The Practilite 602 In the wedding biz, the Practilite has practically become the king of wedding lights. The industry trend towards the Practilite has gained so much traction that even wedding photographers are ditching the flash and going with the Practilite. A very welcomed trend indeed! This light is expensive, retailing at $967USD! But at the end of the day this light adds value. It is rock-solid, compact and versatile. You'll have one less headache because what was traditionally a stressful task has now become something you look forward to. No more concerns about your hot lamp melting the faux finish off of the venues walls or a waiter tripping over a power cord. How many of us have seen an old school wedding light go down? It's not pretty. The Practilite offers the tight beam, long throw and rich colors of a traditional tungsten fixture, without any of the liabilities and stress. The other stress of lighting a wedding is the DJs, the Maitre D’s, occasionally guests (most likely sent by the DJ) hunting you down to complain about your light. Somewhere there is a parallel blog with a DJ ranting about videographers and their lights. It may be because some videographers in the past (myself included) have used large LED panels to light up the dance floor. Now we can throw a nice tight beam of light that looks more like a spotlight. Subjects are exposed and light isn't bouncing and spraying all over the place. Your image can be filled with beautiful contrast and the DJ has nobody else to blame if people are not hitting the dance floor. The 602 offers a very high quality of light. When you see the image on the camera, the image just looks good, almost like natural light good. The light is packed with versatility. It is bi-color so you can dial in warmth to match the practicals in a reception, and daylight if you are in a backlit indoor ceremony situation. The light is small and compact, it can run off v-mount batteries. The lighter the light fixture the less likely it is to tip over on a light stand. That one less headache really makes a difference The Ultimate Convenience Factor The main difference that sets this light apart and makes it the king is its well integrated app. Yes that’s right. You can pull out your phone and instantaneously control the light’s color temperature and output. No one has time to wait for a faulty wifi or Bluetooth signal. We need an app that just works. Tungsten lights can get you beautiful color, a tight beam and a long throw, but they get hot, the bulbs can die on you, and they cannot be controlled wirelessly. ![]() In Comes a New Challenger For a long time I’ve been waiting for a legitimate competitor to the 602. The Practilite as I’ve talked about is a great investment, but for LED lighting in 2020, the price feels wrong. The reason they can charge so much is because their only real competitor, the Dedolight, is far less feature rich and also runs in the $1,000 range. have not heard that much chatter about the Lightstorm 60x, but I guarantee you that many wedding videographers (and photographers) will be lining up to purchase this unit, if the price is as competitive and under cutting as the rest of the Aputure line-up. Aputure has built a reputation as an industry disrupter with their product features and price point. This light introduces a very real competitor to the Practilite 602. The body is very similar to the Practilite- light and compact. Aputure at this point has nailed the balance between build quality, price and weight. The beam angle can be changed internally between 15-45 degrees. The light’s color temperature can be controlled from 2700 to 6500. The light can be battery powered by a v-mount or two NP-F batteries! Of course we know Aputure has a best in class app. All in all, the 60x compares favorably to the 602. Huge Output Here’s what I’m most excited about. The 60x bi-color is advertised to output 30,000 lux at 1 meter at the 15 degree spot. I have to assume that would decrease when dialed into the 3200 degree tungsten color, it remains to be seen what independent photometric tests will show once the light is released. But wow is that a ton of output. Here's how it compares to other battery powered LEDs.
To compare that to an actual tungsten fixture…
In a direct apples to apples comparison with the Practilite the 60x is advertised to gives us three times the output of the Practilite. Of course these are advertised metrics, and time will tell how the lights actually compare. Let me tell you the goal of lighting a wedding reception is not to blast the venue with light so it looks like daytime. Where the level really matters is its ability to throw light far distances. I'm talking about the inverse square law and the ability to get both an even spread of light across a large distance AND an adequate level of light across that spread. There will be another post where I can better describe what i'm talking about. For now let it suffice that more output and tight beam angles are a good thing. The X-Factor The price has not been released. It remains to be seen how aggressive Aputure will be in its strategy here. Anything below $500 will be a huge win in my book. What is your go-to wedding light? Let me know in the comments!
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Chances are that if you are looking for a modern wedding highlight film you will be presented with tiers, packages, or even a savvy a la carte system of pricing. Is the ultra exclusive Scarlet Emerald package really that much better than the Premier Diamond? This post will help the Bride and Groom decipher the wedding package lingo and make savvy decisions to start off their newlywed lives together.
