dealing with wind
 

I often make the mistake of having curry the night before a wedding shoot... no, not that kind of wind.

I do a lot of outside weddings and I've just finished a marathon effort trying to get rid of the wind on a really bad gusty day. How to I prevent or minimise the problems?

I use 3 seperate sources of audio and I still have problems. it's a pain in the butt - like the other kind of wind.

Hi Paul

Perth has fierce Sou Westers too!!! Just remember that prevention is better than cure...if I do have wind noise I find it best to kill all frequencies under around 400hz but it does lose a lot of body. I usually have one radio lapel on the groom. Just a simple thing like whether to put it on his right lapel or left can have a huge effect!! try to organise it so the groom has his back to the breeze or if he is at an angle, put the mic at the best location to shelter it from the wind!! The answer, of course, is a hefty foam ball on the mic BUT that looks really bad!!! You always have heaps of time before the bride arrives so do some tests with the groom standing where he should be and experiment...just a small re-position can make a huge difference and also most celebrants will not make a fuss if you turn the wedding party left or right a few degrees!!

Chris

We recently shot a wedding right off the beach and had to deal with wind gusts. Fortunately, I had fitted my lav mics the night before with furry wind jammers. The jammers blocked out 90% of the wind and we got crystal clear audio. As Chris said, positioning the groom and officiant's lav mics carefully will save you a lot of headaches later on.

Rycote | Furry Windjammer for Lavalier Mics (Single) | 065514

Good one Raymond!!

The foam wind shield on lavs don't really help that much unless you make them a couple of inches in diameter. Fuzzy ones do work better. I think a lot of shops that less the fake animal craft fur fabric have offcuts for sale. It would be quite simple to make a little one for a lav mic at almost zero cost!! I made a very effective one to cover my blimp a while back and it cost a couple of dollars using fur fabric (the long haired kind) If you can find black fur that would be great for grooms!! (I did a wedding last Thursday and the groom dedided to go casual with a cream shirt and no jacket!! The black mic looked out of place!)

Chris

there's actually a great little kit from B&H that copes with most colours:

BHDLAKM

If it's an option, a shotgun mic in a blimp with a "dead cat" can really work wonders! I recently did a shoot and had captured from three sources: the on-camera mic which I knew I would not use, a hand-held mic, and the shotgun as described above.

It was quite a windy day and I really didn't know what I would get. I was surprised at just how great the shotgun/blimp ended up sounding. It killed absolutely ALL the wind and had better presence than even the hand-held mic! I had it on a desk mic stand on the ground in front of the performers.

I made a 41 second comparison that can be viewed by clicking here. In fact if you look closely at the bottom of the frame you can just see the top of the blimp in front of the guy on the right.

So much easier than trying to fix it in post!

Frank, I agree with you about the 'gun and blimp, but you really can't run that system for a wedding. Fixing it in post is the only option.

I think that to say you can't run this type of a system for a wedding is short-sighted. I can see how it might not work for all situations, but to out-and-out say 'no'? It could very easily be masked by a floral arrangement or some other such thing, and if it is to be outdoors in a potentially windy location, why not try to plan for it advance?

I'd still prefer a bit of imagination in advance to tearing my hair out trying to EQ it out... fixing it in post is not the only option!

I agree with Don, most outdoor weddings give you no cover for something like a blimp.

I have actually thought of an open folder type of arrangement that you give to the celebrant to hold (they can put their speeches,prompts on it) - it would contain a recorder & 2 mikes facing the Bride & Groom. even that doesn't solve the problem of wind because the mikes & covers would need to be small.

Something else I pondered on was a pedestal (outdoor lecturn) that contained mikes with wind covers.

I really like the idea of a boom operator with a huge blimp inches from the brides face though

Frank,
I know out of the approximately 600 weddings I have done in the last 10 years, about 30 to 40 have been out doors and never once was there the ability to use a shotgun with a blimp either on a boom or hidden in a floral arrangement.
I am shooting a wedding not a news event, so for me, shotguns on booms or hiding in a floral arrangement that would to far away to be of any use anyway is a none starter.
Maybe it's different in Mt..

