Not Only Our First DSLR Wedding, But First Wedding EVER! Christi + Daniel Highlights
 

Many of you have tried their hand at DSLR weddings, so here's our first DSLR wedding. But not only is it our first DSLR wedding (two Canon 7Ds and one 60D), it is also our very first wedding of any kind...ever!

Huge learning experience for us and we spent way more time than many of you, but we tried our best. The biggest issues we had were being promised certain events would happen, but they just didn't. Like a photoshoot of the bride/groom alone, re-enactment of the ring exchange for closeups, exchanging of letters to one another, and most of all...being let into the bridal prep room to get shots of her putting on dress, etc. We couldn't get any dress on hanger or putting on heels/dress shots because they would not let us in the room.

The song choice they requested was very difficult to work with as well. Definitely not our taste or style.

Anyways, check it out!

Re: Not Only Our First DSLR Wedding, But First Wedding EVER! Christi + Daniel Highlig
 

I think you did a great job! I also think the song does work. It's a happy song and a happy video. However, don't ever use songs that you are not comfortable with. It is after all, your name you are representing. In this case, you got away with it because the song does work.

Re: Not Only Our First DSLR Wedding, But First Wedding EVER! Christi + Daniel Highlig
 

Hey Zhong, for your first wedding I think you've done a really good job! I agree with Michael, the song fits perfectly with the footages. Its got the happy feel.. so despite you not being comfortable with the song selection, you still managed to nail it.

As with every new starter, I'm sure you'll appreciate feedbacks. I'm not perfect, but hope I can help a bit:
1. I think the colour & sharpness is a bit dull for a 7D & 60D shots. It doesn't have that DSLR wow factor.
2. Exposure are really good. Seems you are comfortable with the camera settings, which is good.
3. The audio during the wedding kiss sounds like an on-camera audio.. will be better using a lav mic
4. I think it would be better if the audio comes in when the music changes (like into verse or something) not mid chorus as it sounds distracting
5. Some of the shots aren't 'straight', slightly tilts (eg. during the bridal party entrance dance). Try rotate it a bit in post so that it's less tilted.

Those are my 2 cents. Otherwise, great job mate! :)

Re: Not Only Our First DSLR Wedding, But First Wedding EVER! Christi + Daniel Highlig
 

Thanks Johannes!

We had a hard time getting critical focus even with a 8" Lilliput monitor and LCDVF loupe...hence the lack of sharpness. As for colors...what do you suggest? We shot with the Technicolor Cinestyle flat profile, then added the suggested LUT curve back and then adjusted each clip after that for color. Spent A LOT of time on color, but still found it difficult to work with.

Yeah, for whatever reason, the audio was bad even though we used a lav mic directly on the priest and groom, as well as had two H4N backups on the side in addition to onboard camera sound. Every audio source just sounded bad for some reason in this huge room. It sounded really echo-y in this church (the lav).

One reason we hated this song was because it had no lulls where we could insert live audio, which is why we had to put it in mid lyrics. No lulls except for the 8 or 9 seconds in the beginning. She just kept singing nonstop for 3 minutes...we found the song to be very flat. Since it was a happy, upbeat, though we felt superficial song without a lot of depth, we looked for the happiest moments in our footage and discovered everyone looked very emotionless or unhappy for 90% of our footage, including the parents, groom, and well...everyone.

Interesting comment on the dance entrance, didn't even really notice that and I've watched it probably 200 times now, but yeah, I see it now. Lol.

Re: Not Only Our First DSLR Wedding, But First Wedding EVER! Christi + Daniel Highlig
 

Seems superb for your first wedding, and first DSLR endeavour. Can i ask what you did before you decided to shoot weddings?

Re: Not Only Our First DSLR Wedding, But First Wedding EVER! Christi + Daniel Highlig
 

I think I've tried using that profile. Didn't like it. I've been using standard/portrait profile with a bit of adjustment. Although I'm wondering what software you edit it with and what is the video output setting? I use fcp and with 720 HD output at 3300kbps to .mov (for upload). It may not necessarily be setting from your camera, but also the output setting from your computer. Do you notice a significant image quality loss from your original footage to the rendered footage?

Did you use wireless lav or audio recorder? Where do you put it on the groom/officiant? I use an audio recorder (Olympus DS30) and lav mic (Olympus ME-15) and clip it around chest height on the blazer. That shouldn't sound echo-y as you record direct from the actual groom & officiant's voice. If you get the setting right you will notice a huge improvement in your audio no matter the location (unless its windy). It's not hard.

What I meant is to put the audio in transition of the song so that it didn't come as a surprise mid-lyric. Like between verse to chorus, or chorus to chorus. It will help transition the audio much nicely. I understand with Asian weddings they are more expressionless.. but you've got that dancing entrance, which is a precious footage on the day and fits well to the song.

Re: Not Only Our First DSLR Wedding, But First Wedding EVER! Christi + Daniel Highlig
 

I agree, superb work, excellent camera work.

Re: Not Only Our First DSLR Wedding, But First Wedding EVER! Christi + Daniel Highlig
 

If you look at the groom's lav, that's also where we put the officiant's lav. All our audio tracks were not so great. In fact, the officiant's lav (which we used here) had the cleanest sound for his voice and even the groom and bride's voice. The groom's lav was almost completely unusable for the officiant's voice (SUPER echo-y) -- way worse than the officiant's mic's capturing of the groom's voice -- although the groom's lav did capture his own voice fine.

We rendered out to .wmv 6.4mb 1080-24p from Sony Vegas Pro 10.0e, using the 100 setting (rather than the default 90).

Re: Not Only Our First DSLR Wedding, But First Wedding EVER! Christi + Daniel Highlig
 

You might sometime try rendering out to a sony avc file, I think they convert nicely for Vimeo.