1.) # of Camera Operator, Cinematographer, Videographer - this refers to the amount of people that will be shooting your wedding day film. Not all videographers are the same, many times the main cinematographer is sub-contracting a "second shooter". The second shooter can be a great cinematographer that runs his or her own wedding film business, or a high school student doing their class project. The more camera ops. there are, the more coverage you will have. Two angles of the same shot is not only a piece of mind, but can lead to more seamless and creative editing. Multiple camera ops.can also cover different events happening at different times. If your wedding is scheduled where the Groom and Bride are getting ready at the same time in different places, you really want to make sure you get at least two cinematographers. Pro-Tip: 2 is good, 3 can get crowded. You want to factor in how fun and comfortable the entire day will be. Between the photographers and videographers, you don't want an army of paparazzi (or maybe some of you do) storming your every sweet moment.. 2.) HD, 1080, 4k - this doesn't refer to the size of your television. This refers to the amount of resolution that your videos will be delivered in. HD has 720 lines of resolution across the width of the video. 1080 or Full HD has 1080 lines, 4k or Ultra HD has around 4,000 lines. The more resolution the crisper and sharper the image. What registers as cinematic to us has little to do with resolution, and more to do with lighting, color, and sound. Most likely, you watch videos on your phone or tablet in 720 and never complain. You still want your wedding film to be delivered in at least Full HD, which most videographers should offer. Pro Tip: Most prosumer cameras can now shoot in 4k, if someone advertises to you that they can shoot in 4k, and adds this into a pricing tier, take this to be a clear marketing gimmick and stay away. 3.) Full Event Coverage - if you have parents and grand-parents this is most likely all they will really care for. They didn't grow up using snapchat, they want to see the full wedding from beginning to end, the more footage the better. And believe me, they will watch it beginning to end; more than once. Most likely a Bride and Groom won't even sit down to watch the full event coverage of their own wedding. A full-length edit usually includes the full ceremony as well as the main reception events (you want to specify what those events are). I can't imagine that any videographer actually films the entirety of the reception, there's always the family friend who does that for free. Full or clean coverage means that every moment of the event is recorded. What happens when someone decides to walk in front of camera A, as long as camera B has a clear shot we have clean or full coverage. Full event coverage is usually an added expense since the cinematographer will have to bring a couple more cameras and tripods and will definitely need at least one second shooter. 4.) Highlight and Feature Film - sometimes the chronological, documentary type film is a tad slow and has you scrubbing ahead. Enter the highlight film. It's cut or edited with a pace, with more creativity to keep things visually interesting, it hones in on a particular story, it creates an emotive response. They are usually cut to music and are a best of the video and audio sequences from the day. A highlight film is anywhere from 4-8 minutes in length. A feature length film, which is typically anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour are extended highlight films. They come with short trailers and even Hollywood style billboard of the wedding with credits. The billboard thing can be really cheesy and I hesitate to comment anymore on it. Pro-Tip: Some of the worst wedding videos I have seen live in that 10-15 minute range and some of the best wedding videos I have seen are less than 5 minutes. You may be eager to pay more for longer films, but in my opinion the shorter films cut to a song tend to have that visceral and emotive quality that any good cinema does. 5.) Same Day Edit - seems self-explanatory and is. A short highlight film is ready to be viewed by the guests towards the end of the reception. This is no easy feat and comes with a hefty premium. Take note, you won't get the same quality out of the same day highlight video, but usually the places that offer this service follow a certain template for editing, so it might be 80-85 percent of the quality you would have been delivered a few weeks later. 6.) Aerial Footage - every wedding film seems to have a drone shot now. If you're not saying "oh cool a drone shot" that's a good sign that the wedding filmmaker knows what he or she is doing. Over the past year, drone shots were included because filmmakers were experimenting and maybe wanted to showcase it on their portfolio Now, as FAA rules and insurance premiums have brought complications, you will have to pay a la carte to have an FAA licensed, insured drone operator film those special aerial shots. Pro-Tip: Ask if the videographer is indeed FAA licensed and insured. If not, don't bother paying more for the drone shot. Also, unless your venue is epic, the drone shot is most often unnecessary. 7.) Online Deliverable vs. Blu-Ray - It's the year 2017, do people still own Blu-Ray players? Macs abandoned optical drives long ago. In terms of pricing, you will certainly pay a premium for the Blu-Ray option. Not because it's better, but because it's a hassle and burden to the cinematographer. It seems the industry is going the way of online deliverable. Some packages will include an online deliverable with a menu and chapters. You'll pay a little more but it's a happy medium and homage to the DVD wedding videos that were so hip even a few short years ago. Still confused? Have questions? Comment below and i'll be sure to get back to you! For a long time video lagged far behind photography, and so couples would shell out the big bucks on a professional photographer and hand the budget scraps to the videographer. Many wedding videographers have grown accustomed to playing second fiddle to their shutter snapping peers. Over the past few years, wedding videography has grown leaps and bounds and so have wedding filmmakers sought to correct the market disparity; leaving google to answer, "why are wedding films so darn expensive?"
