E67 | 5 Reasons Not to Offer Hybrid as a Business

In the first of our mini, midweek episodes we highlight some of the reasons you might not want to offer Hybrid Photography/Videography. 

We think it is important to provide a balanced view as Hybrid shooting may not be the right fit for all visual creatives. 

The How to Shoot Hybrid Podcast is for photographers and videographers who capture weddings, live events, work with commercial clients and work on creative projects. We discuss different topics around photography and filmmaking as well as interview guests in the photography, filmmaking and hybrid content creation industries.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/howtoshoothybrid

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@hybridjules

Website: https://www.yourstorystudios.co.uk/education/#Podcast

Transcript

Hi, and welcome to the How to Shoe Hybrid Podcast by your story studios. My name's Jules. I'm on my own today and on this podcast, we discuss photography, videography, filmmaking, and topics around building successful and sustainable creative businesses. We share things we've experienced all learn along our journey, and we speak with guests about their experiences and knowledge too.

Importantly, want to build an open-minded community to learn and grow, and we hope you enjoyed joining us. So this is the first of our mini episodes. The idea being that there's a little extra episode that we put out midweek, probably Tuesday. So the main episodes are usually Fridays. And then we thought we'd put a little episode out on Tuesday, which would be much shorter n not like a, a massive, full episode that just kind of goes through some, a topic that we can cover quite quickly.

Just to deliver a little bit of additional value to your midweek. So today we're gonna be talking, or I'm gonna be talking about the reasons not to offer hybrid as a business. I'm just gonna give you five points to think about because I don't want it to rattle on for edges. I wanna keep it nice and succinct.

So, um, it, the reason for doing this is it wouldn't be correct to suggest that everybody should. Go into hybrid that everybody should learn dual. Um, capability to shoot. You know, if you're a photographer, you don't have to learn video. If you're a videographer, you don't have to learn photo. Even though this is called the How to Shoot Hybrid podcast.

It, it's not a preachy thing, and we don't want to say that everybody should do it, and it's right for everybody. The idea is it's something to consider. It could be the future. But we don't want to say you have to do it, and that that's the only way. And it's only right when you are talking about something and you're talking about something from a place of experience and knowledge that you have considered reasons why it wouldn't be a good idea.

You have to be able to be objective and you have to be able to, to look at things from other perspectives. So here's, here's the thing. You know that that is this. Being a hybrid tutor won't be for everybody, and that's why I wanted to make sure we covered that in this episode. So let's get straight to it.

We'll go with number one. And the first reason not to offer hybrid as a business is because you're already smashing it. You don't need to. What a wonderful position to be in. If that's the case, uh, you know, your business is doing well, you're at the top of your game. Maybe you're really well established, really, um, well thought of.

Maybe you've got some really amazing clients, maybe like, you know, really high profile or celebrity clients or people with plenty of money and they're throwing it at you. You are creating amazing work, or you have built up a great, you know, a great name for yourself. Why would you want to potentially damage that brand, that damage your name and make things, um, you know, reduce your success by adding something into the mix that isn't necessarily, um, part of what you've been doing, which has got you where you are?

Um, or like something that might. You know, take away from what you've been doing or you, you know, it might even start to give you a bit of negative attention. So totally get that. And if you, if you, you know, most people that I would suggest that listen to this podcast are looking to develop, learn, grow.

They're not necessarily gonna be in that position where they're at the absolute top, they can't go any higher, or, you know, they, they can't see how they can go any higher. So, um, there might not be many people listening to it in that situation, but if you are in that situation, you feel like you, you're in that situation then.

No, I, I probably wouldn't want to, uh, mess with that formula either. But here's the thing, it's good to keep an open mind because things can change in the future. Like, let's think about people. You know, photographers, when film people were shooting on film, there were no digital cameras, and all of a sudden digital cameras came in.

And those film, uh, photographers who were absolutely. The best. Uh, they started to say, well, I don't wanna do digital. You know, this is film. This is the only way to shoot. This is the right way to shoot. I don't think those digital cameras are gonna catch on. They're not as good quality. The quality's not there.

