the company made its name producing SLRs and is still introducing new models. Case in point: This January, it announced the new D780 full-frame DSLR, an update to its D750, which the company says was its most popular full-frame DSLR ever.

The two cameras look similar, but there are some major differences. For starters, Nikon has significantly changed the sensor. The D780 has a 24.5-megapixel backside-illuminated (BSI) FXformat full-frame CMOS sensor, which no longer has contrast-detect AF points on the sensor. In its place, you’ll find the more robust 273-point phasedetect AF system, which works in live view and for movies as well as still imaging.

Other enhancements and new features on the D780 include: • The EXPEED 6 processor, also found in the Nikon Z 6 mirrorless cameras, which gives the D780 the ability to shoot 4K UHD fullframe video.

• An ISO range of ISO 100 to ISO 51,200, expandable to ISO 204,800, and can fire off seven frames per second.

• Two AF systems: In optical viewfinder (OVF) mode, the camera uses a 51-point AF system, which is paired with an enhanced AF algorithm with 15 cross-type AF sensors and an upgraded 180K-pixel advanced scene recognition system. In Live View mode, the D780 uses 273-point, focal-plane, Hybrid AF system, great for when you’re recording video.

• In silent shooting mode, using the electronic shutter in Live View, the D780 can shoot continuously without shutter noise up to 12 fps.

• Dual-card slots for two UHS-II SD memory cards.

In addition to the D780, Nikon introduced two lenses: The AF-S NIKKOR 120-300mm f/2.8E FL ED SR VR superzoom and NIKKOR Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S zoom. They’re each for different interchangeablelens systems, but they share something in common: They’re the first Nikon lenses to feature the newly developed SR (Short-Wavelength Refractive) lens element for highly precise chromatic aberration compensation.

The NIKKOR Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S zoom, for Nikon’s full-frame mirrorless cameras, has a

12 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com

21-elements-in-18-lens-groups lens construction, provides five stops of built-in optical VR image stabilization and employs a stepping motor for extremely quiet autofocus operation and reduced focus breathing.

It also has a very close minimum focus distance (with just 0.5m wide and 1.0m telephoto), a nineblade diaphragm, Anti-Reflective Nano Crystal and ARNEO coatings, a fluorine coating that resists dirt, a rugged design, two customizable function buttons and a custom control ring.

The AF-S NIKKOR 120-300mm f/2.8E FL ED SR VR superzoom lens, for Nikon full-frame DSLRs, is a versatile, professional lens that has a weathersealed construction with a constant ƒ/2.8 maximum aperture. It uses an anti-reflective ARNEO coat for superior chromatic aberration compensation, has four stops of image stabilization due to its built-in VR and also includes a Sport VR mode for rapidly moving subjects. Plus, it has a zoom ring, focus function buttons, a tripod collar ring and additional controls.

Lastly, also this past January, Nikon announced the COOLPIX P950 advanced bridge camera; it’s a refresh of the COOLPIX P900. The new camera still has the same 83x optical zoom lens superzoom found on the predecessor, but with some enhancements, including the ability to shoot RAW files and capture 4K-resolution video.

The Nikon D780 became available in late January. The COOLPIX 950 and the two lenses became available in February.

Nikon D780 DSLR (body only) List Price: $2,299

Nikon D780 DSLR with AF-S NIKKOR 24-120mm f/4G ED VR kit lens

Nikon NIKKOR Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S Lens

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 120-300mm f/2.8E FL ED SR VR Lens

Nikon D780 DSLR (with the AF-S NIKKOR 24120mm f/4G ED VR kit lens) List Price: $2,799 Nikon NIKKOR Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S Lens List Price: $2,599 Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 120-300mm f/2.8E FL ED SR VR Lens List Price: $9,499 Nikon COOLPIX P950 Advanced Bridge Camera Price: $799 Website: nikonusa.com

Nikon COOLPIX P950 Advanced Bridge Camera

The set of 10 Sigma Classic Art Prime Cine Lenses.

>>

®

Sigma Sets Pricing And Availability For Two Sets Of Lenses Late last year, Sigma announced pricing for the set of 10 Sigma Classic Art Prime Cine lenses and the /i Technology-compatible Cine Art Prime PL-mount lens line.

Sigma's Classic Art Primes include more non-coated optical elements, but still retain high resolution. Sigma also says the lenses “offer a unique combination of low contrast and artistic flare/ghost in the image.”

Sigma also announced the /i Technologycompatible Cine Art Prime PL-mount lenses, which now support the Cooke Optics’ /i Technology communication protocol.

Both should be currently available.

The Sigma Classic Art Prime Cine Lenses List Price: $43,999 The Sigma PL-Mount /I Technology-Compatible Cine Art Prime Lenses List Price: $5,499 each (for the 14mm T2, 105mm T1.5 and 135mm T2 lenses) or $3,899 each (for other lenses in the product line) Website: sigmaphoto.com

>> For the latest product news and

in-depth coverage of new a nnouncements, visit digitalphotopro.com/newswire

Santa Cruz, California

NewProducts

New Tools Of The Trade

>> Canon Officially Announces EOS-1D X Mark III DSLR Last October, Canon made a development announcement for its new flagship DSLR, the EOS-1D X Mark III, which provided some details but didn’t give us the complete picture of the new model. But early in January, Canon officially launched the Canon EOS-1D X Mark III, which should be available for $6,499 (body only). That launch included the specs and features photographers had been looking for.

The new flagship has a lot of impressive capabilities, but one spec might disappoint some photographers: The new camera comes with only a 20.1 megapixel CMOS imaging sensor, a smidge smaller than its predecessor, which had 20.2 megapixels. Some photographers may have been hoping for at least a 24-megapixel sensor. Plus, there are several high-end mirrorless models that have higher megapixel counts like the Sony a7R IV full-frame mirrorless camera (61 megapixels).

However, Canon emphasized during the product press briefing that the new DSLR has many improvements to many of its systems, including the autofocus, processing, algorithm, communication systems and, not surprisingly, its image sensor, or, more accurately, the imaging system.

In fact, Canon said it had included three “newly developed” elements in its imaging system—a 20.1-megapixel CMOS sensor, a 16-point lowpass filter that will provide “improved sense of resolution” and its Digic X processor for better sharpness and noise reduction. We’ll see if this translates into a significant increase in image quality when we get a chance to test the camera.

In terms of processing, Canon says the new model is about three times faster than its predecessor. Canon also said the 1D X Mark III is capable of HDR PQ HEIF 10-bit recording, which Canon says is a high-efficiency file format that provides bright images, smoother gradations and

vivid colors in highlights.

Canon believes videographers and cinematographers will be enticed by the video quality and versatility of the new flagship. For example, it will include 4K-resolution at 60 fps, both uncropped and cropped, as well as Canon Log 4K 10-bit 4:2:2 and 5.5K RAW (both using in-camera recording). However, some will be disappointed to see that in all 4K video modes, as well as 5.5K RAW and at Full HD at 119.90 fps, autofocus doesn’t function.

Here’s a brief list of other capabilities and expected features: • The new Digic X image processor has an ISO range of ISO 100-ISO 102,400, which can be expanded to ISO 50-ISO 819,200 (for still images).

• The new 191-point AF system can track a subject’s head and face using what Canon calls deep learning technologies.

• The camera uses Canon’s Dual Pixel CMOS autofocus system, which the company says provides “fast and accurate autofocus using up to 3869 Manual AF positions (depending on settings, modes or attached lens) and up to 525 automatic positions.”

• It’s increased its burst mode: You can shoot high-speed continuous shooting up to 16 frames per second or up to 20 fps in live-view mode using the electronic shutter with AF/AE tracking.

• Canon also designed on-camera controls with rear-illumination buttons for easier operation.

Additionally, Canon announced a new wireless file transmitter, WFT-E9, which will be compatible with the new DSLR and is also available now.

Canon EOS-1D X Mark III List Price: $6,499 Canon WFT-E9 Wireless File Transmitter List Price: $649 Website: usa.canon.com

14 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com

The new Canon EOS-1D X Mark III with the EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L II USM zoom

Canon EOS-1D X Mark III (top view)

Canon EOS-1D X Mark III (back view)

>> Phase One Updates Flagship Software: Capture One 20 In December, Phase One announced its latest version of its popular flagship photo-editing software, Capture One 20, which ships with a number of enhancements and updates to its powerful software suite that’s “now more dynamic, more intuitive, more nimble.”

The company says the changes it has introduced include new processing capabilities, significant workflow enhancements and an easierto-use interface, plus: • Improved noise reduction: For better quality when shooting at high ISOs. • A more intuitive basic color editor: For editing colors faster and accurate control.

• More robust HDR control: Do more with contrast and tone with the new High Dynamic Range tool.

• A better crop tool: Use the new, more versatile crop tool to instantly crop from the center, lock aspect ratio and more.

The new version has more effective sorting and tagging tools, as well. For instance, the new version also makes it easier to cull images, letting you “save up to 50 percent of your keystrokes when sorting images.” It works “with sets so you can easily review multiple images at the same time and manage big projects in a snap.” Plus, the new version has better scrolling tools, is more effective at copying specific layers between photos and now supports the DNG image format.

Capture One 20 (Perpetual License) List Price: $299 Capture One 20 (Upgrade from previous versions) List Price: Pricing starts at $159 Capture One 20 (Subscription) List Price: Plans start at $15 a month Capture One 20 (Perpetual licenses for Capture One Pro for Sony and Capture One Pro Fujifilm) List Price: $129 each Capture One 20 (Subscription plans for Capture One Pro for Sony and Capture One Pro Fujifilm) List Price: Plans for each start at $8 a month Website: captureone.com

>> For the latest product news and

in-depth coverage of new a nnouncements, visit digitalphotopro.com/newswire

The new version of Capture One 20 software gives you more robust HDR control

New Tools Of The Trade

>>

NewProducts

Apple Introduces 16-Inch MacBook Pro Laptop

Late last year, Apple unveiled its new 16-inch MacBook Pro laptop. Physically speaking, the new laptop gained just an inch in size over the previous popular 15-inch MacBook Pro. But what will entice many photographers is the plethora of upgrades inside the new laptop. It’s an Apple product launch that could be significant or even a game-changer for photographers and creatives of all sorts.

Here’s why: According to Apple, the 16-inch MacBook Pro comes with “an immersive 16-inch Retina display,” Apple’s largest-ever: It has a pixel resolution of 3072x1920, with a total of 5.9 million pixels, and a higher pixel density (226 ppi) than what’s found on previous screens. Many will also see that Apple has seemingly fixed its keyboard problem: No more butterfly keyboard design. Instead, you’ll be typing on the Magic keyboard, which was “inspired by the keyboard that comes with the iMac Pro.”

