Inside church.....

Hello everyone,

I am still learning all the buttons and settings for the XTi rebel. I have the kit lens, EF-S 18-55 and the Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III USM. Also have a tripod.

I'm looking for advice, we're going to a cusins baby christening and would like to take some really nice pictures for them. I'm just not sure what settings would be best for shooting inside a church.

This church has very good light, both natural and lights. I know it's going to be hard to say without seeing the lighting conditions.

We're going in a couple of weeks and I don't feel I'll know enough about lighting and camera settings to capture the event.

Thanks for the ideas.

Mike

I will use ISO 400-800 with flash if thats allow. Otherwise might have to use ISO 1600. Sometimes the light looks very good but the camera meter see it differently than human eyes . And a tripod may be too much if you have to move around.

With those lenses it will most likely need a flash (if permitted) and high ISO settings. In that kind of situation you will most likely be shooting with the 18-55 so keep it set over 5.6 for your sharpest results.

edit: As stated above^^

I strongly suggest that you go to the church and have the lights turned on the same way as they will be for the christening. Do some experimental shots and see if you have both a decent level of lighting and light coming from a decent direction so that people's eye sockets, for example, are not in total shadow (as they would be with strictly overhead lighting).

You would be well advised to get a hotshoe flash such as a Canon 430EX Speedlite as soon as possible and get some practise using it. For simplicity in the beginning, I suggest using the "P" mode on the camera's dial while using a Speedlite.

DO NOT try to use the built-in flash, as you would almost be guaranteed to get redeye (reflection off the retinas in people's eyes) when photographing people.

Of course, as the previous posts suggested, make sure that you would be allowed to use flash for the event.

A Thought For Your Church Shots...

A very inexpensive alternative to your present lenses which would allow you maximum versatility in lower light shooting at the minimum cash outlay would be the 50mm f/1.8 (either Mark-II or a used Mark-I).

This lens would cost you probably under $100 or less and will allow you much more flexibility in shooting under low light conditions as well as generally better IQ than your present lenses.

Hi Skip...I wish I could go for a practice run. But they live about 5 hours away. The flash is on Santas list....but I've been told I need to be a good boy

If you are using the on board flash check that the 75-300 does not interfere with it...

This is going to sound crazy, but what do you mean when you say interferes with it?

The lens may get in the way of the flash output, and you'll find the picture will have a shadow across the bottom from it.

Buy a 50 F1.8 and set it to F4 and ISO 800 and you should be fine. Prayer may help as well. All church's lighting varies a lot. Some are really really bright and others make you feel like you're back in the dark ages.

No info, it's hard to give advice. I'd almost say get the 50 and put it on auto or AV mode and set it to F4 so it's open enough for light and you should still get some sharp pics.

jmann,

I strongly second the 50mm f/1.8 lens -- fast and sharp (but set it at higher than 1.8). Like was previously suggested, 5.6 might be good.

I'd be cautious about using a flash in this situation, because you don't want to be intrusive in a private moment, but still you might come prepared in case there is a posed portrait.

For anything other than tripod work, you will need a high ISO if you don't use a flash. This will allow you to get a decent shutter speed for up-close hand-held shots. The problem is that at high ISO settings, such as 800-1600, the XTi will show noise. I always shoot in RAW, but I don't have an XTi. My daughter does though, and she shoots in RAW+jpeg. I noticed that the XTi has quite good noise processing in-camera for jpegs, giving pretty good results even with ISO 1600, so, take a deep breath, in your situation I would suggest shooting in RAW+jpeg (RAW so that if you see a great pic that you want to get the most out of you can, but you would have to do your own noise removal as well as other adjustments that the camera does for jpegs).

The key is a high enough ISO so that you can hand-hold shots without camera shake causing blurs and without moving people causing blurs. If you can use a flash that would help with these things but it would tend to darken the background if you used the fastest shutter speed. To get the most of the ambient lighting of a church you would want to use either no flash, or fill flash while still exposing the background lighting. This is tricky, and still calls for the higher ISO and wider aperture (lower f-number).

This all might be confusing if this is your first "serious" experience with an SLR, but I would take the time to understand these issues. Indoor photography can be tricky, especially when you combine people with an interesting setting, such as a nice church, and want more than just snapshots.

Good luck with your endeavor!

Tony