The Tech That Will Shape How You Work in 2016

The photo industry has always been intimately bound with technology, but the trends we’ve spotted now seem futuristic even by the forward-looking standards of the tech industry. From flying cameras to immersive virtual reality, the tools you’ll use to tell your clients’ stories are evolving rapidly.

Photo © Nan Palmero

VIRTUAL REALITY

Love your tech on the bleeding edge? Virtual reality (VR) came of age in 2015 as companies like Google, GoPro, Ricoh and Samsung introduced solutions for creating and viewing immersive, 360-degree videos. While we didn’t see many virtual reality weddings this year, there was a well-publicized virtual reality proposal and plenty of commercial projects. In 2016, we think ambitious wedding filmmakers will try their hands at VR wedding experiences.

As producer and filmmaker Lucas Wilson of Supersphere Productions told us, while virtual reality sounds intimidating to create, “it’s actually easy.” Using multi-camera GoPro mounts from the likes of Freedom360 and stitching software from firms like Kolor, anyone familiar with the basics of filmmaking and editing should be able to create 360- degree video, Wilson asserts. “The tools to acquire and edit VR are inexpensive,” he says.

You don’t need a pricey piece of gaming headgear to enjoy VR, either. Viewers based on Google’s Cardboard design use your mobile phone as the display and cost as little as $20. Relatives unable to attend a ceremony or friends looking to relive the memories could slip on a VR viewer and get a 360-degree experience unlike anything they’ve ever seen. Welcome to the future.

Photo © Celebrations of Tampa Bay

DRONE MOVIES TAKE FLIGHT

Outside of celebrity weddings, incorporating aerial imagery into a wedding film used to be obscenely expensive. Thanks to drones, it’s rapidly becoming commonplace. These flying cameras are fast becoming a go-to tool for capturing sweeping establishing shots of outdoor ceremonies and reception halls. They’re only getting less expensive and easier to use, too, as manufacturers like DJI and 3D Robotics create software that does much of the flying for you.

Filmmakers like Randy Markham, owner of Celebrations of Tampa Bay, who has been using a Phantom 3 from DJI for a little over a year, have seen growing demand for drone footage. “I’d say about 50 percent of our brides are asking about drones,” Markham said. “There are certain shots that are just [better] done from the air, and it doesn’t have to always be very far up—sometimes even 10 to 20 feet is great, just [to get] a little elevation.”

While drone aerials are popular, Markham emphasizes that they’re only one piece of a cinematic wedding film. “The drone cannot replace good, ground-level, well-framed photography. That said, a few aerial shots will give a great cinematic feel to a wedding.”

THE 4K WEDDING

This year we saw 4K jump from industry buzzword to the real deal. Philip Coltart, owner of Philip Coltart Films, told us he likes to work on the cutting edge, but when he added 4K video to his service list in the waning days of 2014, he thought he was still well ahead of his customers. The response from his clients said otherwise.

“It definitely exceeded my expectations,” he says. “People are aware of 4K now and are starting to ask for it.” Despite the interest, most households don’t yet own a 4K display, so Coltart still delivers 4K wedding videos in 1080p on a Blu-ray disc while also offering his customers an option to have the full 4K video delivered as a ProRes file on a hard drive, too.

Coltart is able to offer 4K wedding videos as a premium service, charging more than he does for HD video alone, but he says the premium he earns wasn’t the real motivator for switching to 4K. “For us, it looks like film, as far as color separation and noise control [are concerned]. The big upside to 4K is image quality. Nothing else has that look.”

With prices on 4K cameras—not to mention TVs and monitors—dropping fast, we’re sure to see more filmmakers hop on the bandwagon.