Inside Church Comfirmation Pics

[Riss 78]

Hello,
I have been asked to photograph comfirmation for the Catholics Schools. I am not that experienced and I need some tips! I'm shooting three different sessions and one is at night. They are posed shots of each child with the priest after they have been confirmed and also a group shot. I have a Canon40D with 17-85mm lens.

Please help! I have agreed to do this next week-end and I am not feeling very confident!

[DDCSD]

Do you have an external flash?

[Riss 78]

No, I have no external flash

[Disassociation]

Well you still have time, so start by taking a deep breath, you've landed a job, its a good thing :)

Next, check out the venue in advance, its a church, it should be publically accessible before the event, if anyone asks, tell them you are taking photos for next weekends comfirmation event.

Take some test shots while there, is the lighting good enough without the external flash? What angles work best, etc.

If the lighting isn't good enough (as too often it isnt) then you have no choice but to add light to the situation.

Depending how bad the light is, you might want to get an actual strobe, if its close but just a bit off, get an external flash. If you're getting paid for the gig, use some of the money you will be making to justify the costs, OR, find a good shop and rent what you need for the day (or two, for extra practice time)

[Pmolan]

I dont mean to be disrespectful but I went to my friends wedding last month. They hired a pro for their photos but he had a second shooter using his camera with the pop up flash. I couldnt help but laugh when I saw him running around like that. Even if it wasnt for the fact that it looks silly, your pictures will come out sooo much better, even with a 430 EX and a diffuser.

[20droger]

Photographically, do the above.

To make a good impression, get some facts straight. A Bishop does confirmations, not a priest. Call him a priest, and that's an insult (kinda like calling a U.S. Senator "Congressman").

When you sperak to him, call him "your Excellency," not "Father." Just is just like when you speak to a judge, you call him "your Honor."

Also, who hired you? And does the Bishop know? Co-ordinate with him and/or the priest(s) who will be assisting him. Schools and such sometime fail to get their ducks in a row, and you don't want to be the one on the wrong end of the shooting gallery.

Confirmation is a very serious and sacred ceremony.

[egordon99]

Buy a 580EXII (or 430EXII) and start practicing bounce flash like crazy. It took me ~1 year or so to get comfortable using flash and I still sometimes stuff it up...But if you're determined, hopefully you can master it in the next week. Good luck!

[Pmolan]

Bouncing is tough in most churches. High ceilings, brown walls, etc...

[Skrim17]

If you can't but an external flash with a bounce device, try to at least diffuse the pop up as best as you can. I'm thinking a nifty 50 might come in handy.

[Riss 78]

Thank you all very much for your helpful advice. I will keep all of it in mind. If you have any other photography tips I would appreciate them. :-)

I am very much aware of the sanctity and reverence of the occasion. I also have vast experience teaching in catholic schools.
In our diocese there is currently not a bishop and as I stated in my post, a priest (that is a personal friend), will be conducting the service.
My original post also stated that I would be taking photographs after the Mass.
I am more than aware of the sacredness of the occasion.

Once again, thank you everyone for the photography advice.

[bric-a-brac]

I do a lot of location portraiture, and an alternative possibility you can invest in since you mentioned that you're doing posed shots:

get a vivitar 285 manual flash, either a longish sync cable or some cactus radio triggers, and a lightstand/reflector umbrella kit from ebay.

you now have a single off camera light that you can use for portraiture. to add a little fill, you can get a big sheet of white foamcore from a craft store to use as a reflector.

[ebann]

In a nutshell:

Manual mode
ISO 800 (or 1600)
Widest aperture
Shutter speed at max-sync 1/250
Get a flash and point to the ceiling for bounce without modifiers
Check metering on a grey card and make sure it's around 0 to -2 (2-stops underexposed)
Take a test shot and check the histogram, the rightmost being around 1/2-1/3 from the rightmost quadrant (change shutter speeds as necessary).
This is what I did yesterday at my church with the usual bad lighting. I got natural looking shots without any obvious flash "burns". This method is good enough for even slow shutter speeds of around 1/15. Your IS will definitely help getting sharp backgrounds.

The long version of this tutorial is found at:

http://www.planetneil.com/tangents/exposure-metering/

Read all thru the exposure/flash tutorials. It will raise your flash/exposure knowledge many steps up!