16 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com

Apple claims it has dramatically faster performance, an awesome sound system and new pro options in system memory, video memory and storage, plus a new internal architecture that appears to allow the new laptop the ability to breeze through challenges and roadblocks that generally slow down most other laptops. The laptops also have 6-core and 8-core Intel processors. Apple says the MacBook Pros have the “latest 6-core Core i7 and 8-core Core i9 processors and feature Turbo Boost speeds of up to 5.0GHz, for performance that’s up to 2.1 times faster than the fastest quad-core 15-inch MacBook Pro.” Another intriguing development is that Apple says it overhauled the architecture of the laptop, providing a new thermal design, which cools the MacBook Pro more effectively. Apple says the design allows the MacBook Pro to run with 12 watts more of power.

Other performance and storage specs include

AMD Radeon Pro 5000M series graphics GPUs with GDDR6 memory, which deliver up to 2.1 times faster performance on standard configurations. It’s also available with 8 GB VRAM. You get a faster 2666MHz DDR4 memory, and it’s now configurable up to 64 GB for the first time. You also get ample,

Apple focused on keeping the laptop thin: It’s only about 0.6 inches thick.

The new immersive 16-inch Retina display is the largest-ever Retina display on a Mac notebook.

The new MacBook Pro comes with the Magic keyboard, a dedicated Escape key and a powerful audio speaker system.

efficient storage: 512 GB and 1 TB SSDs are on standard configurations, and there’s even an 8 TB SSD option, the largest SSD on any notebook. Yet despite all the changes on this laptop, it’s still only 4.3 pounds and is only about 0.6 inches thick.

The new laptops come with a very impressive six-speaker sound system, too, that really cranks out the bass and mid-range tones when playing music. Additionally, the three internal-microphones offer impressive quality with little hiss. (Apple says it has 40 percent less hiss.)

Not surprisingly, Apple designed a new battery—a 100-watt-hour battery for 11 hours of battery life—and redesigned the adapter to deliver nine more watts of power. Apple also says photographers will find the system quite speedy and efficient. Adobe Photoshop will have “faster processing of well-threaded filters” (70 percent faster), and Adobe Lightroom Classic will be faster with RAW image imports with smart previews.

16-Inch MacBook Pro Laptop List Price: $2,399 (base model comes with 2.6GHz 6-core 9th Gen. Intel Core i7 processor, AMD Radeon Pro 5300M with 4 GB of GDDR6 memory and 512 GB PCIe-based onboard SSD) and $2,799 (base model comes with 2.3GHz 8-core 9th Gen. Intel Core i9 processor, AMD Radeon Pro 5500M with 4 GB of GDDR6 memory and 1 TB PCIe-based onboard SSD) Website: apple.com

>> For the latest product news and

in-depth coverage of new a nnouncements, visit digitalphotopro.com/newswire

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Weddings In Blume How a photographic power couple blends smart business with fine art to create images their customers will cherish for generations

By William Sawalich | Photography by Phillip and Eileen Blume

P

there was a lot of ignorance on our part. It sounds positive, but we were doing the opposite of profiting. We were basically paying to run our business. It took us about 18 months to figure out in a very dramatic way that we were failing as a business.”

They did figure out it, and, a decade later, they now teach other photographers to become more profitable with weddings and family portraiture.

The keys, Phillip says, have been diversification, quality over quantity and fundamentally reframing the vision for their business from a photo studio to a boutique that creates heirloom art.

“We were doing 20 to 30 weddings a year,” Blume says, “and I can't even imagine how some of our friends are still pumping out 40 or more a year on

rofessional photographers looking to grow their wedding businesses would do well to follow the lead of Phillip and Eileen Blume. This husband-and-wife team has met a variety of challenges throughout their 12 years running a wedding photography studio outside of Atlanta, and thus far they’ve conquered them all.

They’ve grown quickly from a struggling do-it-all vendor to a profitable boutique business.

“I was a high school teacher,” Phillip says, “and Eileen was working at Starbucks. We started up right after we got married, and quickly, within the span of about a year, we had to segue out of our jobs. It sounds like a success story, and I think at the time some of our friends were like ‘Wow!’ It looked like a big success, but behind the curtain,

digitalphotopro.com March/April 2020 | 19

“I'm shooting raw, but I could almost shoot JPEG in the way that we edit,” says Blume. “I would underexpose the highlights in camera and then bring the light in and expose right at proper exposure on the couple's face. And generally, I turn the bride's body away from the light, just to flatter the figure and preserve some details in a white dress and then turn her nose back into the light a little bit.”

“All of our wedding packages include a really nice album,” Blume says. “We had always offered them, and we thought if you just offer it to the people who want it, they’ll get it.

But people need to be guided by the hand, by an expert. And so we decided we’re going to be expert at helping people understand the value of physical artwork.”

Today, it’s sales of printed photographs and albums that account for more than two-thirds of their revenue.

“We got into the world of providing physical art, and it changed our perception on everything,” Blume continues. “Because then you start to learn so much about what people are looking for in their wedding book. What are the images that matter? It just changes your whole perception of the work that you’re doing on a weekend-to-weekend basis. I think that’s a really important part of our story and how the business and the art blended together.” their own. When I was in that place, there were a couple of embarrassing instances because I called the bride the wrong name, the name of the last bride we had the weekend before. I simply wasn't in tune. We couldn't be physically and mentally in tune with all of our clients’ needs, understand their family dynamics and keep up with all of that. When you cut it back, it doesn't mean that you’re just lazy the rest of the time. It means you have opportunities to serve clients in the way that they 20 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com

want to be served.”

Listening To And Learning From Customer Feedback

Couples In Search Of The Exceptional

The Blumes integrate their individual photography skills seamlessly as well.

Eileen prefers to handle planning, scheduling and second-shooting, while the more extroverted Phillip takes the lead on wedding day. They structure their assignments so that a single photographer could cover them—and sometimes they do—though they prefer to work as a team. They’re well-tuned to the interpersonal and emotional aspects

The Blumes provide a premium experience to couples in search of the exceptional. It shows in every aspect of their business, from how they market their offerings to the way printed products are packaged. They aim to make meaningful connections with couples and guide them through a process that results in the creation of precious family heirlooms.

“We don't shoot as dramatically these days,” says Blume, “but I still love that style. We just kind of tried to make our brand even more narrow.

It was underexposing the highlights to about one-anda-half stops to two stops.

That would be my go-to: I would look at the highlights and underexpose them just over a stop, which, now, normally, for highlights I keep them a little overexposed, even though I still preserve them. I like that style. But, yeah, we create less of it now, partly because we're just happy doing less Photoshopping.”

digitalphotopro.com March/April 2020 | 21

“That particular photo was taken by Eileen,” says Blume. “Sometimes if it ain't broke, why fix it? That was right after a rain. That wedding was just completely a huge deluge that came down during the ceremony. We also have some funny images of panicked venue reps bringing in umbrellas to everybody. They just didn't see it coming. But it ended up being really fun and romantic because we've got all these candid shots of couples under umbrellas kissing each other and stuff like that. And so the lighting after that, anytime that weather passes through, you just get beautiful light and gorgeous skies. So that just worked out perfectly.

And the only thing that we were looking for in terms of location was…not just go into open shade and then just shoot with the open shade but get on the edge of that open shade.

And in this case, the woods on the left and the open field on the right is going to become your natural softbox. That works great. And then, if you're also on the edge of an open shade area, you get a lot of opportunities for great leading lines. So that worked out just perfectly without any added light.

of their own needs as well as those of their clients, and they also take a more scientific, smart business approach to ensure their offerings remain on point.

“It’s interesting how the interaction between us and our clients over a period of years really influences everything, even our style,” Blume says.

“Really having ears open and listening to your customers, for us a big part of that has been making sure that we are professional in the sense that we 22 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com

send surveys and questionnaires to our clients—like a lot of successful businesses do. We actually get feedback we can act upon. Sometimes it just comes through asking the right questions on your contact form. Instead of just waiting for someone on their own to mention what they loved about your website, you have to ask questions like, ‘What is one of our favorite photos that you’ve seen, and what did you love about it?’ It puts your

client in an introspective place to process and think about your work. That act in itself will help them appreciate your work more. It also allows them to communicate to you what they like.”

The Blumes heard from customers over and over again that they most wanted pictures that don’t look posed. This led directly to changes in their approach.

“They loved the authenticity,” Blume says. “That’s the word that kept coming up. And I think we have a little bit of a natural knack for having fun with our clients through sort of giving them scenarios during photo sessions, prompts to get them to laugh or to interact in some way. We really get a lot of natural emotion. On the posing side, we got out of a lot of technical posing, which we had spent a lot of time learning. But we were happy to sacrifice some of those perfect technical poses and things. We start there, getting the distracting pose elements

and distracting lights and stuff under control, then go from there and make it an interactive moment.

“We call it balloon posing,” he continues. “We’ll set up a series of things to make it a good picture, but then we will go in there and surprise with a prompt or a joke or something that just makes it fall apart. People start laughing, families who are maybe just standing in the perfect way will all of a sudden tickle each other or fall to the ground or just allow that to break apart and get some real authentic emotion.

That’s a big part for us. Balloon posing: You shape the balloon, then you pop it and let it explode.”

The Art Of Subtle Lighting And Understanding Light Ratios The Blumes carry that aim into their lighting style, too. They usually use off-camera strobes but balanced with ambience for a natural look.

“It’s just filling in shadows and

“In the case of that wedding,” says Phillip Blume, “as it is a lot of times, the art that results is just a byproduct of what you have to work with. The couple was just lovely, but in that case, it was one of these terrible venue managers breathing down your neck, saying you can't shoot here or there because they have multiple weddings going onsite at the same time, and they don't want one bride to see the other one. We hate places like that.

But you make the most of it. There are great opportunities for photography there. Just try to move quickly.” Blume says for this wedding, all the pictures they took were created within a few hundred yards. “It was all right there.”

being subtle and understanding light ratios,” Blume says. “When you find your favorite light ratios, that can kind of define your style. Even if I would use a completely different light ratio in the studio for headshots, when it comes to weddings, I don’t try to get too creative. I know what my style is, and I try to stick to that. It creates that fresh, airy look, but it’s also really polished.”

The Blumes have recently pared down their lighting equipment along with their camera and lens selections.

Between them, they have three cameras—two Sony a7 IIIs and an a7R III—with just a handful of lenses. Phillip typically uses a 28mm and 85mm prime, while Eileen slots between with a 55mm. (They carry a 24-70mm f/4 zoom as a compact backup.) Strobewise, they use a Godox AD200 on a light stand with two speedlights on Phillip’s belt for added power as needed for on-camera fill or bounced

off ceilings.

“I’m trying to preserve highlights,” Blume says. “That’s generally the way my brain works. I don't like blownout, lost information. Because I want it to look natural, I still want those highlights in that light that’s filtering through leaves, I still want to see the color, I still want the sky to have

digitalphotopro.com March/April 2020 | 23

a degree of blue to it. And I want to see clouds that are there, so I like to preserve highlights just a little bit. Of course, as a result, unfortunately, I’m usually underexposing my subject. So I’ll come in there with the off-camera light and just shape them. I’m also still putting my light in the direction of the natural incidence of sunlight. Sometimes you can cross light, and it looks really cool, but also, the viewer looks at it and immediately thinks that doesn’t make sense. Or they don’t even know why it doesn’t make sense, they just think it looks a little artificial.”

