Tips for baptism shoot

Hi,

 

i have been shooting for several years with the EOS system and have a

350D w Tamron 28-75 and 70-200 f4 and a 420EX flash (w Omnibounce) now.

 

Recently a friend of mine asked me to shoot his daughters baptism. I

have to confess, that shooting people is not a thing i do a lot

especially in a baptism/wedding situation, so i fear i will not get

the shots he wants to see.

 

Maybe some of you will let me take advantage of their experience. What

i am most concerned about are the light levels in the church (a rather

small one). My Tamron is not badly suited for this i guess, but what

ISO can i expect to use and do you think, i can get away without

flash?What apertures do you normally use in respect to available light

and DOF?

 

Also, are there any do's and don'ts of this type of shooting?What

frames should i definetely make? (guess i am not so familiar with

baptisms in general :)

 

Thanks a lot!

What denomination? How old is the child? Do they allow flash? What kind of lighting do they have in there now? How close can you get?

 

There is so much diversity with baptisms in differing faiths it is difficult to give specific advice. For some this is a solemn occasion, and with others it's a party with singing and even dancing. Yes, dancing. Really.

 

Generally, I would approach it like shooting a wedding ceremony. Available light. f/2.8 or f/4 or f/5.6 if lighting allows. I would use a monopod, or maybe even a tripod if possible, but 1600 ISO if not.

be prepared for available light. be prepared to have your veiw blocked.

I'm no photography whiz and have only been working with digital for a couple of months now, but almost all my shooting has been with the same camera that you have, Christian, and in low-light church situations (sometimes at dusk with only candles for light). By bumping the ISO up to 800, I have been able to get pretty good shots. I do have a Canon 28-135 IS lens, but I have been able to shoot somewhat fast with the aperture at 5.6 (1/30-ish by candlelight?), so I would think with an F4 at ISO 800, you would still be able to get decent shots. I would definitely talk to the pastor/priest first, though, to see what is ok/not ok to do.

Thank you!

 

Do you think a 17-85 IS would be better suited for the job?

 

The father of the child has one, so it would be no problem to borrow it for the occassion.

These are just my 2 cents, but I have enjoyed having the IS. It does seem to make a difference. And assuming you aren't relegated to the far corner of the balcony, you probably won't need a major telephoto (I'm not sure I fully understand all these conversions, but 85mm on a 350D is actually 135mm for a regular camera, yes?). Maybe talking with the priest/pastor to see how close you can get is an imporant first step to decided which lens(es) you might use?

 

Good luck!

In church wedding baptism, I regularly shoot at 800 iso, sometimes 1600 (the 350d is quite low noise, so shooting up to 1600 is no problem, provided you use some noise reduction software afterwards. Noiseware is a good one. I normally get about 1/30s or sometimes even 1/15s, at f2.8 with fill flash in Av mode, so you still get ambient light conditions. Also, most importantly, have a chat to the father/pastor whether you can use flash and where you are allowed to walk to during the ceremony. It is most important, and most of them will be OK with that, but as a courtesy, always ask first, and it shows that you respect them and the environment. If you can borrow a fast lens like 50/1.8 or 35/2 will be useful too, in case....good luck and enjoy your day !