The capability's not there. You know, I can give the best results for my clients based on film and. I would say, what happened to those film photographers, not that film photographer, you know, film photographers come back, you know, it's, it's made a, it's made a revival, if you like, but I'm not talking about something that's a bit niche and a bit, you know, people like to do it because it's a bit cool and it gives a particular type of result.

I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about like people who, you know, they shot on film, they delivered in an album. They didn't deliver digital files. They didn't. Um, g getting, give people kind of hundreds of photos documenting the entire day. They gave them the traditional set formals, cuz that's basically how it worked with film photography back in the day.

So I'm talking about that set situation. All the, the filmmakers, the wedding filmmakers, the videographers who worked solely on really large, um, camcorders or broadcast style cameras. You know, they said, no, I'm not gonna, dslr, I'm not. I cannot see how I can produce the work I wanna produce and film a wedding on a dslr.

That's not possible. That's not the right way. Where are they today? If they didn't, if they didn't at some point, embrace the future, the changes of the technology, the changes of the way people are doing stuff. Where are they today? Uh, I would imagine both of those people are not in business cuz their business will not have survived the changes without them adapting.

So that's the, that's the point, you know. Um, what if, what if a business never built a website because they said No, people find me through the Yellow Pages or, you know, uh, the classified ads. Um, So I'll print, you know, I advertise in a magazine, but, so I'm not gonna build a website, or I'm not gonna get a social media page.

I'm not gonna make a Facebook page or an Instagram page. I'm, you know, I'm not saying directly comparing all of those things that I've just said to the changes of incorporating both photography and video into your business. But what I'm saying is it's potentially just as big. You know, photography and video kind of being a combined offering, if you like, is potentially as big a change to the industry as you know, the change between shooting on film and shooting digital, or the change between advertising your business in a paper version or something like that, you know, or wedding fair and not having a website or social media pitch.

It's, you know, there's been changes to the industry and, uh, even though things are perfect now, things might change in the future. Okay? So number two, you want to be able to continue creating the absolute best quality. And you, and you, you are like creating a specialist product. You are a photographer who is creating.

A particular, you know, you, you're not just a generic wedding photographer. You are creating the most, um, artistic or, uh, unique images of people's wedding day. Or you are a offering a unique perspective. You are artistic and creative perspective of their wedding day or a film that is so cinematic and so, Uh, well considered in, in, its, in its creation, in the way that you're shooting it, in the way that it's edited together, that you, that's the quality of product that you are offering to your client.

It isn't just a wedding film or it's not just a set of wedding photos. This is your art. This is unique. Okay? Um, and you can, you can't compromise. Because you know, every, every piece, everything that you make, every wedding is a masterpiece. So if you were to kind of add things in there, it wouldn't work anymore.

So this is like a separate point to the first one, because the first one is you don't need to because you're really successful. The second one, you might not be the most successful you could possibly be, but this is your approach to it. Your approach is, I am creating this and I don't want to compromise on that.

Yeah, and that's a good reason not to do it because there is no way you can, there is no way that you can add video to photo or photo to video without there being some kind of compromise in the quality of what you will capture slash what you will deliver. Now that compromise is going to be different.

In different cases there will be a range of the quality. Differences. Um, and if you are, if you've been, if you've got a niche product that you are delivering and that is what your business is built around, that's what your brand is built around. Obviously this is a separate issue, you know, separate conversation altogether is what do you build your brand around?

Do you build your brand around the product? Do you build your brand around the service? Do you build your brand around a combination of things, but. The, the point being that you, if you, if your product, if the thing that you do, the thing that you deliver is the most niche important thing, you can't probably bring those in and you don't wanna damage what you've been creating.

So, um, in that case, I wouldn't try and add one or the other in because you, you, you will never, you will personally never be happy with what you're creating. And. I don't know if it will matter to the clients necessarily, but if you are getting a specific type of client because of the particular type of work that you're creating, and you don't want that to change, and you, you would rather maintain your integrity on the product that you're creating rather than creating, you know, rather than the business side of things.

Absolutely. Um, I wouldn't say that that, um, it doesn't mean you can have a successful business. It just means you're not, you're not kind of thinking about the business first. You're thinking about the creative first. And if that's the case, no, you, you shouldn't do hybrid in that situation. Uh, number three, you don't think that you'll be able to create the appropriate quality of product.