Learning To See How Your Customers See Themselves In the end, Blume says the technical aspects of posing and lighting, all the nuanced marketing and the entire experience, are intended to simply serve the customer’s primary need: creating priceless family heirlooms. By shooting 24 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com

fewer weddings, they’re able to be more present and in the moment for each one, and by delivering finished images via in-person sales sessions, they’re able to enjoy customer reactions and gain valuable insights.

“It’s funny because being able to sit with them has revealed a lot to us over the years,” Blume says. “It has changed the pictures we’re looking for. There’s a lot of pictures we used to try to create at every wedding, and maybe they will even win awards, but as you go through them with the couple and their family, they’re like, ‘Okay, move on.’ Because they’re not looking for aesthetic, artistic perfection. They’re looking for themselves. They want to see themselves in a flattering light, and they want to see represented the connections and the emotions that they have with their family.

“From a business point of view,” he continues, “we have sold $2,000 wall installments of pictures that we would

have almost culled out because...they kind of fell short of our standards. But we kept them in. As long as they’re sharp, they’re in focus and there’s something there that’s valuable to your client, that means a lot to them emotionally.”

Blume says that he and his wife are so much more focused now as a result.

“Making sure that we’re present,” says Blume, “that we’re not chimping and looking at the back of our cameras all the time. We want to be present so we don’t miss that glance, that look that the couple gives to one another or that half a second when the dad who never cries, his eyes start to tear up. You have to be emotionally present as a photographer, and you have to just care for your clients.”

DPP For more information about Phillip and Eileen Blume or to see more of their work and learn about their photography workshops and e-learning options, visit theblumes.co.

PHOTO BY CHRIS RAINIER

HONORING

ALICIA HANSEN

HONORING

HONORING

CHRIS RAINIER

PHOTO BY JAMES BALOG

PHOTO BY ALICIA HANSEN

JAMES BALOG

“The power of imaging is never more apparent than when it is used to help those in need”

T

he Imaging Alliance, in conjunction with Madavor Media, is proud to salute three professional photographers and one aspiring photographer who have used their talents and passions to give back and heighten awareness of important cultural issues through the power of imaging.

The 2020 event will feature presentations by honorees James Balog, Alicia Hansen, Chris Rainier and this year’s Anthony M. Ruotolo Photojournalism Award recipient who has been selected based on their mission and use of photography to tell a story about a critical social issue.

Following the presentation, all in attendance are invited to join the cocktail reception celebration at Tribeca’s Town Stages; New York City’s premier event space that supports artistic innovation.

For all program information, or to become an Imaging Alliance member, please contact Michelle Tramantano at michelle@theimagingalliance.com

REGISTER TODAY WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 2020 6:00PM TOWN STAGES 221 WEST BROADWAY, NYC $25 Admission (Proceeds go to charity) PRESENTING SPONSORS

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SILVER

in truth,

Beauty Wedding masters James x Schulze take a low-key approach to elevating wedding photography to its highest form

By William Sawalich | Photography By James x Schulze

W

“Our clients make a significant investment in us,” Schulze says, “and…for every single wedding we feel that responsibility…. And we want to honor that. We want to make sure that the imagery does it justice.”

hen a bride and groom host a world-class destination wedding, they expect a lot from their photographers.

The smartest among these happy couples, a dozen or so each year, hire world-class artists, such as the team of James x Schulze, a partnership between James Christianson and Otto Schulze, two longtime photographers, who joined forces four years ago after more than a decade in direct competition.

Their work blossomed as they quickly discovered the whole can be infinitely greater than the sum of its parts.

“We cannot make the work without the collaboration,” Christianson says. “Because of the freedom. If you were to watch us work, it really is a dance. Maybe I’m connecting with the client and shooting a portrait while Otto’s over there crafting something, shooting hands and shooting different angles and working on composition. And then I do that for five minutes, and he steps in, and he’s doing the portrait, and I’m running around shooting from far away, or whatever.

It really is a constant dance, back and forth. It allows us to

digitalphotopro.com March/April 2020 | 27

make different types of imagery that we would never get.”

James x Schulze believe every wedding should look different because every wedding is different. So while their aesthetic remains consistent, they don’t seek to repeat the same scenarios over and over again.

“It’s not the same story,” Schulze says. “We have an aesthetic, and we’ve worked on that, that’s intentional. You struggle to do that, to get to what you like, but every wedding should feel different. It really should. There’s no need for us to impose our ideas on the wedding. They’re amazing. There are so many people, there’s so much going on, for like 10 hours. And because we do have a really high work ethic, when we start, it’s like a bell rings and you don’t stop shooting for 10 hours. We’re just shooting everything nonstop. But it’s because there’s so much going on, there’s no reason to stop. How can we stop?

28 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com

“None of our images really takes long,” he continues. “We don’t set them up. So maybe that kind of speaks to that authenticity that you see. We are just very reactive. We don’t come into a wedding with preconceived ideas, like poses or we want it to look like this way. We don’t take the couple and say, ‘OK, look, here’s what we’re going to do.’ We really look to them, and then we just react.”

In their quest for veracity, the duo also defers to natural light.

“It’s available light for us almost all the way,” Schulze says. “Most of the work is just as it happens on the day.

It’s rare that we get the opportunity to scout, and even when we do, on the day, things are different. That’s the thing with weddings, right? You can go Friday afternoon and look at the location, and then Saturday the light’s different.

So, most of what you see by a very high percentage is just as it happens.

“Now, granted,” he adds, “we are

Above: It rained during this Aspen, Colorado, wedding, but the ponchos and umbrellas helped make it a unique photograph.

Right: “One of the things we try to use as a differentiator is that this isn't about us,” Christianson says. “This is about you as a couple. And, of course, the wedding is going to be seen through our eyes, but we try to connect with who they are, what's important to them…I think that's also part of that authenticity. What we do is look for amazing light and connect with people.”

lucky enough to shoot really high-end weddings, so the content—from the people to what they’re wearing to the location—all of it is pretty epic. So we really don’t have to do much interpreting of it. We’re very fortunate. Content

Left: After shooting the couple in Great Sand Dunes National Park, Schulze and his photography partner, James Christianson, had an epiphany of sorts, when they decided to capture a portrait of the happy couple. “The bride had something like six dresses with her. But there's this one portrait that we shot of them…[it’s as if] we discovered a new way we shoot portraits together…. It's of those shots where just everything aligned.”

Right: “I started as a documentary photographer,” Schulze says, “and I looked at wedding photography as the lowest on the totem pole, like the worst thing in the world.

But now it's just this incredible space. We get to walk in, and there's all of this real emotion and anticipation and expectation, and it's all there. Like Cartier-Bresson said, you see, you feel, and, if it's right, you respond.”

is king, and so we get to really just explore the space.”

Though they rely on ambient light, their work has an incredibly refined aesthetic—especially viewed as a whole. Some individual images, however, are quite atypical of traditional wedding photography and even deliberately unrefined.

“The creative freedom that we have working as two very competent photographers is a total game changer,” Christianson says. “Because of expectations, people want the safe shot, they want that shot with mom or just the standard shot coming down the aisle, which doesn’t allow for creative freedom. And so what you get with James x Schulze really is the best of both worlds.”

“Creativity,” Schulze says, “it’s unbound, right? It’s not structured.

30 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com

Creativity just goes, or it stops being creative, by definition.

“You know the standard things are coming,” he continues. “The ceremony is coming, walking down the aisle is coming, the kiss, family photos, portraits, details…If I was on my own, or if James was, we could fulfill the assignment no problem. But the beauty with this is you really get to go off. I can just go photojournalistic straight up for two hours if I want.

James will see what I’m doing, he'll see what camera I have and he’ll go, OK, I need to start shaking hands and shooting people.”

With their natural light emphasis, James x Schulze are able to travel light. They carry Sony a7R IIIs and RX1 RIIs as well as a Hasselblad X1D, and they trade cameras as often as they

change lenses.

“When we’re shooting, we’ll just be passing around cameras,” Schulze says.

“He’ll just pass by me and grab it, and I’ll grab the one he has. Sometimes we’ll switch lenses, but for the most part it’s just ‘grab this.’ It’s nice because you can break it up creatively. And I’ll let James say what he wants to say about his beloved 50mm because he’s obsessed with the damn thing.”

“Otto is definitely the gearhead among us,” Christianson says with a laugh, “because to me, the camera is just the tool. But I’ve learned an awful lot about lens character and sharpness and image quality by Otto’s passion for that and drive to change it up. We recently bought the ZEISS 50mm f/1.4 Planar.

It’s just a special lens, and 50mm has kind of always been my go-to. I probably shoot 80 percent of what I shoot with that 50. It’s going back to this idea that it’s kind of how our eye sees. I’m always saying the photograph doesn’t get in the way then, because it’s not a shift of perspective. It’s exactly how we see, or close enough.”

When asked what photographic skill each most admires in the other, Schulze immediately praises Christianson’s gift for portraiture.

My favorite photographer of all time is [Henri] Cartier-Bresson and he’s made a point of saying... he’s a painter…but goodness me, the geometry, what it makes you feel, is profound.

“James has an incredible ability with people,” he says. “He really connects with them. And so when he shoots portraits, he gets something out of people that I don’t. I think for me, I get a little bit lost in frame and composition, and I think that James, he is obviously great at that as well, but I think for him it’s really the person

compositions that he simply would not see.

“The way we have our post-production responsibilities split up is I do all the culling,” Christianson says, “and then Otto does the edit. So I look at everything from start to finish—all the crap, all the good—and what I’m blown away by every single time is that, if there’s a master photographer between the two of us, it’s definitely Otto. Truly. I go through his work and throw out maybe a third of it. And then I’ll throw out twothirds of mine. He’s in there literally crafting every image. We come into a space, and I’m struck by his ability to compose and put elements in a frame together. Every image is artwork, it’s designed. I’m a snappy shooter, connecting with people and snapping,

that he’s after, and it shows. We shoot the same couples, but his images just have more life in them. He’s reacting to what people are giving him, and I think that his work is really full of life.

Which I think is probably the most powerful aspect of photography.”

Christianson, in turn, admires the way Schulze is able to create stunning

digitalphotopro.com March/April 2020 | 31

“When we started out, I came from a documentary background,” Schulze says, “and James more editorial. And so we thought, let’s fuse the two, right?

Documentary and editorial, perfect balance.”

We cannot make the work without the collaboration because of the freedom. If you were to watch us work…it really is a constant dance, back and forth.

32 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com

where he’s composing. So it really is a great partnership. The kind of technical choice of highlighting really interesting and unique viewpoints is almost exclusively Otto. I don’t see that way.”

As their partnership has grown, each photographer says his work has become increasingly like the other’s.

“It’s not like it’s one or the other,” Schulze says. “James is exceptional at designing and composing as well, and I’m good with people, too. It’s just that there’s something really special about him there. I’ve watched myself develop in that area because of him, and I’ve watched him develop in other areas because of me. So now those lines are blurry. Some shots I’m like, did I make this or didn’t I? I don’t know. Whatever image I make or James makes, if he clicks the button or if I click it, I can honestly say James x Schulze produced the image. The only reason I was able to make that shot is because of the collaboration. If I was on my own, I wouldn’t make that shot.”

