HOW DO YOU CAPTURE PHOTOS AND VIDEO SIMULTANEOUSLY?
This is a great question, and one, I suspect that will not get you very helpful answers if you ask google/AI or reddit.
Amazingly, I am not asked this question by clients all that often. Understandably, for the most part, they trust that no one would claim to do something for money if they couldn’t deliver, and so they accept that it is possible. Which it is. Other photographers ask me quite a lot, and in fact I run workshops helping them learn how to do it. Because while it is possible, it isn’t easy and it isn’t for the faint-hearted.
Being fairly heartless myself, this last bit isn’t an issue. But there are certain requirements, certain bits of kit, and a certain skillset before you can do this.
1. A camera with a really high end shutter. I own the awesome Sony a9iii which has a global shutter. This puts me in a minority of photographers who a) could justify and afford the expense and b) recognised it was in no way the “niche” camera some seemed to think. The A9iii can shoot photos at 25, 50 and 100 frames per second in burst mode, meaning you can grab a shot of, for example, a bride walking down the aisle, and not only will you have a huge number of high resolution photos to choose from, you also have ten seconds or so of enough photos to make a little movie.
2. An action camera like the Osmo Pocket 3 attached to your main camera. While this little robot monster camera has a slightly lower resolution than a high end camera. The quality in 4K is still remarkably good - providing you know what you’re doing - and I’ve yet to have a client notice the difference.
3. A third and even a fourth camera running remote on a tripod.
4. Experience and ability. I’ve been taking photos and making films my entire adult life and have never stopped being hungry to learn and adapt to changing trends, techniques, styles and client requirements. Many photographers and videographers have only focussed on the one skill most of their careers, which I guess has put me at an advantage.
5. Get a second shooter.
A small caveat is that frequently when shooting hybrid photos and video, the tendency is to take a burst of photos and then take a burst of video a second later, because 80% of the time, actual simultaneous recording is not requried, or is so comprehensively required that it is better to hire two people.
And in an ideal world, I have to stress, two jobs are best done by two people. A single shooter doing both is hard work and a test of anyone’s powers of concentration. I love that challenge and I love to be busy. But if you are thinking about doing this yourself, be sure this is how you want to work. And if you are hiring someone to do it, be sure they are confident they can do it.
6. Basically - hire me.
