There are a lot of great reasons to incorporate videography into your wedding photography business.
As a husband and wife photography team that has been photographing weddings since 2011, we’re always looking for ways to expand our business without compromising quality.
Even though many people have big wedding photography budgets, as business owners we want to add value to our offerings rather than just raising prices.
And, at some point, raising prices would result in pricing ourselves out of the market.
In this article, I’ll share some of the reasons that we decided to add videography to our wedding photography business.
I’ll share some behind-the-scenes results of that decision as well as some of the benefits and challenges.
Why We Decided to Incorporate Videography into Our Wedding Photography Business
There are two main reasons to consider incorporating videography into your wedding photography business, but I’ll share a few more than that in the article below.
Initially, one of the reasons we wanted to add a video option was that we photographed weddings alongside videographers who took a very different approach than we did, which negatively impacted our clients’ experience and our images.
If you’ve worked with various videographers, you know that some are great to work with, while others are the most challenging part of your day.
Working with Other Videographers
As more of our clients started wanting videography, we found ourselves working with more and more videographers who had a different style to us.
What I mean is that while I was trying to photo-journalistically capture intimate moments between a bride and her mom, the videographer would interrupt them and direct them to do something phony.
Or, have you been to a wedding where the videography team involves four people and six cameras, and they don’t stop moving around?
First, we tried to communicate to our couples the importance of hiring videographers who complemented our wedding photography style, but that’s not a fail-proof technique.
All the wedding vendors for any particular wedding should, in theory, be on the same team with the same goal.
But I hate to admit that’s not always the case.
Increasing Our Profits
Meanwhile, we had some friends that were a husband and wife team like us and we saw how nice it was that they were a team.
Instead of interfering with each other, they supported and helped each other.
Not to mention, they were able to charge a lot more because they were offering a lot more value to their clients.
Those experiences are what led us to eventually add videography options to our photography packages.
How Much Do You REALLY Know About Photography?! 🤔
Test your photography knowledge with this quick quiz!
See how much you really know about photography…
Well, that and the fact that during Covid, many of our couples needed videography so that they could share their wedding day with friends and family, and with more intimate weddings, they didn’t necessarily need two photographers, which freed one of us up to shoot video.
We quickly realized that we could make significantly more in a weekend if we offered photo/video packages.
It became another way to increase the profitability of our business and guide clients towards bigger packages.
A photo/video package has more value for our clients and more wedding weekend profits for us.
You can hear more about our journey in the video below or read on as I’ll dive into some more ways that adding video to your packages can better your life and your business.
Reasons to Incorporate Videography into Your Wedding Photography Business
I already introduced some of these reasons to consider adding videography to your wedding business in the section above.
Let’s dive deeper into the benefits, including how we can meet the evolving needs of our clients, deliver a cohesive media package, increase our profits, and expand our skills.
Pay attention to what aspects entice you and which ones make you nervous.
Being attuned to your reactions will help you determine what would actually be the hardest and easiest aspects for you and your business.
Meeting Clients’ Evolving Needs
As I mentioned above, during Covid many of our couples wanted wedding videography to help share their wedding day with their friends and family who couldn’t be present.
But even without a global pandemic impacting the industry, many couples want both photos and videos from their wedding day.
I’m not sure if it’s how we see the world these days or if it’s just the clients we come across, but as a business, it’s great to be able to adapt and serve our clients better.
Especially with smaller or more intimate weddings, video is a great way to meet changing trends in wedding photography.
We can now provide multimedia storytelling for immersive wedding coverage that combines still imagery and cinematic films.
After all, some aspects of the wedding day are hard to capture in photographs alone, such as the exact words said in a speech or the exact moves from a choreographed first dance.
With our Sony camera system, we didn’t even need that much more gear to start offering photo and video packages that helped us meet our clients’ needs better.
In fact, we were already shooting some videos for commercial clients, which helped us step into the role more gently.
For us, we saw a demand and realized it was one that we could serve.
It was clear that our clients wanted it, we were capable of it, and it would be good for business.
As you’ll see when we talk about profits, being able to add value for our clients benefits both them and us.
As I always say, serving our clients well serves us well.
Teamwork and Cohesive Deliverables
As a husband and wife team, it’s easier for us to add videography than it might be if you are a solo photographer. Howeer, it’s still worth considering incorporating videography into your business.
Sure, your clients can always hire a different company to shoot video, but as I mentioned in my intro about our transition to offering photo and video, there are downsides to bringing in another business.
Instead of focusing on the negative, which I did prior to us offering videography, I’ll focus on the benefits we’ve seen since we started offering it.
Since we are literally on the same team, we have a vested interest in making sure the photo and video are both as good as they can be.
Sometimes, I’ll sacrifice the perfect photo because I know that a particular moment is more important to have on video or vice versa.
It’s about working together to decide the best way to do both rather than competing in a way that negatively impacts each other.
Coming from a two-photographer system, we had to adapt, knowing that often only one of us is capturing a certain moment.
