Why you should get a wedding video: the sound quality

Recording the audio from your wedding day gives you the chance to relive it in full, and to hear your loved ones’ voices.

 

Let me just start off by saying how fantastic photographs are.

The photos we got back from our wedding were absolutely stunning, and we’ve properly plastered the house with them (well, my parents did – they hid fifty photos around our house for us to find when we got back from our honeymoon!).

But there’s something that you miss from the photos alone if you don’t hire a wedding videographer.

 

The sound sets a wedding video apart

 

One of the things you don’t get from photos is sound. And honestly, this is why I can’t comprehend why some videographers make wedding highlights videos without using audio from the day.

My favourite moments from wedding days are often related to the vows or speeches. Ryan and Laura had a gorgeous Lake District wedding when they tied the knot at the Swan Hotel in Newby Bridge. Ryan got choked up trying to say ‘to be my wedded wife’, and it’s one of the most emotional moments from the day. But if I hadn’t mic’d him up, you wouldn’t know why he was laughing, or why they needed to have another go at the speeches.

 

 

And these are the little moments that you often need help remembering, because the whole day goes by so quickly. It was only when watching the footage back from my own wedding that I remembered my wife hadn’t been able to say ‘I do’, she’d just nodded and said ‘yeah’. This was such a personal moment from our day, but without video I’d already forgotten it after a month.

That’s why I put little lapel microphones on the wedding couple; the person leading the service; and anyone doing readings or speeches.

These microphones are tiny: you’ll forget you’ve got them on (I have to remind people to take them off if they’re going for a last minute nervous wee!), and you’d have to squint to see them in the photos.

But the sound quality you get from them is top notch; they’re TV quality microphones. You’ll hear everything: from the hitch in your breath during the vows; to the mutter of ‘thank god that’s over’ once your best mate has finished murdering you in their speech. 

 

The sound quality difference between phones and professional microphones

 

Sometimes couples will ask me what the difference is between a professional videographer like myself filming the wedding, compared to a relative with the latest phone.

After all, the newest phones can record 4K with ease, which matches my camera (although I could write a whole other blog about why resolution isn’t everything). 

But with a phone, the one thing you won’t be able to capture well is the audio.

Microphones work by proximity. They’re directional, and pick up the best sound quality when they’re right next to what you want them to record.

That’s why I clip the microphone onto the chest / lapel of the person speaking. I want to capture their voice, and the sound is recorded on a separate device to the camera (I actually rarely use the sound my camera records).

Phone microphones however are attached to the device you’re filming the video on, which means that if you get beautiful framing of the couple, you’re probably too far away to get good audio.

Plus, the video quality on phones is great, but the audio quality has really lagged behind. It’s quite tinny, and you’re much more likely to capture the sound of the room air conditioning or a baby crying than you are to hear the vows.

And audio is one of those things that you can’t do much to by editing it. If you didn’t capture it right at the time, it’s kind of gone.

If you want to remember your wedding day in perfect clarity, and hear the emotion in everyone’s voices, your only bet is to hire a professional wedding videographer.