Around 80% of brides to be will budget somewhere in between 1,500-6,000 for a wedding films. These packages often include morning to late evening coverage with at least 2 cinematographers, a short highlight film, and possibly a longer cut of the entire wedding day festivities. So we should ask, how much of this chunk of change is merited and how much of this is due to the ol' classic wedding markup. Now before we answer that, some of you are wanting to rather ask, "can you get away with a wedding film for less than 1,500?". Sure! Your second cousin's, friend's, roommate's, brother knows a guy who just got one of those fancy Canon DSLR to take videos of his pets and kids. We can always entice him to join the filmmaking ranks and cut his teeth on your wedding at a family friendly price. Before you make that awkward phone call, take into consideration that there is only one take for nearly every moment in your wedding. What happens when the camera breaks, or the memory card malfunctions, or maybe he forgets to hit record, or has been filming the whole day in the wrong settings, or is over-exposed, or under-exposed, or is trying out his new gimmicky film-angles, or testing out his new videography toy instead of focusing on the shot; speaking of focus, it can be ever so noticeably soft, or the spec of dust has been on the lens the whole time. A 10 hour wedding is not for the faint of heart! If you want the professional photographer with experience, why would you want "some random kid" with a GoPro filming your dream wedding? Here is what really goes into wedding film, things that you should be aware of as the bride or groom so that you can rest assured that your spending on a wedding film is truly a life-long investment. 1.) Blood, Sweat, Tears Photographers traditionally carry two heavy cameras throughout a wedding day. A videographer's wedding day kit includes a heavy camera rig as well as a tripod, monopod, slider, and glidecam. On the lighter side, a shotgun mic, two lav mics and two audio recorders for the ceremony and speeches. Speaking of reception, at least two light sources and lightstands for the reception, possibly a sandbag to weight it all down; and finally, of course you got to have a drone. For the hot summer weddings, in a sprawling estate, a golf cart might be my next investment. 2.) Skill and Experience I mentioned a little earlier any number of factors and permutations that can go wrong. The wedding videographer understands the risks, can perform under pressure, and has a backup plan if things go wrong. They have learned from the school of hard knocks what not to do, which sometimes is more invaluable than what to do. They can sense a moment and nail the composition, focus, and exposure each time. They have studied the art of lighting, and know how to get the best results. They are not phased or stressed but rather hitting a rhythm and stride as the evening falls. 3.) Post-Production (a whole lot of it!) The two cameras, a drone, and multiple audio recorders I mentioned before, they need to all be synced up behind the scenes. Each camera and lens has a distinct color science, color cast, and contrast that needs to be synced up. Audio needs to be synced up to video. If there are multiple angles they need to be synced up, the video needs to be synced to the beat of the music. Lots of syncing. On top of that there is time spent giving the final look, or color grade. All this work to trim up 150 or so video clips to be ready for the final editing block. In the cutting room, tasteful decisions need to be made in sync with the wishes and aesthetic of the bride and groom in mind. 4.) Hidden Fees The videographer deals with hidden fees that you are not aware of. Gas and tolls and parking to get to the venue, camera and lens rentals, sub-contracting the second shooter, vendor insurance, equipment insurance (expensive things unfortunately do get stolen or lost from time to time), and of course the flat rate to license that perfect song or two for your highlight film. After working as a wedding videographer you notice all of the other blue-collar heroes that are in the business of making a day magical. For all the hard work that goes into a wedding; your photos and videos are the one take-away to re-live those memories for generations to come. My advice, not as a wedding videographer, but as a married husband that has a bag full of antiquated wedding cassette tapes somewhere in my attic, don't skimp on the videographer! |
AuthorMy name is Hans, I am Korean-American, with an (antiquated) German name, my wife is legitimately part-German, so it all makes sense now.. ArchivesCategories
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