Schulze’s compositions often include atypical wedding images, such as a simple curl of hair, a vast landscape or the leaves on a tree. A couple’s wedding package is also sure to include images that are technically imperfect—out of focus, motion blurred or notably grainy.

These imperfections have become a deliberate part of the James x Schulze aesthetic, a kind of wabi-sabi approach to wedding photography.

“My favorite photographer of all time is [Henri] Cartier-Bresson,” Schulze says, “and he’s made a point of saying he’s not a photographer, he’s a painter. And if you look at his work technically, it’s piss-poor. Most of it’s out of focus, but goodness me, the geometry, what it makes you feel, is profound. It’s a technical mess, but

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what comes through is the subject. It doesn’t even matter. It makes you feel something. That’s always been it for me with art, music, photography…If it doesn’t make me feel something, I just walk right by.” ”About a year and a half ago,” Christianson says, “we went and looked at our work and said, it’s too stale, too technical. So it’s been an intentional thing. I’ll say to Otto, ‘I’m going to shoot this at a 15th of a second,’ and he just knows, ‘OK, he’s shooting vibey images. I’m going to get, not safe, but I’m going to get crisp, sharp images of this moment.’

Because a bride would love that image, and ultimately I think they love that vibey, sexy, blurred image ultimately more. But if that’s all they see, they go ‘What else? What did we miss?’ ” “You can’t bring in this collection of out-of-focus images and say, this is 34 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com

The beauty of the partnership is there’s an intuition that develops over time. It’s not hard anymore. When we shoot, it’s really quite effortless. our art, have a nice day,” Schulze says.

“It wouldn’t work. Our work is good.

Exceptional quality. But it was just too good, too tight, you know? So bringing in this wiggle…It’s become really important to counterbalance it.”

High risk, high reward. This duo is able to do things no individual photographer could achieve on his or her own.

“The beauty of the partnership is,” Schulze says, “there’s an intuition that develops over time. It’s not hard

anymore. When we shoot, it’s really quite effortless. I heard a guy say something a few years ago, he said ‘When you’re healthy you don’t feel your body.’

And I’ve found it to be true, and I think in how we work there’s no strain. I think trust is the thing at the bottom of it that settles the whole matter.”

DPP For additional information about James x Schulze and to see more of their beautiful work, visit jamesandschulze.com.

CAPTURING A COUPLE’S

“I always scout the location for a space that will work well for the first look,” says Dacia Pierson. “I’m looking for flattering light, minimal distractions and a sense of environment. I chose this space because I was able to get a unique vantage point on it—slightly elevated, which was nice to show off the location as well as the back of Brooke’s gorgeous dress.”

36 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com

“FIRST LOOK” Learn how one photographer approaches this key moment of the wedding day

By Amy Touchette | Photography By Dacia Pierson

One of the hottest trends in wedding photography today is capturing a couple’s “first look,” a visual record of the private moment a couple first lay eyes on each other on their wedding day.

Traditionally reserved for the ceremony, when the bride and groom initially lock eyes from down the aisle, that old-fashioned ritual has become something that more and more couples do away with today and instead carve out time before the ceremony to exhale and really absorb their love for one another without the presence of family and guests.

Creating Ease In A Jam-Packed Schedule—For You And Them

traditional route and see each other for the first time at the ceremony.

Having a first-look moment before the ceremony also creates a calmer schedule for the couple, their family and guests.

“Usually, first-look images take place about an hour-and-a-half before the ceremony,” Pierson says, noting they’re sometimes with a videographer, sometimes without. “After they’re dressed and ready, we’ll go into the first look, which transitions into about 30 minutes of couples portraits—just them together when they’re feeling highly emotional—and

It’s a development wedding photographers, including Brooklyn-based Dacia Pierson, owner of Eager Hearts Photography, have embraced for many reasons. From a logistical perspective alone, “it’s very complicated to fit in the bridal party photos and the family photos all during cocktail hour,” Pierson notes. “Rounding people up, finding a location that isn’t used by the cocktail hour or reception and dealing with dying light” are challenges she often faces when couples go the more

digitalphotopro.com March/April 2020 | 37

“China and Daniel’s venue was open fields and dense fern forest.

I chose the open shade on the edge of the trees for its flattering lighting and space to move around to get different angles of the moment,” says Pierson.

then bridal party and family photos.

Being able to do all required ‘posed’ photos before the ceremony means that we’re not trying to drag family members away from their drinks and conversations during cocktail hour, and the bride and groom get to share a drink and actually enjoy their guests.”

Perhaps most importantly, first-look images offer the couple the rare opportunity to absorb what’s happening that day.

“Logistically, I encourage it,” says Pierson, but “it’s also an intimate way to see their partner for the first time that 38 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com

day without a hundred eyes on them.

The pressure is off. They get to hold each other, tell each other how good they look, that they missed each other, and express their feelings about what’s about to unfold. Often partners are each other’s best friend, and to have that intimate time before the ceremony is really beautiful and important.”

Plus, Pierson adds, “they get to relax during cocktail hour. They get to be done with everything and just enjoy this party that they spent a year planning and however many thousands of dollars they spent on it, instead of being rushed

around to take photos.”

Building An Aesthetic Around Emotion Carving out time for emotional moments like the first look is part of why Pierson’s wedding photography business has flourished so quickly.

Although photography has been her passion since the tender age of 13, when she presciently declared to her family that she would become a successful photographer without even having picked up a camera, she grew her business out of a genuine joy for witnessing love.

“I’ve learned there are so many ways of expressing love. Some couples are playful, some tender and quiet, some loud and big and expressive—rarely is it how a romantic comedy portrays it, but they’re all genuine and connected,” she says. “Witnessing that, and learning from them, is really what drives me.”

It’s a proclivity that’s aptly conveyed in her company’s name, Eager Hearts Photography, and it’s largely what she thinks attracts her clients. “I like to think that I have a very classic vibe, in the sense that the images are really clean but modern because they’re not

“The entry to Tina and Ryan’s hotel was so grand, I knew that it’d make a beautiful frame for the image,” says Pierson. “To get this, I stood on a park bench across the street from the doorway, putting myself about even with it, and had Tina show up behind where Ryan stood.”

driven by poses, they’re driven by emotion,” she states.

“I believe that’s what draws people to my work, that the emotion can really be felt. I often hear that my clients can’t believe how beautiful they look in their photos, and I like to remind people that’s silly because they relaxed into their authentic selves. I’m pretty highly attuned to people’s energy and moments that happen between the prescribed events and am able to catch those, but I’m not a documentarian, and I like to give people a slightly idealized version of the day. They’re clean

and they’re classic and they’re beautiful, but they’re also very true to who they are emotionally.”

Taking The Lead Being naturally moved by love and drawn to emotion isn’t enough in and of itself, of course. An essential part of

digitalphotopro.com March/April 2020 | 39

“I love it when grooms show emotion for their brides,” says Pierson.

Pierson’s process is clearing away any distractions that take away from the emotional charge of a photograph.

“When I’m photographing,” says Pierson, “I take the time to make sure the Starbucks cup is out of the way, that there’s not a sweatshirt piled on the chair, that the light is falling across their face beautifully. That stuff doesn’t just happen. It’s my intervention.”

Oftentimes, Pierson’s intervention goes way beyond clearing away physical objects and finding the perfect light, and she orchestrates the entire moment.

She finds the location, figures out how everyone should stand and how the moment will unfold and gives them a little pep talk beforehand.

“Often people aren’t used to being photographed for eight hours in a day. It’s a very new experience for them, and they understandably get concerned about what they should be doing in front of the camera. I like to release them from that responsibility.

This first-look moment is maybe the most emotionally charged moment of the wedding day, so I like to give a basic instruction about how it will unfold—which way to turn, where to stand, etc.—and then I tell them to forget about every single thing. ‘Don’t think about me, don’t think about the videographer, don’t think about what’s happening next. This is a moment just for the two of you, and I want you to feel it and be there with each other fully.’ I think they really appreciate it,” Pierson says.

Incorporating Activity And Overcoming Obstacles To quell nerves during a first-look shoot and ensure it unfolds in the most natural way possible, Pierson also likes to give the couple something to do. “Humans photograph better when they’re in motion, when they’re relaxed, and they’re doing something that feels natural to them as opposed to ‘stand here and look at her,’” she says. Sometimes she’ll have a bottle 40 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com

of Champagne at the first look so they can “just chill out for a second and celebrate with each other.”

She also loves it “when a couple reads a note that they wrote to each other just before the first look, so the emotions are really high, and it’s not just about ‘Hi, look at my dress.’ It brings forward all of the emotions of why they love each other and why they’re getting married.

“Wedding photography is so much more than being able to take a good photo,” Pierson explains, “because the

circumstances in which we’re photographing are often not ideal. We’re cramped into tiny, messy hotel rooms… we’re managing turning on a dime to be every kind of photographer: a portrait artist, a documentarian, a still life specialist. We’re doing a thousand different things all at the same time.”

When it comes to making first-look images, the challenges usually involve solving limitations with location, space and light. “It’s a game of finding a space of flattering light that’s also free

of visual distractions and a place that looks pretty—or just embracing what’s around. The parking lot of a hotel isn’t great, but if you’re in New York and [the first look takes place] on a busy city street, how fun and how energetic and how beautiful,” she adds.

and feeling nervous about what they’re doing. Later, they trust my presence at the wedding, and they know how I work, so the instruction can just be: ‘Take your time and linger and love on her and keep playing.’ They already know what to do.’”

Creating Bonds Beforehand

Choosing Equipment Mindfully

What’s also “extremely helpful,” Pierson emphasizes, is the fact that she also made engagement photos for the majority of her wedding clients.

“If you show up to the wedding day like it’s a blind date, then you walk into the room, and you’re like, ‘Which one is the bride?’ It’s not the best start.

That’s not usually how it goes, but a practice run is beneficial for everybody involved.” Having already spent time with the couple before the wedding day, “they understand my weird prompts and affirmations,” she says, laughing, “and they understand how to relax in front of the camera. They learn to linger instead of being hurried

Despite the lighting challenges that often exist during first-look shoots, Pierson still relies on natural light to capture the highly charged moment— saving her small, powerful Profoto B10 lights and on-camera flash for the dancefloor, speeches and dinner, when natural light isn’t an option.

She wears two 5D Canon Mark IV cameras on her at all times, typically one with a 50mm lens and one with an 85mm or 28-70mm lens, in order to avoid the precariousness of switching lenses in a hurry. “I love shooting at 1.4 or 1.8,” she says, “and the 2.8 just doesn’t have the same quality, even if you’re at an equivalent focal length.”

