Portrait/Action Shots for Church

[mrkeenan0]

A friend has asked me about taking some pictures of her church's pastor, his family, and some action shops of him preaching to use on the church's web site.

I imagine this would probably take 30 minutes to an hour for portraits, maybe an hour and a half to two hours for the shots during the service, and limited post processing. As I mentioned, right now the shots would be for use on the web page. It's a small church - maybe 50-200 people (if the specific number matters let me know and I'll find out) and I can't imagine the web site gets too much traffic outside of Lexington, VA - the town is about 7,000 people with maybe 30,000 in the surrounding areas. I've never done a portrait shoot like this before so I'm not a professional by any means so I definitely don't want to charge too much. I think this is all the relevant information but if not let me know.

I have a few other questions: if it is just for the web that the pictures are going to be used, should I give them the full resolution or should I downsize them? If so, what size should the pictures be to give the best web resolution? If the pastor decides he wants prints of the pictures, should I give him a few free or charge normal prices per picture?

Also - I know this is the business section but if anyone can comment on whether a canon 24-70 2.8L lens on a rebel xt would be a good lens choice for the portraits that would be great. I've only got the popup flash which usually isn't great with a long lens like the 24-70. Any suggestions on lighting? Or do I even need lighting if I can get decent natural light or indoor light?

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Dchemist]

Your lens should be fine. I do this for my church all the time. I use a 24-105 F4 but this should not matter. The quesiotn is when in the day will you do this? If its in the AM and the windows face the right way you should have plenty of light. If the light is against you a flash is your only real choice. The one consideration you have is, to get good shots, you need to get into the action occuring during the service. Some find this distracting but its really the only way to get it done. You might propose a service where everyone knows and understands what you are trying to do. The way you can get close-ups of people in "action" as well as from the front of the curch facing the members. Good luck... how much do you charge? I charge zero as its my church and I want the money going to those who need the money to feed their family or some other social need. Sometimes (but not often) I hope to get my out-of-pocket expenses (mostly prints) covered but I always appreciate the "thank you" that I do get. Good luck, Dennis

[asysin2leads]

I have shot a couple of times for my old pastor's church and a church camp. It was a smaller church and everyone was ok with me snapping pictures during the services. The pastor even cracked on me a couple of times, but that's just the relationship he and I have. Ok, here's where it gets a bit complicated. I didn't charge anything; however, one of the deacons insisted that he pay for my film. He was an older guy and didn't really get the whole digital thing. I graciously accepted his check. Why? He felt the Lord laid on his heart to pay for my "expenses". I wouldn't want him to miss out on the "blessing" of him paying. Granted, the check wasn't much, but that's not the point and it went into the church's mission fund. The shots were going to be used for mostly website and a few for print (flyers and some posters). I sat down with the pastor and went through the pics and let him pick the ones he wanted. I know the webmaster of their website and he knows to re-size the images for the website so I didn't have to. I just gave them a DVD w/ the images and they were content with that.

If you are concerned with the flash, rent one. There are several places listed on here that rent equipment. I've used Rentglass.com, LensesTo Rent.com and Ziplens.com and have had EXCELLENT experience with all of them. They rent flashes as well. The 24-70 is just fine for the type of shoot. I used my 28-135 w/ the 580EX II and it was just fine.