With over a decade of experience shooting weddings, both of us are comfortable shooting a wedding alone, so while having two photographers is awesome, it’s not always necessary.
The way we personally shoot is to divide things based on the needs of the couple, but we’re both capable of shooting photos and videos, so sometimes I capture both of a certain moment that would have otherwise been missed because we’re not both in the same room.
Talk about teamwork; no other videographer has a photographer grabbing a clip of a key moment for them.
Additionally, I love it when I get to deliver a cohesive multimedia package.
As a storyteller, it’s really fun to give my clients their photos and video, knowing that they complement each other in a similar style.
And as a client, it’s convenient not to have to hire two businesses but to be able to get photos and videos from one business.
Increasing Your Profits by Expanding Your Offerings
Diversifying our service offerings allows us to attract a wider range of clients, set ourselves apart from competitors, and book bigger wedding day packages.
Especially in a place like Colorado, where I’m based, the wedding season is short, and therefore, if a significant amount of our income comes from wedding photography, I have a limited window of time in which to make that money.
As a husband and wife team, we could theoretically increase our income by splitting up and shooting two weddings in one weekend.
But I’d rather make the same amount of money from one client rather than two.
Sure, there is more post-production work required and more expenses but it saves us in client acquisition.
Expanding Your Skills
Another advantage to adding videography to your services is expanding your skills.
Weddings can start to get repetitive and be less of a challenge than they were ten years ago.
However, adding videography opened up a whole new avenue for creativity and storytelling.
We love planning and coordinating logistics for the best way to shoot dual coverage on a wedding day.
It’s fun to work together to plan how to capture both epic portraits and stunning b-roll.
Challenges and Considerations
Of course, it’s not all that easy, so if you’re interested but you have cold feet, let’s address some common concerns.
In this section, we’ll talk about the challenges of expanding your equipment, skills, workflow, and marketing.
This isn’t like adding an album to your wedding package and selling more with the images you already shot.
No, this is adding a whole other service to your packages, which comes with its own set of challenges.
However, if you can find ways to navigate these challenges the potential for increased income and serving your clients better is waiting for you.
Equipment and Skills
Offering videography will require you to invest in video equipment, which can be quite the investment.
Even if you have cameras that are capable of photo and video, you might be interested in special lenses or stabilizers.
Additionally, you need audio equipment.
That doesn’t even take into account the fact that you need to learn how to use all of the equipment.
From there, you’ll need to invest in video editing software and learn how to produce films.
Depending on your business model, you might hire out some of these aspects, which simplifies things a little bit, but it helps to be knowledgeable about the industry so that you can direct your expectations.
Workflow
When you start offering photos and videos, the workflow on the wedding day and during post-production is much more complex.
When we started offering videography we didn’t change our turn-around time and still delivered everything quickly, which at first felt very unrealistic.
Once we streamlined our processes and got better, we were able to be more efficient with our post-production and still offer a quick turnaround – but there was definitely a steep learning curve.
Also, depending on how you decide to structure the wedding day, it can take some planning to decide how to do things.
While one of the advantages is photo and video working as a team, it’s one of the challenges as well.
Instead of photographers worrying about themselves and videographers worrying about themselves, the team has to communicate and work together to achieve the greatest results.
While this is an advantage, it’s definitely a challenge at first and takes some adjusting to.
Marketing
Another challenge is that you need to update your marketing and branding to reflect the changes in your business.
You’ll need to add videography to your portfolio and testimonials that highlight the advantages of offering both.
For years, we marketed ourselves as a husband-and-wife photography team and touted the importance of two experienced photographers.
Now that we offer video, we sell the importance of both photo and video.
However, if someone books a photo/video package, they’re no longer getting two photographers in the same way as before.
Therefore, we’ve had to come up with ways to explain the pros and cons of the different package options in a way that benefits and makes sense to our couples.
This comes down to your marketing and branding, as well as reworking your packages, to ensure that the additional effort you’re putting in properly increases your profits.
Summary of Adding Videography to Your Photography Business
Perhaps you’re intrigued about adding videography to your photo business.
I know that for us it was a way to grow, expand, increase our profits, and our skills.
Adding videography has been a fun way to keep evolving and adapting, which I think is key to battling burnout and increasing creativity.
Whether you decide to introduce videography to your business or this article inspired you to think about other ways to expand and grow, I hope you explore opportunities to increase value to your clients while also increasing your profits.
Wedding photography is constantly evolving, and we can choose to be frustrated by or inspired by it.
While it’s nice to feel comfortable and confident in my work because I’ve done it for so long, change is good.
Let’s be honest: weddings can be fairly predictable and repetitive if we don’t find ways to immerse ourselves in the story.
As storytellers, we don’t need a recipe for delivering the same thing to every client but rather a way to be inspired by each unique story.
Being able to expand our storytelling skills is a blast.
And while I may like shooting photos better than video or editing video more than photos, expanding my skills makes me better.
It makes me better while also offering more to my clients and increasing my profits.
How will you challenge yourself to meet your clients’ needs, increase your profits, or expand your storytelling skillset this year?
