D3100 help with Christening

White230

White230

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Chris
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Hi all,

I've a christening tomorrow and I was hoping someone could help with what settings would be best for the event. I.e. Aperture priority, shutter etc, iso.

It's in a church, and I'll be using the kit lens 18-55mm, as it's the only one that'll be suitable. I'm guessing iso will have to be quite high due to the dark inside the church?
 
Concentrate on portraits outside the church after the christening when the lighting will hopefully be better. If you're allowed to take photographs inside the church count that as a bonus. Churches vary, but lighting is usually poor. With a kit lens you may need to crank the ISO, but remember that a noisy but sharp shot is always going to be better than a blurred shot with too slow a shutter speed. And a black and white conversion hides a multitude of high ISO sins.

As to mode, in the church either shutter priority or manual. When it's dark and you're shooting handheld the shutter speed is going to be more critical than the aperture. And if it's dark the camera is going to open the lens as wide as it can anyway. Chimp a few test shots as soon as you get inside. Check today to see how slow you can go with the shutter speed without blur whilst handholding.
 
A tripod might help you indoors for low light, slower shutter speeds, and keep the iso low as possible. The d3100 is quite happy at higher iso, but without a fast lens in a dark church, you may struggle without flash
I'd shoot manual as its not like you wont have time to adjust best settings, but I rarely use other modes unless the conditions or subjects are changing quickly
Enjoy the shoot, and try and borrow a fast lens :-)
 
I've just had a play with shutter speeds and I can do 1/15 handheld-shutter priority, that was wide open 5.6, iso800. Had a couple at 1/8 but I don't think I would get many keepers.
 
1/15 is pushing it for consistency I would think?, especially if the baby or the people move at all.
 
With my little one even going down to 1/60 can cause a little blur (wee b****r never holds still), you've got another stop even at 1600 the noise is manageable.
 
:agree: Dont be afraid to boost the ISO to get a reasonable shutter speed. Personally, in churches I shoot either manual or more often Aperture mode. Set the aperture wide open as possible and boost the ISO until you achieve a useable shutter speed.

I have to say you may struggle with the kit lens depending on the lighting conditions in the church. I tend to shoot a 50mm at f1.4 and 70-200 at f2.8 in churches with the ISO somewhere above 1000.

Good luck :thumbs:
 
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