Basking In Love In the end, couples “all express love in their own individual ways, which is what’s so beautiful about being a wedding photographer. Some couples laugh hysterically after finally seeing their person. Some people get really, really emotional, and they start crying. Every single couple presents themselves and expresses their love in a different way, and that’s what is really evident at the first look,” Pierson says, “and it’s important to encourage and evoke that sort of emotion. My whole aesthetic is just encouraging them to be who they are together. From my end, there’s very little premeditation. I’m not inserting myself into it; I just encourage who they are.”

It’s a statement that underscores just how humanist a profession photography can be and how emotionally interdependent the dynamic between photographer and subject truly is.

DPP See more of Dacia Pierson’s photography at eagerheartsphotography.com.

digitalphotopro.com March/April 2020 | 41

A Husband’s Battle Reflects

42 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com

Amber’s Story This husband-and-wife wedding photography team chose to document their lives after Amber was diagnosed with breast cancer

By Mark Edward Harris Photography By Garrette Baird

Sony Artisans of Imagery Garrette and Amber Baird have used their cameras to tell the stories of other couples’ “big day.” The Indiana-based filmmakers have recorded more than 600 weddings over the last 15 years through their company, Eyenamics.

However, another momentous life event confronted the Bairds in March

2019. Amber was diagnosed with breast cancer. After the initial shock, the couple decided to turn the camera 180 degrees and tell their unfolding story.

It’s said that a camera portrays both the person in front of the lens and the person behind it. For these wedding photographers, it has certainly proved to be true.

Digital Photo Pro: Why did you and Garrette decide to document your journey through the cancer diagnosis and treatment?

doctors have been amazing in terms of access. We’ve been able to shoot in testing areas where most of the time they don’t allow cameras.

The only places we haven’t had access for cameras is during my MRI and surgeries. (I’ve had three.)

Our work-in-progress documentary isn’t just about getting the word out but really honing in on how people can live and thrive while they’re going through treatment. I’ve been able to continue working throughout my chemo. I’m not letting this diagnosis and the treatments impede our life.

Amber Baird: I think for any creative professional, even though it’s your job, a lot of the time it’s your outlet for conveying your emotions as well. So when I was diagnosed with Stage 1B breast cancer with a grade 3 tumor, my husband and I just knew it was really important to document everything.

The reason became clearer later on.

We don’t want it to be as scary for the next person who goes through this. A grade 3 tumor has the potential to get bad really quickly. Fortunately, we caught this aggressive tumor early on.

In addition to shooting the footage and stills, my husband is the main creative editor, and it’s been hard for him to edit the footage because of the subject matter being about me. The

You're a case study with this very personal and powerful film.

We’re at the level where we can give back. Garrette and I thought about what our cause was going to be. We’re not like Paul Nicklen and Cristina Mittermeier, who are literally helping

digitalphotopro.com March/April 2020 | 43

to save the planet. But this is what we can do at this point to give back. This is what fell into our laps. We definitely didn’t go looking for this.

How did your approach to visual storytelling evolve?

We live in a small town called Vincennes, two hours south of Indianapolis, and this is where we built our business doing wedding films. When we met, I was still in college and was going to be a pharmacist. Garrette was already a filmmaker, and we shot our first wedding together two weeks after we got married, and it snowballed from there.

We do most of our work now in Indianapolis or Evansville, Indiana. We like to say we are wedding filmmakers. There’s so much more to it than the label “videographer.”

When we started our business 15 years ago, storytelling wasn’t really a thing people did for weddings. Over the years, we have evolved our style.

People really enjoy it more when we are able to find the story of the wedding, not just create a documentary of the day.

That’s, of course, important as well, but finding the elements of a wedding 44 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com

Opposite page: Mammogram Biopsy; Surgery 3; More Bad News.

This page: Biopsy; Surgery Purgatory; The Options

day that are unique for that couple is the key. At the core, weddings are pretty much the same. You get married, you have dinner, you have a party.

So we dig in and find the story of the day and capture what makes an individual wedding unique. It’s a wonderful thing to be a part of the happiest day of a person’s life.

How are you recording this very special day from a technical standpoint?

We’re both using the Sony a7 III, with a variety of lenses. We really like the 50mm f/1.4 ZEISS, which gives us a more personal, intimate feel.

Garrette also uses a 24mm f/1.4 G Master when he goes wide, while my favorite lens for weddings is the 70-200mm f/2.8 because I’m the one who’s tasked to get the more emotional, intimate moments.

With the 70-200mm, I can stay out of what we call “the bubble of emotions.” People will react naturally and let their emotions flow, and we’re not in their face.

Garrette and I have our wedding day workflow worked out, and both of us have specific jobs. On a wedding day, we’ll carry five or six lenses. We have all of the tools, and we use them when they’re needed. A lot of the time, I’m on a monopod and then a tripod during the ceremony.

Garrette’s going handheld or using a Rhino Slider or a gimbal, and we have a DJI Mavic 2 Pro drone. We use a Think Tank Airport Security roller bag, their Hubba Hubba Hiney belt pack/shoulder bag and a Video Tripod Manager bag for all of our gear.

We have a rule: If it doesn’t fit in those, we don’t bring it with us. If you bring too much equipment, you can have option paralysis: You have so many options, you don’t know what to do.

digitalphotopro.com March/April 2020 | 45

Cinema-style video is often shot at 24 fps. What do you do to create your cinematic look?

Cinematic is a very subjective term from one director to another: What it is to Quentin Tarantino is very different than to Ron Howard.

We break a lot of rules with our films. I like to push that home when we’re teaching workshops or doing presentations.

You don’t have to do it one specific way to get a cinematic look. All of our films are shot at 30 fps. One of the reasons is we don’t use ND filters. We often break the rule of doubling the frame rate for the shutter—in other words, at 30 fps shooting at 1/60th of a second.

Sometimes we have to use our shutter for exposure. If we’re outside and already down to ISO 100 and we want a more shallow depth of field, we go to a faster shutter speed in order to open up the aperture.

We’re working with a lot of elements to give us the cinematic look besides 46 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com

depth of field—lighting and motion, audio and music. It’s about all those aspects coming together to make something beautiful.

Doesn’t going to a fast shutter speed result in a choppy-looking video?

It can get choppy when you have fast motion, so if you’re panning quickly or your subject is moving quickly, that could happen, but most of the things in weddings don’t move that fast.

We shoot in 4K and use a plugin called Twixtor if we want a slowmotion shot. A higher shutter speed actually works better because it doesn’t have to interpolate the frames as much.

We can always add more motion blur if we need to.

The one time this bit us—or I should say stung us—was at a barn wedding, and they had a bee problem. You could see the bees flying around a little bit more because there wasn’t as much motion blur.

What are you working with for light and sound?

We use the Light & Motion Stella Pro CLx8 lights. We usually put up two lights for the reception as well as for interviews.

For the receptions, we use the Fresnel lens on each light with the barndoors so we can carve out what we want and not have a lot of spill into the guest’s faces.

We usually warm up these daylightbalanced lights with CTO gels.

With the Sony, I can also shoot in very low-light situations, pushing the ISO to ISO 10,000, which isn’t a problem.

For sound, we’re using the Tascam DR-10L—the “L” stands for lavalier— and the Tascam DR-10X, which we usually plug into the DJ or band’s systems. We mic the groom or the priest or rabbi or officiant with the DR-10L. Is there a separate still photographer at the weddings you do? Garrette’s stills on your documentary are very powerful.

Opposite page: In Sickness and In Health; “Red Devil” Chemo.

This page: Puppy Time

There’s a separate still photography team that we work in conjunction with. Garrette’s hobby and creative outlet is still photography. It seems like the stills speak more volumes when he’s documenting my therapy.

Other moments, such as when my head was being shaved, translate better in video.

What are some of the top venues for weddings in and around Indianapolis?

There are so many great venues there.

When you put the wedding video out, other people see it and get inspired: “Wow, you shot a wedding at the Scottish Rite Cathedral, I want you to shoot my wedding there.” It has really beautiful, interesting architecture.

The Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields with the Robert Indiana

LOVE sculpture is a great outdoor location. As the bride is coming down the aisle, the LOVE sculpture is in the background. Our video of Molly and Josh on our website was shot there.

Then there’s a really cool place called the Indianapolis Artsgarden that’s a glassed dome spanning above an intersection in downtown Indianapolis. The Lucas Estate is stunning and can be rented for weddings.

One we shot there had synchronized swimmers in the pool during cocktail hour. We shot a birthday party where Earth, Wind & Fire performed at the Indiana Roof Ballroom on the top of the Indiana Repertory Theatre in Indianapolis. It’s an amazing space for weddings as well.

We really like the magnetic timeline and the way you can color grade. There are a lot of things that are integrated in the program that really help with our workflow.

Our rates are generally $6,000$10,000. For the base rate, clients get a five- to six-minute film. Everything else is a la carte.

In the video telling your story, you quote “the Doctor,” who said, “We’re all stories in the end, just make it a good one, eh?” Can you elaborate on this conversation?

That’s actually from “Doctor Who,” the British TV show. We’re super nerds. Anything sci-fi, we love. I just remember the episode with that powerful statement, so Garrette added it to our film. We cried. It was perfect. DPP

What do you use to edit your films, and what are your deliverables?

For more on Garrette and Amber Baird’s work, go to eyenamics.com. To see the movie trailer, go to eyenamics.com/ my-cancer.

I do a lot of the organization of the files, and Garrette does the creative editing.

We use Final Cut Pro X.

digitalphotopro.com March/April 2020 | 47

Top Left: From “Kellie & Jesse” by Samantha Milner Top Right: From “Jessica & Lawrence” by Samantha Milner Middle Left: From “Darin & Abigail” by Nick & Jenn Miller Middle Right: From “Carlos & Courtney” by Nick & Jenn Miller Bottom: From “Mod Bride” by Samantha Milner

Love Stories TV: Not Your Old School Wedding Video Insights from an online video innovator and two Love Stories TV cinematographers

By Jill Waterman

The

market for wedding videos has undergone a substantial transformation in the past 10 years since the introduction of DSLRs that could record video. Coupled with this media industry change, the technological innovations that have made it possible to stream video content for easy internet viewing and sharing on social networks has been an added game changer, particularly in a market segment heavily devoted to a youth demographic.

“We’re all familiar with statistics, such as YouTube is the world’s second-biggest search engine,” says Rachel Jo Silver,

founder and CEO of the media company Love Stories TV. “Four out of five millennials search for a video on a product before they purchase it,” she explains.

“And that product could be a wedding dress, a wedding venue, a wedding florist or a wedding videographer. That’s how millennials and Gen X consumers think: They think [of] video first.” Silver says when it comes to weddings, they’re going to continue to consider videos not just as something that’s nice to have, “but as an essential part of their wedding.”

with a mission to build the first and only library of real wedding videos. She happened upon the idea after declining to hire a wedding videographer for her own wedding, and subsequently being surprised with a flash mob dance performance by the guests at her reception, an event that was only recorded by snippets of amateur cell phone video.

