Question about 50mm 1.4 in church for weddings

[kBair]

I am new to this forum and loving it. I am a retired (at the age of 25) graphic designer and am trying to learn photography. I've been shooting for about 8 years... first with manual film:) then automatic digital, and the last two weeks I've been shooting manual on my xti.
(Deep breath, here we go)
I just got my 50mm 1.4 because I'm interested in shooting weddings. Right now I'm really only comfortable with outside shots - love them! Mostly still life, kids, and senior pictures. So, I went to a church yesterday and took a few shots. My friend is getting married on Saturday and was there decorating so I snuck around trying out the new lens. Here are the questions I have. I've attached 2 pictures to help explain.

First picture was shot at 400ISO 50mm 1/125 at f/2.8.

1. This church in particular had a huge window above and no other windows. So, a harsh light was coming straight down.
How do you compensate for that?

2. I shot in manual mode... staying mostly on ISO400 and some ISO800. What shutter should I aim to be at in the church with no flash and the 50mm to stop action properly?

3. If the church doesn't allow flash (most don't I think) and you leave the 50mm wide open at 1.4 for the ceremony or processional is the depth of field too shallow to capture the shots we'll want. Somebody in focus and the person next to them not AND when they're walking down the aisle they've probably moved ahead a little by the time the shutter goes off and are slightly out of focus.

Second picture was shot at 800ISO 50MM 1/80 AT F/2.8. (overexposed, right?)

4. Weird color cast and white balance. Everything looks yellow. Is this due to overexposure? Or do I need to change the white balance setting on my xti. I had it set to auto. What setting for a church that has little natural light from above and some lighting of it's own, but still pretty dark.

I've thoroughly confused myself and probably you too. If you think you could set me straight I'd appreciate it. I'll soon be updating my profile, gear list and include my website for you all to critique! Love this website!

[sblais]

Ok, to avoid motion blur, I try to keep my shutter speed at 1/60 or faster. That may be just me, but in the past, I did get some blur for fast paced (read: running ;)) brides or bridemaids, and 1/60 gives me acceptable results.

How to compensate for harsh available light? Take the shot at a different angle or a fill-in flash (if allowed).

I find f/1.4 a bit too soft on that lens for my liking (I know, why purchase a fast lens if you have to stop it down, bla bla bla. That's what I do, it's life, get over it!). I usually stop it down a bit (:eek:) It will help to give you a deeper DOF as well.

Your second shot is overexposed as part of your arm is completely blown out (ouch, that must hurt! :p)

To resolve your white balance issue, shoot in RAW and change it afterwards.

[jamiewexler]

Here's a good rule of thumb: If you are shooting available light indoors, the exposure on the subject is the only one that matters.

Shot #1 is completely underexposed - the subject and the background. It's more noticeable on the subject because your eyes are always drawn to a person's face in a photo first. A couple of observations - it looks like the light is hitting his arm that is a little forward of his body. Had you waited 1/2 second more, it looks like the rest of him would have been in that light, and properly exposed. Since the light was coming from directly overhead, however, you still would have had dark shadows in the eye sockets. Id'a used my flash as a fill for this shot.

Shot #2 is still underexposed IMO. If you look at his face, it us under by about 3/4 of a stop. His arm is again reaching into the shaft of light, completely blowing that out. I always expose for the skin, even at the risk of blowing other stuff out...

The yellow cast is because of the tungsten lighting in the church. Change your WB to the tungsten setting and it will be less yellow. Getting the exposure right will help too. However, that shaft of light puts you into a mixed lighting situation where you have two different colors of light. The light from the skylight is one color and the tungsten bulbs are another. impossible to compensate for in this situation - if you insist on shooting someone passing through that shaft of light one of the colors will be off. You can fix it with a lot of masking work in PS, or you can make it a B&W.

Then there's the exposure differences between the shaft of light and the rest of the interior...

If it were me, I'd avoid that shaft of light except for one or two shots that I'd plan in advance, maybe a shot from behind the bride as she walks through the shaft...but only after I got the safe processional shots with my flash...and I'd plan for it to be a B&W!

[kBair]

Thanks sblais. 1/60th or better it is. And stop it down... is 2.8 enough or more:(
I think that I'd be so worried about overexposing or underexposing. Any suggestions for getting it right during the ceremony.

In weddings, in the church, it seems to me that the metering is all over the map. Do you constantly make changes to shutter and aperture during the ceremony. I would hate to be watching the settings and miss out on a great shot. Or can you take a reading and then shoot, or would you be better off to shoot AV mode?

[kBair]

Great feedback Jamie, I really appreciate it. Two ways to learn in my opinion... Listen to others and practice, practice, practice.

The shaft of light is harsh and I can see why is should be avoided, unless it's going to be used creatively!
Any advice on getting exposures right without taking too much time?

[jamiewexler]

Yup - 1 easy piece of advice for perfect exposures:

Learn how to use your histogram, and watch it like a hawk. It tells the complete story of your exposure.

[Big Mike]

Situations like this, as you see, can cause plenty of exposure problems. A bright spot or the dark background may throw the camera meter way off course. As Jamie said, the histogram makes for a quick and easy way to check. The important thing is not to overload one side of the histogram, especially the highlights.

In a situations like this, the light will probably be fairly constant, unless they are moving in and out of the shafts of light. Therefore, once you get an exposure value that works...you shouldn't really have to worry about it until the light changes. I like to pull out a hand held meter, take a couple of ambient readings, set the camera to that and see what it gives me...then adjust as needed.

As Jamie said, if you aren't using flash then concentrate on the face of your subject and forget the rest. If you are using flash, then you can try to get a nice balance of ambient & flash but that's a whole new ball of wax.