What about a blimp mounted on camera?

A mic on the camera at an outdoor wedding in particular is good for one thing in my opinion. Nothing!
It is too far away to be of any good to pick up anything except noise from the guests and maybe the music if you're lucky but by and large it will only get you aggravated.

Even at indoor weddings I only run my 2 wirelss to my A camera and use either a shotgun or hypercaroid on my B camera ONLY for the music and then the camera placementdetermines which mic I use. It's usuually the hypercaroid.

Jut one mans opinion!

Hi Don

I agree!! I usually run two wireless mics at a wedding but if only one is needed, then what I do is plug the Rode VideoMic into the second XLR channel purely as a backup. More often that not I don't use that track but I did have a situation where the groom sat on my transmitter and the unit and mic became disconnected. When the happy couple were presented to the guests the lapel audio was gone but the on-cam mic was usable. I don't think it's a good idea to use an on cam mic for anything except backup audio!! I find the lapel on the groom usually picks up the music fine too!!!

Chris

I should have reread the OP before posting. lol

I thought someone made a special wind cover for lavs. Kinda like a mini blimp.

I sometimes wish they did but the only thing I've seen is either foam or furry balls. Oh well.

I didn't have time to read the whole thread, but here are my thoughts. The best way to deal with wind is to deal with it before you record. That means you need to have fuzzy wind protectors on all of your mics. Don't rely on the cheap sponge/foam covers. They don't work so well.

doesn't that mean you're shooting from the wrong angle? :-)

I found the answer on EBay - a blimp from India, they even include pictorial evidence that it's fine for wedding use!

How's that for unobtrusive? and with the soundie next to you you have the added benefit of completly blocking the photogs shot!

"doesn't that mean you're shooting from the wrong angle? :-)"

Paul, I refuse to comment on that only because I'm laughing so hard!

As for the boom, yeah, I can see it now. No actually I can't. Wow, bringing something like in to a church would take some "fur" if you get my drift! ;-)

okay gentlemen stop me before I go too far with this idea...

I want a mike close to the couple but protected from the wind (just for outside use)

Audio-Technica | Pro 24 Stereo Condenser Microphone | PRO 24

If I take something like this and hook it up to a zoom or other recorder and position it about waist high directly in front of the celebrant between the bride & groom (forward of them actually - we don't want to stop them getting married) - that should work.

I put some sort of windcover/blimp over the mike and we're right to go

I just have to make it invisible.... so what about a small slim stand with a wedding symbol on the front that widens out as it reaches the top (maybe some space to put flowers)

From the guests point of view it's a white stand that forms a focal point between the bride & groom - from the back it's a housing for a mike & wind cover that's only seen by the celebrant, bride & groom.

K-Tek | Windscreen - Slip-On Windscreen (Tiny) | Z-FSO-T | B&H

I've attached a couple of images of the shape I'm thinking of - if the basic design is right it will look like it's meant to be there. at the right height & size it doesn't obtsruct the ceremony and 'goes unnoticed' Of course you'd have to show them at a rehearsal so they were comfortable with the idea but I usually attend those anyway.

Am I way off the mark? - is it worth developing the idea?

let's not get hung up on the 'right' mike or blimp - I just want to put the general idea out there to see if it's got legs.

Try a Rycote Mini Screen and windjammer combination, Rycote - Miniscreen by far the most effective solution I have ever used for on camera mics. I can film on the wild North Cornwall cliffs, and all but kill any wind noise. Dont forget to cover every joint, switch, xlr point on the mic with tape, or foam. These areas, left uncovered will render any wind protection you may have useless.

I don't mean to hijack this thread since the focus is on eliminating wind before you record (and we should all agree that that is priority number one), but I am editing a wedding with quite a bit of wind myself, and have found great success using Soundtrack Pro's Noise Print/Reduce Noise tool. Do a Google search and you will find a number of great tutorials about this feature.