Back-up photographer: Advice on lens & settings for No flash

Hey,

 

I'm going to be a back-up photographer in a wedding (my first time). The main

photographer will be using the flash and doing the "formal" shots. I will assist

with extra shots, candids, etc. During the ceremony we have been asked to use

the flash, but not too much. So, we decided the main photographer will use

flash, and I'll stick to low-light, no flash.

 

I have the Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens, Canon 28-105 3.5-4.5 USM, and a Sigma 18-125.

I was thinking of using the 50mm f1.8, during the ceremony. Since, I can't use

flash, my thoughts were to bump the ISO to 400-800 (I have a Canon 300D). And

set the Av to about 2.8-3.5 and see what the shutter defaults to. Either that,

or set the Tv (shutter) to about 1/30-1/60 and see what the Av defaults to. What

do you think about this? I'm open to suggestions. The wedding is indoors, in a

church, with no windows, only lighting will be from the ceiling-lights. I

probably have to correct the White Balance too, right?

 

I'll have space to move around, so the 50mm effectively, becomes a 80mm f1.8, on

the Rebel. I don't think, I'll need the zoom lenses for the ceremony part.

 

Any thoughts, suggestions on camera/lens settings?

 

Thanks,

Amol

Your exposure estimates are probably off a little. If you're handholding you'll probably want at least 1/60th most of the time unless you can brace yourself against somethng and your subjects are not moving. I can almost guarantee you'll need to be at least at 800ASA and opening up to at least, if not wider, than f/2.8 to get that shutter speed.<p>

Low light in a church... usually means high ISO, wide aperture, slow shutter. Without seeing the place or having any idea what the lighting might be like... I would guess a reasonable starting point would be f/2.0, 1/60th, @800ASA... but take a meter reading around the altar and/or wherever the action will be... the light will most likely be constant at any given spot in the church... set your camera to full manual exposure mode based on the meter reading... that way all your exposures will be consistent (again, the light should be also at any given spot)... also do a custom white balance before the ceremony... again for consistency... you should have time before everything starts...or if you don't know how to do a custom white balance, set your white balance to tungsten or to around 3200K... shooting RAW you can make adjustments later, but it is always better to get it as close as possible in the camera. Be careful of your focus point when using wide apertures.<p>

Test before if you can!

With a 300D I wouldn't go past 800 ISO unless in dire need, so I think you're fine there. The 50 f/1.8 is soft wide open, but depending on the available darkness, you might need it. Most churches are shootable at f/2.8 and 1/30 @ 800 ISO though. What I would bring is a tripod, and I'd probably use it for the entire ceremony. That would make your longer lenses usable too.

 

Of course, what you want is Canon's 17-50 f/2.8 IS, but that would probably low the budget, I suppose.

Amol - I think you might be best to use all manual if you have the skill to do that. I find it very stressful to have to keep checking on what the camera 'wants to do'.

I agree with everyone above. You'll probably need f1.8, ISO 800 to get at least 1/60th, and maybe that won't be enough--some churches are really dark, especially without any daylight coming in. Use a tripod and you can use your zooms, as Jim said, plus you can use AV with the tripod without worrying about the shutter dipping below 1/60th. However, learn how to shoot when the subjects are not moving--pauses between speaking, etc. You cannot truly judge sharpness from the LCD. If you are allowed to move around during the ceremony, though, I'd stick to the 50mm 1.8, even with the tripod, and focus carefully--maybe manually since wide aperture focusing is very tricky.

Thanks for the responses. I went by the church, today. I found I was able to shoot at ISO 800, with 2.8-3.5 and shutter speeds of 1/60. From your suggestions it seems like 3.5 would be safer to insure proper focus. I think, I will be able to manage this. I also, was able to get a relatively close to accurate color, using the Tungsten setting on the WB. Thanks for the inputs. Maybe, someday, I'll be able to afford the Canon 18-55 2.8 IS, but for now I have my eye on the Tamron 17-50 2.8, or the Sigma 17-70 2.8-4.5.

 

Thanks again,

Amol

Amol--just to insure you understand that the 1/60th shutter speed is a suggestion for the 50mm lens handheld (or not). If you were to use your zooms handheld, you would use the guideline that states that you use a shutter speed about the same as the (non crop) focal length. So if you are using a zoom with longer than 80mm focal length, you have to up your shutter speed accordingly.

Nadine,

 

Thanks, yes I understood that part. (The rule about 1/focal-length of lens, to reduce blur/shake.) The pictures came out relatively good, I did zoom to wide when using the 28-105, mainly because of the f/3.5, but also to avoid camera shake.

 

Thanks to everyone, for the advice,

 

Amol<div></div>

It's hard to tell, because I resized and changed the resolution. But the photo above is actually pretty sharp and in-focus. I also added the USM in Photoshop, to make it a little sharper.

 

Amol