So again, these three are quite. They're quite linked, but they are slightly separate because the first one we're talking about is, is you don't need to because you've already, you're already smashing it. The second one is you are so focused on creating a particular type of product that you can't, you can't.

Mess with that because that is you, that is what you do, and that is what you are delivering and that's your whole business. And three is that you would like to potentially, you like the idea of being able to add birth, and you can see the benefits from a business perspective and you can see, uh, uh, the benefits for the consumer, for the, for the customer, for the couples, or for the client.

But you don't think you'll be able to create the, you know, the appropriate quality of the product. And remember, this is subjective. So quality of product, even if you're just a photographer or just a videographer and they're the, that's the service that you're providing on its own. You, your product, your photos, your films will be a different standard and quality to somebody else's.

You might be charging the same. You might be in the same market, but there will be a difference in quality. And also remember that that quality is subjective. So something is worth whatever someone's willing to pay for it. Somebody will like what they like, and because there's such a range of styles and approaches and, and the kind of stuff that people put out, um, you will not be able to compare apples to apples on wedding photography and wedding videography.

You can compare them in a very well in this price range. But again, then we start looking at, well, what type of style do you want? Um, what type of approach do you want? What type of aesthetic do you want on the images, on the films? What type of edit do you want? You know, all of these things are going to be subjective, so you can't really, you can't really compare them in, in a simple way, but very much you might think you.

You might think that you won't be able to provide the same quality, and obviously it's important that you, you maintain a quality of a product. Um, but for me it depends what you're realistically trying to create. Um, what you need to be doing is you need to be pro producing, comparable and consistent work.

So if you've been a photographer and you're gonna add video in, um, and you create a video, So let's say you create a highlight film as well as your photos. The main thing is, is that when you go to recreate that, so then you go again and you do another photo and video job where you're creating a highlight film.

It's really important that you highlight film that you've been showing people. That's your portfolio piece resembles something like the ones that they're going to get after their wedding. So the one that you're going to produce next time and the one that you're gonna produce after that. So as long as your photos and your videos are comparable and consistent with the work that you've been showing people and that they've booked you on the quality, the d, the the quality that you know as professionals may, we might critique each other or, or view each other on.

Doesn't really matter as long as the customer, as long as the client and the couple have seen your work. And you are gonna deliver something like that to them. That's, that's the only box you need to tick. But if you don't think you can replicate that, if you think you could do on a, on your best day at the best wedding, you could produce this.

But then day in, day out, you're not going to be able to produce that. No, I don't think you should be trying to offer it. You, you basically, what I'm saying is you need to get to, you either need to get to a point where you feel comfortable that you're gonna produce something similar every time. Um, and until you get to that point, it's probably not a good idea to be advertising yourself as a, as a hybrid tourer.

Okay. So just a little break for a second. I just would love to, if you're listening to this and you're getting something from it, please just. If you, if you can right now, just stop, go to the app that you're listening to. Most people, according to the stats, are listening to this on Apple Podcasts. Um, but there are other people listening on different devices, different um, platforms.

Some people will watch you on YouTube. Please, if you, if you're watching, listening, wherever you're doing that, just please give us a little rate review, like it subscribe. Whatever it is that you can do to support the growth of the podcast and what we're trying to do. Um, really appreciate that. And the second thing is, if you could just share it on your socials, just give it a mention.

Um, just, just try and get more people listening because there's gonna be plenty of people who wanna learn these skills. We're gonna be offering more and more content that's gonna be helping people to either become hybrid shooters. Or, um, learn more about their photography, their videography. There's gonna be some really interesting chats with guests coming up, hopefully, and I really want people to be able to access that.

So if you could share it with people, that'd be amazing. Thank you very much. So number four, your workload and workflow. So if you add in an extra service into what you offer, it's obviously gonna require more time per project. It's gonna increase your workload on the day, because on the day, believe me, if you're doing just photo or just video, feels quite easy compared to doing both together because obviously you know, you're now having to.