“That moment and the rest of the wedding were totally perfect and unforgettable. At least, that’s what I initially thought,” Silver recounts on the Love Stories TV website. “Immediately after, I began to regret not having hired a videographer. Not only because of the flash mob, but because I couldn’t

Cornering The Market For Wedding Films Silver founded Love Stories TV in 2016

digitalphotopro.com March/April 2020 | 49

From “Ash & Mark” by Samantha Milner

remember the speeches, or our vows, or what the officiant said, or how Justin and I looked when we walked down the aisle. Photos can’t capture these things; only video can.”

Since its founding, Love Stories TV has amassed a collection of tens of thousands of professionally produced films, telling authentic stories of individual couples and their unique wedding days, which as a whole cover every wedding type, destination and demographic imaginable.

The lovestoriestv.com website functions as an aggregator of sorts, offering up a searchable database of these short films, freely available to the general public. Content is submitted primarily by filmmakers, who benefit from the visibility in marketing their services.

“Filmmakers are the foundation of our business,” says Silver. “If filmmakers don’t feel that they’re booking more weddings, getting more leads, getting value out of the site, then we can’t 50 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com

provide for our couples and our brand sponsors. So, it’s extremely important that they’re happy.”

The Evolution Of The Wedding Video To truly understand the current market for wedding videos, it’s helpful to look back at the evolution of style and substance within this realm of the marketplace.

According to Silver, weddings of a certain budget always included a video in the wedding package, but it wasn’t something that was watched much.

This type of video was generally a chronological recording, shot from a single vantage point, which is totally distinct from the emotion-filled, narrative style of wedding filmmaking produced now.

In contrast, “Couples seeking to book a wedding video today want it to tell a story, they want it to be cinematic,” Silver notes. “They want the most emotional moments captured first and

highlighted. That’s something quite different than just documenting.”

Contemporary wedding films have more in common with cinematography than video capture, which led Silver to use the former term for her contributor base when launching her company. Yet she quickly realized that, in addition to the title cinematographer being lost on consumers, it was not beneficial for SEO in online searches, a crucial part of Love Story TV’s mission to help people book more weddings. “Brides and grooms tend to use the term videographers,” notes Silver, “which I don't find to be the best description. I think it unintentionally decreases the equity in their work.”

This terminology divide resulted in Silver coming to a compromise of sorts.

“When we’re talking to filmmakers, we use that term, because I think it makes our contributors feel more respected. But when we’re talking to couples, we just

say videographers because that’s the term they commonly understand,” she says.

Partnerships Within The Wedding Niche While videography has greatly evolved as an art form and continues to surge in popularity within the wedding marketplace, Silver finds that it’s rare for filmmakers in this niche to have started out shooting stills. “Most current wedding videographers were filmmakers first,” she notes.

A common scenario she’s observed is the trajectory of someone who started out shooting motion but didn't initially plan to shoot weddings. “Maybe they couldn’t get commercial work at first,” Silver explains, “so they started shooting weddings and then found that they loved the industry. Or they wanted to shoot corporate, but they needed real work first, and weddings were easier to get. Then they realized, ‘Oh, I actually really like doing this,’” she points out. “That’s something we hear a lot.”

When it comes to still photography, however, Silver has noticed two recent trends. “Increasingly, photographers either want to learn to shoot video, or, more likely, they’re interested to partner with a videographer they work well with.”

She encourages this type of proactive business arrangement when speaking with filmmakers, suggesting a referral system among colleagues who have a good rapport. “It doesn’t have to be a sneaky, kickback type thing, it can be a totally reasonable, healthy arrangement,” she says, recommending that both parties refer each other to book more business.

For filmmakers just getting started, she proposes offering a small commission for referrals, noting, “A

Four out of five millennials search for a video on a product before they purchase it. And that product could be a...wedding videographer.

That's how millennials and Gen X consumers think: They think [of] video first. photographer won’t agree to a commission if they think it will have a negative impact; they’ll only refer you if they believe you do good work.”

Additional advice she gives anyone who’s booked to shoot a wedding with someone they’ve never met is to ask the wedding couple for the email contacts of the full vendor list. “If you can’t get that information from the couple, go look it up,” she advises, suggesting, “Call the photographer, introduce yourself, and say, ‘We’ve never worked together before, so I just want to get a sense of your working style and your schedule and the shots you want to get.’”

By neglecting this type of advance communication, you risk not being fully prepared on the day of the shoot.

the reception. So things start to revolve around them, and they’ve gotten used to that.”

Another challenge to filmmaker/ photographer relationships is that, “Historically speaking, a wedding photographer earns more than a filmmaker and is booked earlier in the planning process.” According to Silver, on average, filmmakers earn about two-thirds of a photographer’s rate. She points out, “While the shooting time is the same, the editing time is longer, so they make less money overall, and the hourly rate comes out to be much lower.”

Over the past few years, she has leveraged her company’s broad reach and data-mining capabilities to help bring awareness to these inequities, gathering real-world statistics through close communication with her filmmaker base. And recently, Love Stories TV launched a filmmaker survey that has reinforced anecdotal evidence to show these historical trends are slowly changing.

While only preliminary data was available at press time, 50 percent of respondents to this new survey reported being hired before the photographer for five or more weddings, and 39 percent were hired first for two to five weddings, a positive finding for videographers that Silver had previously underestimated.

This recent data is backed up by

Equitable Relationships And Shifting Trends The topic of photographer/filmmaker partnerships sheds light on the fact that relationships between these two types of wedding vendors haven’t always been the smoothest. “On site, at the wedding, things can get really tricky,” Silver admits.

Although a wedding planner might run the show at a big-budget wedding, she points out that, “At most weddings, the photographer ends up owning the timeline. They need to capture everything, from early preparations through

digitalphotopro.com March/April 2020 | 51

Nick & Jenn Miller, Wild Oak Films

Samantha Milner Website: sjvideography.com How long have you been in business? Five years.

Website: wildoakfilms.com

How long have you been shooting weddings? I've been shooting weddings for five years; however, I didn't go full-time until three years ago.

How long have you been in business? We’ve been in business and shooting weddings as a husband-and-wife team since 2012 and our full-time job since the summer of 2017.

Where are you based and what percentage of your business is local/regional vs. destination-oriented? I'm based out of San Diego. Around 90 percent of my business is local or regional.

Where are you based and how much of your business is local/ regional vs. destination-oriented? We are based in Wichita, Kansas, with 75 percent of our weddings being local (Kansas).

We travel out of state for five to seven weddings a year.

Have you always worked with video and film, or did you ever shoot still images? I started out with an interest in photography when I took a few classes in college, and from there I gravitated towards video. I love the ability to capture motion in real time. In my eyes, it’s more powerful than photography.

What three words best describe your shooting style: Playful, dreamy, candid.

What gear do you use?

Camera/Lenses: Panasonic GH5, Sony 18-35mm, Panasonic 12-35mm, Panasonic 42.5mm, Panasonic 35-100mm.

Lens Adapter: Metabones Speed Booster.

Lighting: Genaray LED-6500T on-camera light.

Stabilization: Manfrotto tripod for one angle during the ceremony and occasionally a Manfrotto monopod, otherwise, handheld.

Audio: Tascam DR-40X, Tascam DR-10L.

statistics from the wedding registry vendor Zola. “They published a big survey of wedding couples in 2018,” says Silver, “finding that the biggest regret couples had about their wedding was not hiring a videographer.

This is an extremely powerful statistic,” she adds. “And it reveals two things: One, there’s still room for wedding films to grow in the industry. Two, although not everybody is hiring a filmmaker today, it’s the No. 52 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com

Have you always worked with video and film, or did/do you also shoot still images? I have always done video. Previously, Jenn did photography, but after she got pregnant with our second child, she decided to step away from photo and join me in the video world full time.

What three words best describe your shooting style: Raw, emotional, authentic.

What gear do you use?

Camera/Lenses: Canon EOS C100 Mark II and 35L, 50L and two 70-200L lenses (one is a version ii, one is a version iii).

Lighting: Kinotehnik Practilite 602s (they’re the best for reception lighting).

Stabilization: DJI Ronin-S, Manfrotto tripods, monopods and light stands.

Audio: Tascam DR-10Ls lav mics and Countryman B3 Omni Lavalier mics for our grooms and brides.

1 regret of the people who don’t.”

It’s All About Social Networks In the past few years, Silver has become a popular industry speaker, focusing on the importance of social media within the wedding market.

She’s constantly urging filmmakers to post their videos to social media and to tag all the people and locations involved. “Then make them aware of it by email or Instagram DM because

you’ve just made a commercial they’ll want to share,” Silver explains. “Weddings are a very unique category where the sharing is built in.”

This facility for tagging venues and vendors who worked on a wedding, and the widespread sharing of such artfully showcased products among both industry professionals and prospective brides and grooms, is the very premise of Love Stories TV’s business model.

“That’s how you get discovered on our

From “Ash & Mark” by Samantha Milner

From “Darin & Abigail” by Nick & Jenn Miller

platform,” Silver explains.

Yet, when it comes to understanding all the nuances involved in this type of marketing effort, Silver notes, “Filmmakers and other types of wedding vendors get into their chosen work because they’re artists, not because they’re a marketer. So, tasks like social networking have to be learned.”

For example, horizontal videos don’t perform as well on social media, notes Silver. “So, shooting for a vertical crop

increased visibility for a monthly fee ($75 or $125) through top placement on the site’s navigation bar and regular promotions or feature placements on the website and social channels.

As the interest in wedding films grows, Silver asserts, “We think what we’re doing really helps wedding videographers and other vendors to create social content to market their businesses, and this gives them a leg up in a competitive marketplace.”

DPP

is important.” Another thing to consider is the fact that you need to grab people’s attention in the first second.

The little teaser that’s destined for social sites needs to be tailored to that.

Given the success of Love Stories TV’s basic mission to help filmmakers and other wedding vendors freely market their services, in 2018 the company boosted its marketing muscle by rolling out a dual-level subscription program called the Love Club: Members receive

digitalphotopro.com March/April 2020 | 53

What Makes

By Daniel Brockett

A WeddingCinematic?

Video T

he more time you spend in the vid-

eography or cinematography business, the more likely you are to see the word “cinematic” or “cinematic video.” For example, you’ll find it on countless wedding video websites. But it’s a slippery term since it can have different meanings to different people.

Some could define it as video that has the appearance of the type of film you’d see in a movie theater. But now that there are so many types of films using all sorts of equipment, from high-end gear to cellphone cameras, it’s getting even harder to pin down a definition.

So, instead of trying to construct a definition, I ask two accomplished wedding videographers, Doug Block and Abe Halpert, what “cinematic 54 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com

wedding video” means to them.

But first how do wedding videos differ from wedding photographs.

For example, while photographs capture a short segment of time and are a single-dimensional representations of the wedding day, wedding videos capture much longer spans of that same day.

Video also has a more diverse media palette: For instance, you can use movement, changing lighting, music, sound effects, dialogue and more to bring much greater depth to the memory of the couple’s wedding day. However, while videographers have more media to choose from, it can be challenging to produce a successful film that captures the special day.

Two accomplished wedding videographers weigh in on what’s cinematic in wedding videos So, it’s up to the wedding videographer to effectively tell that story. What’s more challenging is that often the videographer is alone. However, sometimes he or she has the assistance of a few crew members and occasionally a whole team of support crew.

