baptism..flash or no flash?

Hello, my friends asked me to photograph their daughters baptism Sunday so of course I said yes. I rented a 70-200 2.8 IS which will be my main lens along with my 24-105 3.5-4.5 and nifty fifty only if I have to use them. The camera is a rebel xt with grip and my question is do you think it is wise to use my 430ex flash with the 70-200 @ 2.8? The event won't be in a church but rather at my friends condos community room which is decently lit. Is it possible to get a shutter speed fast enough indoors with this lens to stop motion blur? I've had poor results in similar lighting with my 24-105 no flash/wide open and I'm hoping since this lens is nearly 6 times the cost it will perform better in natural light. Thanks,

Mike

Is it an immersion baptism or just pouring water over the head? I shoot in my church with the 70-200 2.8 IS all the time and it works great. If it is an infant baptism then you won't have any problem and won't need a flash. I do use ISO 1600 for almost all of my shots and a monopod.

Thank you for your reply. It is an infant baptism so I assume they will just be pouring water over her head. I'm curious why you think that would make a difference? I would like to avoid using a flash if possible even though the family and reverend said it would be okay to use. I just think natural light shots look better. With the xt I can't really go over ISO 400 or the image gets really grainy and I would like to have them as crisp as possible before PP to run a slideshow on my laptop for the guests during the post party. what kind of shutter speeds were you getting in your church shot wide open at 1600? Thanks again,

Mike

The lens should be fast enough for good shots without flash. However, since the event is in a community room, rather than a church, chances are you'll have a nice white ceiling to use for bounce flash. A vertically or nearly vertically bounced flash can produce a very nice soft light that looks good on small faces.

If the ceiling is light, but not white, shoot raw, and correct the white balance in post processing. In fact, you should shoot raw anyway. You'll have much more control over the final image.

Thank you for the reassurance and advice! 90% of the time I do shoot RAW but since I want to have a slide show playing during the dinner I won't have time to post process all of the files. I can use RAW files in the slide show but my laptop gets a little sluggish. I do think I am going to try bounce flash and see if I can get the color correct with pre-sets and if it's way off I will shut down the flash.

Don't take too many photos and keep in mind that it is a holy ceremony... A few weeks ago there was a baptism at my church, and these two females with SLR's were taking pictures of the family sitting down during the consecration, during the Our Father, and during communion. It got quite annoying and was quite disrespectful as well. Good luck.

You can always shoot raw+JPEG, use the JPEGs for the dinner show, and process the raws later for the best possible shots.

Experiment beforehand with bounce flash and preset white balance to find the color temperature that works best in that particular location.

A few years ago I did a formal baptism of my wife's granddaughter (my step-granddaughter): full regalia, candle blessing, exorcism, the whole megillah!

A friend videotaped the whole ceremony for the child's mother. A week later, her husband recorded over the tape to capture a football game. This resulted in some amazing fireworks I'm glad I didn't have to see, though they still pop off now and again.

I wish we shot MORE at the ceremony. Since I was the father getting my son baptized i did not use any cameras but asked everyone attending to take as many as they could. Of course they did not, they took a few and watched. At least the priest was nice to stay later and pose with us.

Remember, it isn't about you or the photograph. Anything that detracts from the real reason people have gathered can be viewed as a rather selfish act... imho. There are plenty of ways to get the shot without bringing attention to yourself.

Croasdail wrote in post #5894106
Remember, it isn't about you or the photograph. Anything that detracts from the real reason people have gathered can be viewed as a rather selfish act... imho. There are plenty of ways to get the shot without bringing attention to yourself.

i agree which is why i rented a 70-200 so i could stand off in the back and zoom in to get the shot.

I just looked back at my wedding pics in the chuch- for the non-flash pics during the ceremony my photog used a 17-55 and a 70-200 f/2.8 IS. For the ring shots etc. he had the 40D set to ISO1600 200mm 1/60sec f/2.8. But a 30D/40D can handle noise better at ISO1600 than a XT/XTi (I know I just shot a wedding and my shots at ISO1600 at a bit noisy- and they are exposed properly). I'd say if you can do ISO800 then you should have good quality images with natural light- but if you can't get the shutter speed high enough (1/60 for example) you probalby should use a flash and keep it at ISO800 (or lower). Bouncing the flash off the ceiling or wall will produce nicer results than direct flash aswell.

You should go to the condo beforehand and take some test shots- see what you are able to work with. And shoot in RAW of course.

Having owned an XT I can assure you you can bump the iso to 800 or higher while still getting nice images. you might have to run a noise program but the results are generally worth it in my opinion.

A community room is much different from a church, see if you can get in a day or two ahead of time (or at least an hour or so) and shoot around to test out what settings would be best. Bounce flash is much better than straight on, tho the 70-200 should do you well in the low light.

D_CeLiRaToR wrote in post #5889344
.... to run a slideshow on my laptop for the guests during the post party. ........
Mike

Wow, they have parties after baptisms now. Do you give gifts as well? I haven't been to church in years and did not know this. It's a very special occasion but a post party seems nothing but modern day greed to me. Sorry.

20droger wrote in post #5892869
A week later, her husband recorded over the tape to capture a football game. This resulted in some amazing fireworks I'm glad I didn't have to see, though they still pop off now and again.

Hope his team won. Them fireworks would have been worth getting shots of.

The reason I asked is because some denominations will baptize by dunking a person in a pool of water. This will create a lot of motion and possible blurring. I think you will be just fine with an infant baptism and the available light will give it a nice soft touch I'm thinking. And with the 70-200 you can stand back and not even be noticed. I'm often back 15 rows when shooting a rehearsal and it works great.

You can look at my website under Willow-password "green room" and some of those shots were done with no flash, an XT and ISO 1600.