You're having to get more content through the day. You know, you take a few photos, you film some film clips separately. Those things take 'em out time. You're kind of doubling your time almost by having to capture birth at the same time, especially if you're doing that as one person. So you, you, your days are a lot more intense on the actual shoots, whether that's a commercial shoot or whether that's a wedding or something.

And then you also have. And this is the big bit, the post-production. The post-production is immense. Now, we'll be doing an ep, uh, an episode in the future on photo and video, the differences in work load and workflow. But just to summarize that, if you're, and I say, I say it was photographers adding video in because that's more common than the other way around.

If you are a photographer, add in video in, you're gonna start offering video, you're gonna do a highlight film, whatever. What I'll say is you, you're going to find just how much work goes into video. Not, not the first one you ever do because the first one you ever do probably be, you probably won't even realize how long it's taken you and you'll enjoy it.

But after that, it's going to, if you're gonna be doing it alongside your regular pho wedding photos, you're gonna realize just how intense the video workflow is. So an example will be like a photographer starts offering highlight films with limited experience of creating them. And without really understanding what's gonna, what's gonna be entailed in that once they're doing it at volume, like alongside the volume of the photos that they do, especially if you shoot maybe 40, 50, 60 weddings a year as a wedding photographer.

If you start adding like a bunch of highlight films into those because you reach out to your couples and say, Hey, I'm now offering highlight films. Do you want to hire me to do your highlight film as well? Um, But you're kind of doing the same volume with your wedding photos, you are going to get a huge, nasty shock.

I would imagine. And I'm not saying that to to be critical. What I'm saying is, is is I think, I know some photographers that have done this, and it really is hard to understand just how much of a, it will slow everything down because you just won't be able to keep up with the weddings at the same pace.

And then you're gonna end up really hating doing the wedding videos. And then you're probably gonna think, well, it's not even worth it cuz I haven't charged enough. So it really is about reducing, if you're gonna do. Both alongside each other. You really need to have this kind of business plan and it will take a little bit of time to adjust.

You're not gonna be able to do it at day one, but you need to have a a solid plan of, I'm gonna now offer these at volume to start with. I'll restrict it to a certain number that I think I'll be able to manage and then going on, you know, cuz everyone's booking a year or two down the line going on, I'm going to limit my jobs to this many knowing that I'm probably gonna be doing birth on quite a few of them.

So that would be just the, um, that would be the advice. And it's a good reason not to do hybrid if you're not intent on doing that. If you, if you like shooting 40, 50, 60, or however many weddings a year, Probably not a good idea to shoot hybrid unless you've got, unless you're building like a really kind of decent team around you of people to support you, people are going to be helping you out with that.

Or you are going to be, um, you know, contracting out the editing. You're gonna be getting somebody else to edit this stuff for you. Uh, and then it might be worth doing. And the final one, number five is your equipment. You need to invest in the right equipment to be efficient in your workflow and output when you're doing both Photo one video.

Now, what I'll say is this is not, this is not an essential starting point. I would say anybody, you could even film and take photos on your iPhone, right? Hopefully no one's doing that as a professional at weddings or in commercial world, but you can do that. Now if you've got a, a decent, let's say, photography camera, um, you can do both.

You, you most, I don't know any photo cameras now that don't have a video function on them, um, that shoots in either H D R four K and could produce a half decent film if you, if, if you, um, if you wanted to. So it's not about like having to completely change your photo, your cameras and things like that.

But you do need to consider that to be able to create the same thing. There are gonna need to be some adjustments and like, even if it's just simple adjustments, like you might need different memory cards. Because, um, the memory cards that you might use for photo, you might have quite small memory cards and they might fill up really quick.

So you either need to buy more of them or you need to buy bigger memory cards. The memory cards that you are using might be really fine, you know, the speed of them might be fine for, um, Taking photos and it, it kind of putting the photos on there. But as soon as you start putting high resolution video clips on the cards might not be fast enough for the camera to put the, the information on there fast enough cuz it's much bigger amounts of information.

So you might need different memory cards for that reason, you might need more batteries because doing video, it will eat, you will eat through the batteries a lot quicker. And these are like simple things that you might need to consider before you start doing it. And if you're not prepared to invest money in this or you're not, or you haven't got the money to invest in this, then you might not want to do start doing hybrid.