But no matter how large or small the crew, it’s an extraordinary responsibility videographers have.

With that said, let’s turn to two wedding video masters and how they’ve chosen to make their work cinematic.

Above: Successful cinematic wedding videos capture emotionally charged moments by being in the right place at the right time.

Photo by Doug Block.

Doug Block’s Documentary Approach To Cinematic Weddings Doug Block is an established documentary filmmaker who also happens to shoot wedding videos, a fact I discovered while researching this story.

What’s intriguing to note is that in terms of style, Doug is somewhat of an anomaly. For instance, when compared to other wedding videographers who are moving to bigger, fancier and more extensive productions that require more gear, Block prefers to use a more minimalist approach to production and gear. (I’ll focus more on that later in this article.)

As a filmmaker, Block has some notable documentaries to his credit, including the feature documentary “112 Weddings,” which he produced (in partnership with HBO) and directed in 2014. It was popular and was even shown in theaters and broadcast around the world.

In “112 Weddings,” Block revisits 10 of his favorite wedding couples to see how their marriages are faring. It ranges from the first couple he filmed 20 years before (who were filing for divorce) to a

it…while going through one of the most important days of their lives together.

“And pay me handsomely to do so,” Block adds. “I do weddings to support my documentary habit, but through the years, I’ve never tired of shooting them or become jaded. I still find it thrilling.”

more recent couple, who were married five years. The film runs the gamut of experiences and can be both hilarious and heartbreaking. (Take a look at the trailer at dogwoof.com/112weddings.)

When asked about how he began in documentaries and how his work evolved to include wedding videos, Block says, “It all began 25 years ago, when I went to a friend’s wedding and saw how incredibly lame the wedding videographer was. He ruined the atmosphere with his bright camera light and basically stood around flat-footed, zooming in and out. I wondered to myself why weddings couldn’t be shot cinéma véritéstyle, like my documentary work. And it’s as if the universe heard me. Within a month, someone called me out of the blue asking for a recommendation for someone to shoot a friend’s wedding.”

Block told the caller that he’d be happy to shoot the wedding.

“As a documentary filmmaker,” Block says, “what we want most of all is access to our subjects.” But Block wasn’t only surprised that he could get very close to the happy couple (“within feet of a couple”) but also that they’d welcome

Block’s Approach To The Wedding Event…And To Gear Block continues, “To me, what makes a video cinematic is less about fancy gear and more about using the language of cinema to tell the story of the wedding day. That means long shots, medium shots, close-ups and knowing how and when to use them. It’s following the look of the bride’s face when she sees her father for the first time in her dress and then zooming in ever so slowly on his face as his eyes well up. It’s about listening and observing closely and recognizing when those emotional moments are happening. Almost every wedding has a similar story arc, starting with the bride and groom getting dressed and the buildup of tension as it gets closer and closer to when they walk down the aisle, and then the release of tension and

Documentary filmmaker Doug Block at work capturing an intimate moment. Photo

by Doug Block.

digitalphotopro.com March/April 2020 | 55

celebration after the ceremony. I use the real sounds to tell the story. No added music (there’s plenty at a wedding), no slow motion, no effects. It’s not needed.

“I work solo because I shoot my documentary features that way, so I know how to do that, and I believe in calling as little attention to myself as 56 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com

possible. The cameras have changed over the years—my first few years were with a Hi8 camcorder, if you remember those. And now I’m using a Panasonic DVX200 with a Sennheiser mic on the camera (I’d never, ever put a wireless mic on the bride’s dress!). And other than the toasts, which can go on

Top: Block values getting in close with his camera, as if it’s almost a participant in the ceremony. It’s one of the ways he achieves a cinwéma vérité-approach to his cinematic wedding videos. Photo by Doug Block.

Bottom: Block uses the exact same production approach in weddings as he does in documentaries. Photo by Doug Block.

forever, I shoot entirely handheld and don’t believe in gimbals, steadicams, jibs, drones or anything like that. I firmly believe weddings are about the bride and groom and not about a video production.

“Now that cameras have gotten smaller and half the guests shoot on their iPhones, I like everyone to think I’m just another guest at the wedding. I’m very careful to position myself so that I get the right angle but without obstructing the view of the guests. During the ceremony, unless it’s in a big church, I try to always stand just behind and to the side of the officiant so that I see the faces of the bride and groom as well as all the guests behind them. As I said, it’s all about capturing the emotion.”

Block’s Business Plan And Advice For Young Videographers How does Block find his clients and projects?

“It’s helped enormously that my documentary feature films have won wide distribution, critical acclaim and a lot of high-end awards. So I have that credibility to fall back on. In the early days, I’d put one ad in New York Bride and wait for the calls to come. Over the years, however, I’ve gotten most of my weddings through recommendations by the photographers. They like working with me because I don’t get in their way and ruin their shots with my lights.”

With rare exceptions, Block says the only light he uses is one he can bounce over the dance floor to bring up the level. But he uses “as soft and low light as possible,” he says.

“I’ve done destination weddings, but most of my weddings are in the New York tri-state area.”

And for those starting out in the wedding videography world, what advice does Block have for them?

“I’d just say don’t get carried away by the gadgets, bells and whistles. In my experience, most wedding couples want something that conveys the emotion and experience of this incredibly happy and dramatic day that goes by like a dream for them. Pay attention.

Listen. Be aware of where you are at all times. Be on the lookout always for those small, telling moments that capture the emotion of the day. And move around in the crowd and convey the feel of being there.”

Wedding videographer Abe Halpert strives to capture the emotion and dream-like state of the wedding day as an important selling feature to new potential clients.

Photo by Abe Halpert.

theory, history and production courses.

After assisting in the edit room at Break-Thru Films in New York, Halpert decided to pursue freelance work, spending a few years working in a wide range of genres, including documentary, narrative short films, music videos, industrials, commercials, events, live broadcast events, concerts and corporate films. But ultimately he arrived at producing wedding videos in 2014.

Like with documentaries, though, this genre presents challenges. For example, when asked what’s the biggest challenge that he faces in shooting cinematic wedding videos, Halpert says, “The biggest challenge is the same challenge for all documentary films: things happen fast, and they only happen once. Another obstacle can be working around the photographer, who can often get in the way of your framing or occupy the vantage point that will capture the symmetry of the background. But honestly, I don’t find it difficult to create cinematic-looking wedding videos now that I’ve shot over 100 [of them]. I have a strong idea of what’s going to happen throughout the day, of how to communicate with the photographer and of what shots I need

Abe Halpert’s Different Approach To Wedding Videography Wedding videographer Abe Halpert has followed a different path in his journey toward becoming a cinematic wedding video creator. He knew he wanted to study film in college but wanted to focus on learning theory and history instead of taking production courses.

So he attended Brown University and majored in art-semiotics, a mix of

digitalphotopro.com March/April 2020 | 57

Top: Some wedding videographers now utilize shots using drones to capture a more epic, sweeping view of the location where the ceremony will take place.

Photo by Abe Halpert.

Bottom: Halpert at work with a singlehanded gimbal to capture the movement in his productions. Photo by Abe Halpert.

to complete the edit.

Landing the Gig And Advice For UpAnd-Coming Videographers How does Halpert land most of his wedding work?

“Most of the weddings I shoot are as a freelancer hired by a wedding video or photography company,” says Halpert. “Taking on work from established companies is what has enabled me to go from shooting my first wedding in 2014 to shooting 40 or 50 weddings annually in the space of just a few years. There are five companies that I currently receive bookings from. I also contract directly with the couples themselves (and will edit the videos as well in those cases).”

He connects with couples via Craigslist, through referrals from other couples 58 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com

he’s shot or through referrals from the companies he’s worked for when they can’t take on the client themselves.

“I mostly shoot locally because there’s so much happening in the metro New York area,” he says. “I’ve never done a destination wedding, though I’m open to the possibility.”

What advice does Halpert offer to new and up-and-coming wedding videographers who are trying to up their game and land bigger-budget wedding video clients?

“Take your work seriously,” he says, “preparing for the shoot by making sure you arrive with adequate time to set up. Treating your clients professionally and communicating with them is crucial. Pushing yourself to do better is also crucial. I’m a very harsh critic of

my own work. I’ve never walked away from a shoot thinking that I did the best possible job that I could have done.

I’m lucky if I walk away and feel like I grabbed a handful of shots that I consider perfectly executed and outstandingly beautiful that I can hang my hat on. (Although other people with lower or more open standards might consider most of the shots I took that day to be good.) And I take all that self-criticism and learn from it for my next shoot.”

He also says that he never tells himself that he doesn’t need to do his best work because he’s “just shooting a wedding and not a Hollywood feature film.”

Instead, he says, he realizes that while working on any project, he’s continually learning.

“I'm constantly trying to learn from what I’m shooting and to try new things,” Halpert says “and new shot possibilities and camera movements that might be captivatingly beautiful in their own right but which also might teach me something new about cinematography that I can apply to a different situation.”

Top: Halpert strives to capture all of the details and nuances about the location of the ceremony, including the shot used for the title card. Photo by Abe Halpert.

Bottom: People spend considerable money on the smallest details of weddings. Capturing these can be very important to your clients.

Photo by Abe Halpert.

What Sticks With You? I asked Halpert if there was a particular wedding that was special to him.

“I loved working on the wedding film for a couple named Steve and Diane in 2018,” he says. “They were really friendly, and I enjoyed collaborating with them. Their wedding was set in a beautiful, rustic location in the Catskills. My second shooter and I captured a lot of great shots throughout the day, such that it was hard to pare down the selections in the editing process.

I felt like I captured one of the most perfectly framed shots I’ve ever taken that I used for the opening title shot (a landscape pan of the farmhouse at the venue as seen across the pond, under a blue sky with beautiful clouds).”

He said he also captured some nice drone shots of the Chinese lanterns being released into the sky at the end of the night, as well as a tripod shot of the lanterns disappearing into the night sky and blending in with the stars.

“To me, the flight of the lanterns and the shots I captured of it evoked a sense of fatalism,” says Halpert, poetically, “and of…time passing into eternity, as if the lanterns were the couple themselves and releasing them into the night sky an admission of their inevitable mortality and an expression of the hope that the rest of their lives would unfold together from that night until death does them part.”

specific gear. Block’s videos are a perfect case in point: His minimal approach still results in moving, epic stories.

For me, cinematic wedding video simply means that the videographer utilizes traditional storytelling effectively and concisely and produces content for their clients that tells the story of their special day in an emotionally true way that feels authentic, heartfelt and inspiring. A cinematic video can utilize drones, sliders, gimbals and other camera movement as techniques for elevating how eye catching the visuals appear, but all of those techniques are wasted if the story isn’t captured well.

Cinematic Is In The Eye of the Creator

The best wedding videos are the ones where the camera seems to become a participant in the preparation, ceremony and celebration. Good sound is very important, as is great storytelling.

Utilizing these basic elements well is essential in your own journey in growing your business and making more cinematic wedding videos for your clients.

