 BetterPhoto Member |
Wedding Photography in a Low-Light Church I am going to be shooting my brother's wedding in a low-light church. I am not the best with a flash, but would love to get some really great intimate pictures. Any ideas???
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Doug Elliott |
First, what is your budget? You could get permission from the church to change the lamps in all the lights to ones of higher wattage. You can use hot lights to bring up the overall luminous of the church. Alternatively, you can use a tripod and shoot long exposures. I normally photograph most of the wedding party before the wedding ceremony. Therefore, I have everyone at the church two and one half hours before the ceremony. I am at the church one half hour before anyone else shows. I am setting up my flash equipment and working from light meter readings from a Sekonic 558. I have my assistant fire the flash and take meter readings, so I know that when the bride comes down the isle, at five rows from me I need to have my camera set at 60sec and f/5.6. If you can, go to the church a week before the wedding and practice. When the big day comes, you will be ready. Good luck and keep shooting.
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Maria Melnyk |
Doug's advice is good but rather complicated. Rather than going through all that, first find out if your church has any restrictions. If so, and if you talk to the priest a few days ahead of time, he might be willing to relax some of these restrictions just for you, allowing you to use flash or stand where photographers normally aren't allowed. Use 800 film, use auto or TTL flash, and set the flash exposure for a 1/2 extra stop for better exposure. Set the camera at f/5.6 at 1/30 sec. (I use 1/30 instead of 1/60 because that brings out the background better so that it doesn't look like you're photographing inside a black hole; just make sure that the ambient exposure is at least 2-3 stops under that, or you'll get ghosting in your flash images. If that's the case, switch to 400 film, and use the 800 for available-light shots.) Two lenses that I always use in churches to help with getting those intimate pictures, in addition to my standard zoom, are an 85mm f/1.8, and a 70-200mm zoom f/3.5-4.5. The first one I use wide open with ambient light, and the second one I use with flash, and I'm able to get real close. (To all of you photographers who own a 70-200 f/2.8, I am not strong enough to lug one of those around, let alone lift it up to my face, but the one I have is great.) Yes, use that tripod. Go up to the balcony and photograph both with a telephoto and wide-angle lenses. Go back down, stand in the back, put your camera on the ground on one of those little table-top tripods, tilt it up, and you'll get a wonderful shot that everyone I've done this for loves. When you're up close, make sure you're ready for any intimate moments between the couple, such as any conversation between the two, laughter, smiles, etc. Now, back to film (or digital setting). In another camera try a roll of black & white 3200-speed film for available light shots (made by Ilford or Kodak). Black & white is more intimate than color, and most of my brides ask for it. You can also use 400-speed with flash; the grain is better. Doug, I don't know if it will be possible for Lori to get to the church 2-1/2 hours before the ceremony. There might be another wedding going on, but won't the bride want photos first at her house with her parents and bridesmaids? After that, I get to the church 1/2 hour early to photograph the groom and his attendants before the ceremony, and I do all the altar photos (with bridal party and parents) after the ceremony. Lori, you didn't mention whether you are a wedding photographer or not. If you are, that's fine; you know what to do. But if you aren't I strongly feel that something as important as a wedding should be left to the professionals.
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Norbert Maile |
Try using some of the high speed films. They are much better now than ever, and for color an 800 would work well. If you are going to make an enlargement over 8x10 drop to a 400 film. Try also black and white 3200 film but shoot and develope it at 1600. The results will amaze you. Shot at 3200 will give you nice grainy and sensual close ups.Check out the book, " The Art of Wedding Photography" by Bambi Cantrell. It is full of info. Remember, figure out how many rolls of film you will need,, and double it! Good shooting.
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- Greg McCroskery Contact Greg McCroskery Greg McCroskery's Gallery |
Lori, Not sure from your question whether you are shooting film or digital. Never the less, shooting weddings in a church is not all that complicated. I shoot all digital these days and generally switch between ISO 100 and ISO 400. Use ISO 100 when shooting with flash and use ISO 400 for the ceremony shots wihtout flash. In order to capture the beautiful ambient light of the church, you will need to shoot the posed shots and ceremony shots with your camera on a tripod at a fairly slow shutter speed (e.g. 1/4 to 1/15 Sec). I carefully time my ceremony shots to minimize blur due to movement. Remember that any candid shots and action shots, such as the Processional and Recessional shots need to be shot at 1/60 Sec in order to freeze motion without blur. I hope this info helps and pray that your wedding photography experience is a good one! God Bless,
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Maria Melnyk |
I still say that there's nothing wrong with 1/30 sec for the recessional & processional - the flash stops the movement, and you get more ambient light in your background. I don't use 100 in the church, not even for the altar portraits. I use 400 for the whole thing, and yes, I still use a tripod for posed and some ceremony shots, even if I use flash. These days 400 is so good (with the professional films) that there really is no difference between that and the 160 speed films.
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