So, More in more detail. You know, if you are a videographer that's gonna start offering photo, you might need to buy things like, uh, flash a strobe for your, um, for your camera to be able to deal with different lighting conditions and make sure that your photo are up to scratch when it comes to certain lighting conditions.

You might not, but I'm just, these are just examples. Or if, if the opposite way around. If you're a photographer going into video, you might wanna invest in a constant l e d light. Um, it could be to do with adding audio recorders into the mix, some kind of microphone, audio recorder so that you can record sound.

Um, you can clip them onto people, you can record them speaking, the vows of speeches, things like that. Um, these are, these are sort of like straightforward, they're not massively big pieces of investment. Or it could be that actually if you want to do hybrid, And you want to be as efficient and you want to have the easiest life as possible for being able to produce a really good product.

Your camera system, either the model that you've got, the camera system that you're on, or the lenses that you've got, might not really be the best choice for being able to do birth. And like I say, you can shoot. Hybrid on anything, but it's about you. What you, what I've learned over the years is if I'm just shooting video, I'm gonna use very limited settings and I can do it on certain lenses if I'm gonna be shooting, just photo the same when I'm doing both.

The main thing that speeds things up and makes things as easy and as efficient and effective as possible is the use of certain lenses. So for example, the Tamron 35 to one 50. I've only had it, you know, I only got it last year. But that lens is a game changer for hybrid. It just allows you to do so much, um, so quickly.

The Sony cameras that I use, things like the A one, just amazing for hybrid because of how quickly they, they do things, the processor in them and everything. So I don't think I would get the same results on a five year old dslr. Um, well, I, no, I wouldn't, it's not even a question, but you know that, that's what I'm saying.

It is. If you want to shoe hybrid, you can do it on anything, but it's really important to consider these things. So there's your five reasons. The whole point is, is that there are good reasons not to, I've listed everything, but they're just five that I came up with. What I would say is not liking change or not wanting to adapt.

Um, they're not good reasons not to do hybrid. You know, that's not a great mindset to have if you're wanting to maintain a successful and sustainable business moving forwards because, Change is like, you'll hear this all over, but change is pretty inevitable in everything. It's the only thing you can really guarantee is that things will change, the world will change.

There's plenty of things I don't really wanna have to do in my business, you know, a big one being Instagram. Um, the way that social media's changed since I started doing this. Bear in mind, I'm not that old and I'm not that out of touch, and my business isn't that old, but I really don't like the way.

It's kind of changed over the last few years. It just doesn't, it doesn't make sense to me. It doesn't sit well with me. Um, but it is how it is. The TikTok, Instagram real generation is how it is. Um, I can't resist that. I can't say I'm not doing it. Um, I, I have to make some kind of effort to move with the times, the way the industry has changed and it'll continue to change.

There'll be something new in a couple of years time. There'll be changes. As for as long as I'm doing this and as long as you are doing this. So just saying, resisting that change is like saying, I'm not gonna get a digital camera. I'm just gonna carry on shooting on film and delivering 30, you know, well, let's say two rolls, like 60 to a hundred images.

I'm gonna, I'm gonna give 'em two rolls of film and that's it. And I'm not gonna advertise online. I'm not gonna get a website because, you know, that's how it's done. That I, I put my thing in there. Yellow pages and I get booked up and then five years later you've got no business. So really important stuff to move with the times.

I hope that's being useful to listen to the five reasons that you shouldn't offer Hybrid as a business. Um, and that is it for this episode. If you've got any questions. Uh, from the episode or you want to comment on anything that I've talked about, you know, you wanna wagging with me, you want to, um, gimme something I haven't thought of or ask any questions.

You can get me on Instagram at Doto Studios, just send me a dm, can type it out, voice note, whatever. I'd love to hear from you and I will get straight back to you. I always get back to people when they ask questions or, um, make any comments and, uh, thank you for listening. Hope you've enjoyed this little mini episode.

It's been a little bit longer than I intended, but hey, I like to talk. Thanks for listening to you on the next episode. Bye.