DPP You can see more of Abe Halpert’s work at his website, AbeHalpert.com, and at the following link: vimeo.com/374827169/ d84ce12406. For more on Doug Block, go to dougblock.com/weddings.

KIT OPTIONS AVAILABLE

So, what’s a cinematic wedding video?

It’s a notion that’s hard to nail down.

In fact, you might say that the constant thread that runs through the production of many cinematic wedding videos doesn’t seem tied to one specific technique and doesn’t rely on utilizing

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The NTG5 shotgun microphone, with the included shock mount, works great for handheld sound effects and ambient recording.

Audio Assist: RØDE NTG5 Shotgun Microphone Find out if this new pro-level shotgun mic is a great value By Dan Brockett

These days, choosing the right shotgun microphone for your audio kit can be a tricky thing. That’s because there are so many interesting and diverse models from many manufacturers, all of them vying for your money in exchange for highquality sound. But it’s also because selecting a microphone can be a personal matter as well. It’s why you should never buy one without actually listening to it and trying it out.

Of course, if you’ve been in the world of “sound for pictures” for any time at all, you already know that there are many renowned shotgun microphones from well-known brands, including Sennheiser, Sanken, Audio-Technica, AKG and Beyerdynamic, just to name a few. And they’ve been at it for years. In short, it’s a competitive field.

But another brand, RØDE, has recently been working hard to set itself apart from the competition. In fact, RØDE’s latest microphone, the NTG5, which I’ve been using in the field for a few months, is an excellent example of just how RØDE plans to break out from this crowded and competitive field.

A New Direction For RØDE? The RØDE NTG5 mic appears to signal a new direction for RØDE in that it seems designed very much for the working professional, location-sound mixers and boom operators.

But the NTG5 isn’t the first higher-end pro shotgun from RØDE. In fact, it has made several other models aimed at 60 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com

Instead of using traditional slits in the side of the tube, RØDE has gone with circular cut-outs, citing improved sound characteristics.

working sound pros, including the relatively inexpensive NTG1 shotgun, which has low handling noise (meaning you can move the mic around without generating much noise) and deals with high sound pressure levels without distorting. (The NTG2 is similar but adds an internal battery for phantom power.)

The NTG3 RF-Bias Shotgun Microphone is moisture resistant, has low self-noise and is resistant to RF. It’s a true condenser (external RF biased) and is considered a super cardioid. There’s also the NTG4 Directional Condenser Microphone, with a switchable treble boost, -10dB pad and also has low handling noise. (The NTG4+ Directional Condenser adds a built-in rechargeable battery to the NTG4.)

So where does the new NTG5 fit into the product line and did RØDE actually need another shotgun in the lineup?

You’ll find some of these answers on RØDE’s website. For example, the site states the NTG5 is built “on the ground-breaking technology of the NTG3…with a focus on making it the ideal location-recording microphone.

It’s much shorter and lighter than the NTG3, which makes it easier to handle on a boom pole.” The site also notes, “It also features…natural and uncolored sound and it has a less pronounced lowend response than the NTG3…lower self-noise than the NTG3 (10dBA vs 13dBA).” Plus, it “excels as a location recording mic.”

An Impressive Kit For Less But there are other factors that make this an interesting shotgun mic: competition, pricing and the importance of new technology.

The industry-standard Sennheiser MKH 416 shotgun microphone retails for $999. And the existing RØDE NTG3 goes for $699, which is $300 less.

But the NTG5 retails for $499, which is half the price of the Sennheiser and $200 cheaper than the NTG3. Those are big pluses.

The NTG5’s included mic mount is excellent and includes cable integration to keep things tidy.

warranty (extendable to 10 years).

But the real test of any audio gear is how it performs in the field.

Also, the NTG5 has newer technology than both the NTG3 and the industry-standard but old MKH 416.

And it’s lighter than both the NTG3 and MKH 416. That’s important to boom operators and one-man bands.

Lastly, the NTG5 retails as a kit, which, aside from the mic, includes some impressive accessories: a pistol grip shock mount, a pro cable for RØDE shock mounts, a stand mount, a furry windshield, a foam Windscreen, a RØDE zip pouch and a limited one-year

Hands-On With The NTG5 Short Shotgun Mic When reviewing mics, I’m generally concerned with how a model objectively sounds to my ears, using my recording device, recording in environments that I’ve chosen and that I’m familiar with. And because I’ve owned and rented enough shotgun and cardioid

digitalphotopro.com March/April 2020 | 61

The RØDE NTG5’s included foam windscreen works well for interiors where HVAC or open doors or windows can cause air movement.

The NTG5 kit also includes a furry windshield for shooting exteriors.

microphones, I can quickly recognize if I like the sound of a given microphone pretty quickly.

What am I looking for? The quality I value most is transparency, meaning that the microphone itself acts as a faithful transducer of the sound it records.

That’s because many microphones add 62 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com

or subtract elements of the sound they record, which is often referred to as “coloration.” These mics change the sound considerably from the sound that actually occurs, which appeals to some. But for location sound mixing, I like to walk away with a recording that sounds like what actually happened. (I can always

enhance and polish that sound in post.)

While testing the NTG5, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the first time I plugged the NTG5 into my Sound Devices MixPre-3 and dialed in the gain, I was struck by the openness and neutral tonality I was hearing in the headphones. The sound of the NTG5 wasn’t harsh and didn’t seem to have an overly large amount of presence, which is another good indication of good off-axis rejection. But the NTG5, true to what RØDE claimed, didn’t present the low-end frequencies as overly emphasized, either.

I also did a quick test comparing the headphone audio to what was occurring in the real world: I lifted my headphones just a bit so my ears could hear both the recording through the headphones and the sound of the live event happening in front of me. The two sounds seemed to be pretty close to each other, which is something I like to hear.

Next, I used the NTG5 for a few video interviews on a shoot for a local community interface client. I ran the NTG5 into the Sound Devices MixPre-3 as well as the XLRs directly into camera, a Blackmagic Design URSA Mini Pro G2. These were video interviews shot outdoors in a local park, early in the morning before the noise from lawnmowers and leaf blowers would make our shoot too frustrating.

As any good shotgun microphone should, the off axis “less than desirable” freeway noise from a distant overpass didn’t overly intrude. I could hear every detail I wanted in the talent’s breathing and voice without the sound becoming strident or harsh. Once again, the NTG5 rendered the sound of the talent’s voice pretty much as I heard it live when I’d lift my headphones off to compare.

Overall, the NTG5’s sound for voices was pleasant and neutral. Other microphones I’ve tested over the years often have a tendency to color the sound, which can be an artistic choice. But I try to record voices as realistically as

I hear them. It’s why I value neutralsounding microphones—while it’s easy to tweak a voice in post, it’s more difficult to change an affected sound back into more neutral tone.

Additionally, I used the NTG5 to record some sound effects for a current editing project: I took our Sound Devices MixPre-3 and the NTG5 to a local hiking area to record some ambient sounds of a local creek. Specifically, I captured the sounds of water running over rocks, like a small brook or creek, which I needed for an edit I’ve been working on for the past few weeks. To do this, I mounted the NTG5 on its pistol grip mount for handheld recording. (It can also easily mount onto boom poles.) I also affixed the RØDE furry windshield in case there was a breeze during my recording session.

The results? The audio captured with the NTG5 of the creek was excellent.

Even the furry windshield included in the kit was definitely the right accessory choice for the NTG5 that day since it was a little breezy when I went to record. The windshield mitigated any low-frequency wind buffeting.

The RØDE NTG5 Microphone: A Great Value When it comes to gear—from audio to cameras to accessories—you might think paying top dollar is the way to ensure the best quality. If you simply buy the most expensive microphone— for, say, a few thousand dollars—you’ll end up with a well-built mic that produces extraordinary sound. Right?

Well, it’s not that simple, particularly with mics. That’s because, unlike with other tech gear, there are too many variables when choosing a microphone that make it a very personal process. It’s why I believe there simply isn’t a single, best, most expensive, all-around shotgun microphone in the sub-$1,000 market.

With that said, I’ll also say there’s a lot to like about the NTG5: For instance, one nice thing about the NTG5 is that it punches way above its cost, especially

when you count the cost of its included accessory kit.

As I also mentioned, the audio I recorded with the NTG5 has a neutral, fairly transparent quality, and as far as handling, the mic is lightweight, which you’ll love when hand-booming with it.

Plus, it’s weatherproof. So, you can use it in almost any shooting situation.

RØDE also has a manufacturing process that’s innovative and that has given the NTG5 a sound and quality that makes it look and feel like a superbly designed premium product. It’s why I strongly recommend the NTG5 be on your list of microphones to consider if you’re looking for a sub-$1,000, highquality shotgun microphone.

Nevertheless, it’s important to note that I wouldn’t say the NTG5 sounds “better” than some of its competitors— and these days, the field is fully loaded with candidates. The reason I can’t say “better” is that microphone choice is very subjective, and you should listen with your own ears to draw your own conclusions. For some, the NTG5 may be too neutral and not color the sound in a way that you prefer.

But based on my experience with it, the NTG5 should be included in your evaluation process since, for the price, the NTG5 is a superb value.

DPP

Versatile: On a recent shoot, I wasn’t able to get access to the venue’s PA system.

So, I attached the NTG5 to my boom pole and recorded the audio via the venue’s JBL in-ceiling PA speaker. It wasn’t an ideal situation, but the results were totally usable.

LookingForward

The State-Of-The-Art Video Issue

Text and Photography By Terry Sullivan

Earlier in this issue, online video pioneer Rachel Jo Silver, founder and CEO of the media company Love Stories TV, stated that YouTube is the world’s second-biggest search engine. And she said, “Four out of five millennials search for a video on a product before they purchase it.” Her point in the article is that video creation will continue to grow in importance in the wedding photography and videography market.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. In short, video is going to mushroom in 2020. Check out some of the following data points, which speak to why we’re excited about our next issue, the State-Of-The-Art Video Issue.

Here’s why video will be even more essential in 2020 and beyond: • According to Wyzowl’s 2020 State of Video Marketing Survey, 85 percent of businesses use video as a marketing tool…and 92 percent of marketers who use video say that it’s an important part of their marketing strategy.

• In that same survey, of the people who don’t currently use video, 59 percent said they expect to start in 2020!

64 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com

• Even the competitive field of documentary filmmaking is seeing hope for new opportunities. In The State of the Documentary Field: 2018 Survey of Documentary Professionals, which was created by the Center for Media & Social Impact, almost half of documentary professionals believe there are more opportunities for documentary makers now compared to the last two years.

• And opportunities for women filmmakers continue to grow (although perhaps not as quickly as we’d like to see): For instance, according to a study from San Diego State University, women filmmakers in key roles behind the camera saw an increase in employment in 2019. The study noted that 20 percent of directors, writers, producers, editors and cinematographers from the top 100 films in 2019 were women, up 4 percent from 2018.

So we’re excited for this upcoming State-OfThe-Art Video Issue and what it will mean for content creators in the next year, as well as in the coming decades.

DPP

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