After doing all the work of planning your dream wedding, how are you going to remember it afterwards? How do you preserve the day flawlessly, so you can look back on it for the rest of your life? There are so many options out there for photos and video, but my wedding packages include a combination of media. Let’s talk about the perks of having digital, film, and Super 8 for your Catholic wedding.
Your Options, Digital and Analog
While digital photography is still the standard, analog wedding media has become increasingly popular. My wedding photo and video packages offer both! Film is included in all my packages, and we can add Super 8 at any point as well. We’ll look at each of these in turn and how I use them to document your wedding day.
Dependable Digital
You’re probably most familiar with digital photography. Most cameras–like your phone–give you the power to shoot digitally anywhere, anytime. It’s dependable and flexible. You can work quickly with digital photography, collecting moments as they unfold in crystal clarity in all sorts of lighting conditions. This shot is a good example of a really dark church that digital cameras can still work beautifully in.
For weddings, I can adapt to the setting and any lighting changes more quickly using digital. This adaptability is key, particularly during a Catholic nuptial mass. Digital also provides technical safety – as soon as each photo is taken, it’s saved and backed up to two digital SD cards.
Film: Timeless and Dreamy
I love working with film! While digital renders every detail in crisp stills, film preserves the emotional heart. The visual imperfections create a soft and sweet effect, and when it comes to shooting the reception or afterparty, film provides a nostalgic party vibe.
For example, I shot a wedding at the Cathedral of Christ the King in Atlanta for a lovely couple, Kevin and Casey. Their package included both digital and film. During the day, I focused on medium format film, which has a higher resolution and produces cleaner images than traditional 35 mm. This kind of film makes for more elegant portraits, especially of brides.
For their reception, I switched over to flash 35mm film. Casey had changed into a sparkly reception dress, and the way the flash made her dress shine was absolutely amazing! I have more information about weddings at the Cathedral of Christ the King in Atlanta in my post here.
After working so hard to make your wedding day romantic and timeless, you deserve photos that will reflect the beauty and reality of the day. Film puts you right back into the emotion of the moment. A mix of film and digital covers all your bases, with film especially caring for the tenderness, sweetness, and beautiful imperfections of the day.
Catholic Wedding Videography
Super 8 is a type of film videography, originally developed in the 60s for home videos. This longevity means that it creates an instantly nostalgic effect, showing how this day set the stage for the rest of your story.
As far as weddings go, Super 8 is a similar concept to videography, but way more relaxed. Instead of turning your wedding into an overwrought movie production set, Super 8 needs just one person behind a camera, catching all the moments that are already happening without any staging.
The couple and I will come up with a game plan together, but usually it’ll be my second shooter who focuses on Super 8 while I handle digital and film photography. If needed, we can expand the team to three people, with two on photography and one on Super 8. It’s all up to you and your timeline!
Super 8 uses physical film, which I’ll have professionally developed and scanned for you. While it doesn’t pick up audio, I always set the video to music to accentuate the pure emotion captured. Super 8 always comes out so sweet and lovely to watch.
Interested in adding Super 8 to your photography and video package? Find more information here!
Putting Everything Together
Now that we’ve looked at the perks of having digital, film, and Super 8 for your Catholic wedding, let’s talk about how all these can work together to create a complete, well rounded family heirloom.
The trick to putting together an amazing wedding photo and video package is having someone who knows the right time for each type of media and can do them all well. Some moments are better suited for digital, and some for film. That’s where I come in.
Digital gives you crisp stills and provides the technical safety that helps both me and the client sleep better at night. Film is so beautiful, but it doesn’t automatically get backed up to an SD card like digital does, so I prefer to have digital on hand for the most important shots.
Analog wedding media preserves the spirit of the day. The blur, grain, and slightly imperfect lighting looks gorgeous and intentional on film, and the photos and Super 8 video move the viewer to feel everything you were feeling on that day.
Having a combination of digital and analog also lets you navigate changes in trends and taste as time goes on. Today, you might want all film, but in 20 years, you might wish that you had the full album of 600 digital photos. Hybrid catholic wedding photography gives you the best of both worlds without sacrificing either.
More Benefits of Combining Photo and Video
Having both photography and videography is the dream, but how do these both fit into the wedding day? Let’s talk about the advantages of having the same photographer do both your photos and videography.
In It Together
Photographers and videographers are professionals, and as such, they’ll always do their best to respect each other’s time and space. But when there are separate people trying to do photo and video, they might inadvertently step on each other’s toes.
My wedding photo and video package means photo and video are on the same team. I usually handle all the film and digital photography. For Kevin and Casey’s wedding, I had a second shooter who specializes in video and photo. She focused on Super 8 and backed me up with some digital photography when needed. But depending on your desires, I might be more focused on film, while the second is doing digital and a third is doing Super 8!
Having the videographer on my team means the entire experience is seamless. They take candid videos behind the scenes while I work on capturing beautiful stills. We’ll have multiple phone calls before the wedding date to make sure we’re on the same page and approach the day in the best way.
Working together makes it so much easier for both of us to do our jobs, and you can breathe easier knowing that we’re both completely focused on you.
Style Consistency
When my team handles both the photography and the videography, I’m the one who edits both and keeps track of everything. The result? A unified, high-quality aesthetic across all the photos and the video.
You get a multi-media experience that flows together naturally and complements each other perfectly, from the altar to the afterparty.
Planning for a Catholic Wedding
The Nuptial Mass is the most important feature of a Catholic wedding. For Catholics, this goes beyond just a promise or a celebration–it’s a covenant made before God.
The Nuptial Mass has its own rhythms and movements, and your photographer needs to be able to keep pace. As a Catholic myself, I’m intimately familiar with the mass. As a photographer, I know exactly when to take digital and when film suits the moment better.
Depending on the specific church and your specific desires for your wedding, I may take more or fewer film shots, but I’ll always have digital on and to keep pace with the wedding and make sure I capture every detail of the beginning of your lives together.
Building Your Package
There are so many perks of having digital, film, and Super 8 for your Catholic wedding. The technical safety of digital, the emotional nostalgia of film and Super 8, and the streamlined schedule of having all these done by the same team. Contact me to learn more about how we can use all these methods to perfectly preserve your wedding day.
