Advice for a christening

[Bell]

I am in search of some advice on what setup/settings etc for my niece’s christening this weekend.

Im relatively new to the photography scene (it will ony be my 2nd “proper” go, ie not a teddy bear as a subject) so this is going to be a good day to get some “real” shots.

I have done plenty of reading but after some experimenting indoors at home I’m concerned that I won’t be able to get fast enough shutter speeds inside the church to retain sharp images. No flash is allowed during service but I only have the built in flash at the moment anyway.

The 50mm 1.8 is the fastest lens I have on my 500D, would this be the better lens to use?
My 17-40 f4 and 70-200 f4 require the iso to be bumped up quite high to get good s/speed and I find the 500D quite noisy above 800 iso. Is this something I could overcome with a bit of PP?

It seems the more experimenting I do, the further I get from an good result!

 

[shutter_speed]

You are right churches can be very dimly lit. People may say I am wrong but I push the ISO on my camera as hard as hard as I can get away with to ensure I get a decent enough shutter speed to avoid blur. Whatever you do dont up your ISO a bit, still under expose to avoid blur and then try to up the exposure in post, I learnt this the hard way, thinking I was doing right by reducing blur, when I came to up the exposure in Lr there was no way the noise reduction was going to save me.

the 1.8 is a cracking lens and will do the job, remember its a chirstening so there wont be much jumping around going on, just time yours shots and pick your moments.

also being a church if it happens to be sunny outside you could get stray beams of light, This can send contrast crazy so beware in group situations.

Just remember shooting at 1.8 will throw lots out of focus, use it wisely, other than this try bumping your iso up a bit, stop your lens down a few notches and see what shutters you are get. (this is based on my experiences, I hope this helps).

The best way to learn is to go and do it, you'll soon adapt to the situation.

Alex

 

[Iris]

I have a 500D and photographed a wedding in aperture priority with auto-iso ( ) and have usable shots at 1600 so try not to worry about it too much. I'd go for the 50mm 1.8, it'll be grand

 

[Richard King]

christenings...

you have 4 photo opportunities

1. general shots of the congregation and the church. Ideally you break yourself away from the congregations, and sit to the side (in front of the congregation if you can), you will need a wide angle lens. use a monopod or use a pew to steady the camera. move about in the Hymns
2. in and out shots (congregation / players on the way in or out, inside or out) . Depending how you shoot, a short zoom or 50mm lens is fine
3. shots round the font.. these are either easy and airy or crammed and awkward, you probably will get away with flash. If it looks tight, you need a medium zoom, if it isnt, you use a shorter one and get in closer
4. Set pieces.. often vicars will be available for shots you set up in the empty church

 

[Bell]

Thanks for all the advice guys. I will be putting this into practise at the next opportunity.
Rosie's christening was quite a learning curve.
After firing off a few shots before the ceremony I didnt have any option but to take ISO to 1600 to get acceptable shutter speeds. I'm not really happy with any of the shots but it's all about learning at this stage.
It looks like there will be a few more opportunities on the horizon as my brother in law is planning his daughters christening now and his girlfriend is planning their spring wedding.

Hopefully will get a few to post for critique from the next outings.
Thanks again for the help.

 

[Russ77]

I did a christening for a friend of a friend earlier in the year but wasn't allow to take ANY shots during the service (so I sat outside the church for an hour )

Got shots of people arriving, group shots (using flash) after the service in the church then some big group shots outside the church.

The Dad is a DJ at a local club so the christening "Do" was at a club so I went to that and got some informal shots of the party and any group shots that the family wanted.

Did all of this using my 7D/15-85mm combo.