Why good audio is more important than video during your wedding day
I decided to write this post because I realized that there are so many wedding videographers that don't record quality audio. Professional wedding videographers record quality audio, amateurs don't! Amateur videographers generally focus on the visuals. For sound, many of those videographers rely only on the audio coming thru the onboard mic of the camera. So many of them don't use lavalier mics and don't use redundancy.
My number one pet peeve and mistake that I see in so many wedding videos is terrible sound, especially during the vows and toasts. I understand that when a couple is looking for a videographer, sound or audio quality isn't usually something every couple thinks about, however, the quality of sound in your video is probably more important than the picture quality of the video itself.
Professional wedding videographers record quality audio, amateurs don't!
Most of us can tolerate some video issues, but when it comes to the audio, bad sound is just unacceptable. While watching television, how many times have you gotten up to go to the kitchen or the bathroom, but it's okay because you can still hear what is going on.
Consider these two scenarios:
You're watching your favorite reality tv show and the camera has some shake in it, or maybe there is an awkward zoom. Heck, maybe it's a movie you really want to see but you have to stream it or watch it at a low resolution.
You're watching your favorite reality tv show and at certain points the sound is really hard to understand, is staticky, or just cuts out.
Neither of these situations are ideal, but it can be intolerable when the sound is bad. Of course video quality is important, and that's why you decided to hire a videographer, but having good quality audio of your vows and/or toasts can make a bad video not be as bad, but if you have the most beautiful video made of your special day and the sound is terrible, the video can be unbearable.
If you are a bride or groom researching someone to take shoot video of your wedding, make sure you are asking how they are capturing sound. If someone tells you they only use the onboard mic on the camera itself, walk away. Is someone tells you they don't need to use a lapel mic or some other way to get high quality sound, move on to the next potential videographer.
Sometimes couples are trying to just find a low cost option and that's understandable considering everything that has been going on, but cheaper isn't always better when it comes to a day that happens once in a lifetime. Hire someone that knows what they are doing, someone with experience...someone that can capture solid audio of your vows.
If someone tells you they will just plug into the DJ system, that's fine, especially during the reception, but for the ceremony, make sure they have the ability to mic you.
During the toasts, it can be hard to mic the toasters, but usually plugging into the DJ setup is the best way to get quality sound, but you still need to have redundancy. I've run into cases where there was no DJ, the mic cuts in-and-out or there were other audio issues. But for my videos, it never mattered because I had backup audio sources. I make sure to always use at least two lavalier mics even when there is a DJ. This has helped me avoid many issues and the quality of my sound is usually always better.
I went to school for television production so the importance of audio just seems like common sense to me. You can't rely on onboard mics and hope for the best. You shouldn't even rely on one good mic, you need several for different situations and redundancy. Hopefully this can help some couples figure out who will work best for them.
I'm always open to questions and constructive criticism, so don't hesitate to leave a comment below
