Why You Should Hire a Photographer and a Videographer, Not One Person for Both

A dozen inquiries since May have asked the same question: can you shoot the photos and the video? The honest answer is that one person can do both, and the result is worse at both. Here is why, and what to ask for instead.

Stills and video want different things at the same second

A photograph is one frame. The job is to anticipate the half second when the speaker gestures, the slide lands and the face is clean, and to be in the right spot with the right lens when it arrives. Video is the opposite: hold the shot, keep it steady, let the moment play out, and never cut away during the line everyone will want to use.

Those two instincts fight. The photographer wants to move to the wings for the tight expression. The videographer needs to stay locked off on the podium until the applause. The photographer fires a burst at the handshake. The videographer needs the room quiet and the tripod still. One person cannot be both at once, so a “photo and video” package from a single shooter means one of the two is being done between the gaps of the other.

What you actually get from a single shooter doing both

• Stills shot from wherever the video camera happened to be, which is usually the back of the room.
• Video with the camera abandoned on a tripod while the stills get shot, so every clip is the same wide frame.
• Missed moments on both sides: the reaction shot nobody got because the photographer was changing a video battery, the keynote line nobody recorded because the videographer was shooting the step-and-repeat.
• Two deliverables arriving late, because one person is editing two libraries.

Why two people cost less than it sounds

Clients ask for one person to save money. In practice the second person is a day rate, and what you save is the cost of having neither deliverable done well. A conference keynote that gets reused in a sizzle reel, a recruiting page and a press release has to be shot by someone who was only doing that. The same goes for the photos.

The way to keep it simple is to hire one point of contact who brings both. That is how I run it: I photograph, I bring a videographer I have worked with, we share one shot list and one schedule, and you get one invoice and one delivery. For multi-day or multi-room programs the same model scales to a full production crew.

When one person is fine

Short social clips alongside the stills at a small reception. A few seconds of b-roll for an internal recap. Drone work, where I shoot both stills and video from the same flight because the aircraft is doing the holding. Anything where the video is a bonus rather than a deliverable someone will cut into a film.

What to ask for

Tell the photographer what the video is for. If the answer is a highlight film, a keynote recording, testimonials or anything a client or a recruiter will watch, ask for a videographer on the crew. If it is a few phone-ready clips for the day-of social post, a photographer who shoots short video can cover it. Either way, ask for one point of contact, one shot list and one delivery, so the two libraries match.

Planning an event that needs both? See San Francisco corporate event photography, recent video work, or get in touch for a quote that includes a videographer. Half days from $2,000, full days from $3,500, video crew quoted per program.

Frequently asked questions