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05/28/2008 03:08:25 AM · #1 |
My cousin is having her baby boy baptised this coming weekend and she asked me to be the "official" photographer for the baptism.
My thoughts:
1) As much as I'm excited with the opportunity, I'm also nervous that I'm gonna let her down
2) Apparently, she was impressed enough with my earlier shots of her baby that she asked me for this favor
3) I've never been the official photographer of anything!
4) I think I'm underequipped...
----- a) I don't have a hotshoe flash (although that's partly because I'm really biased towards working with available light)
----- b) I only have three lenses: 40/2.8; 10-20; 135/3.5 (what should I use? I'm leaning towards the 40/2.8)
----- c) I've never been the official photographer of anything!
5) In addition to being the photographer, she also took me as her kid's godfather! (although I think she got A LOT of godfathers/godmothers)
This feels like somewhat of a baptism of fire for me, so I'd appreciate a lot if you guys could share your thoughts, tips and tricks regarding shooting baptisms and my current situation.
Lots and lots of thanks!
Message edited by author 2008-05-28 03:09:01. |
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05/28/2008 04:02:25 AM · #2 |
| Sorry, the only advice I can offer (since I have almost no gear and am a crappy photographer) is; Keep your camera away from the water! :) |
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05/28/2008 04:16:13 AM · #3 |
I looked up your 40 mm 2.8. That little pancake lens looks pretty cool!
My advice would be to use that one. And bump the ISO up and keep it at 2.8. The church will most likely be dim during the service. I find the key to good high ISO shots is to get it right in camera, or overexpose if you can and bring the exposure down later, seems to help with noise. Also after the ceremony you will be able to get nice posed shots with a little more control. Keep your camera away from the water, but if it gets wet it will be blessed. :P |
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05/28/2008 07:41:44 AM · #4 |
I am not really familiar with Pentax lenses, however, I see that they have a 50mm f1.4 for around $200.
That is the lens you need.
Depending on how dim the church is, the f2.8 may not produce any good images without using flash, which can be very distracting during a special ceremony like a baptism.
Are you doing this as a favor or is your cousin going to pay you something?
My suggestion is either buy, beg, or borrow the 50mm f1.4 for shooting the baptism.
I hope it all goes well for you!!
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05/28/2008 07:42:37 AM · #5 |
Wait until the baby is old enough to make that decision for himself? :)
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05/28/2008 10:34:27 AM · #6 |
I am guessing this is a Catholic baptism. These go one of two ways: during the mass, or after the mass for family and friends only (although could be multiple baptisms, even if after the mass). If it is during the mass, you might have an opportunity to snap a few pictures with flash without interupting too much. Everyone has a camera today, and people expect families to document these ceremonies.
Hopefully it will be after the mass, they are more relaxed and usually don't worry too much about pictures. The one I attended this weekend was after the mass, and the Deacon encouraged photographs and video. So I shot away, with flash, even walking around slightly (not distractingly) to get good angles. It was still very dark and hard to balance the Deacon and baby's bright white ceremonial garb to the dark church and dark dress clothes the parents and godparents were wearing. But manual mode and the flash saved me, even at 1600ISO.
Keywords here: flash. Use your fastest lens, and try to add some light! If anything, grab a few key shots: Priest interacting with baby (tracing cross, applying oil, pouring the water); Family standing around baptismal fountain; lighting and passing of baptismal candle; Priest with hand(s) in air blessing the child, family, everyone else.
Then take some really good, posed group shots at the alter when the ceremony/mass is over and the everyday church-goers have left the church. Parents with child; parents, child, godparents; parents, child, priest/deacon; parents, child, families; etc. Heck, even bring your tripod along for these. These will be what goes up in a frame or in the baby book.
That's about all I've got. Good luck!
-drew
ETA: if you end up coming across a hotshoe flash to use, get a light modifier/diffuser of some sort to keep the shadows from being really harsh.
Message edited by author 2008-05-28 10:38:30. |
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05/28/2008 09:46:25 PM · #7 |
Originally posted by BeeCee:
... (since I have almost no gear and am a crappy photographer) ... |
i looked at your profile and i'd have to say that you're being really modest =p and yeah, i'll keep my camera away from the water! =)
Originally posted by jdannels:
I looked up your 40 mm 2.8. That little pancake lens looks pretty cool!
My advice would be to use that one. And bump the ISO up and keep it at 2.8. The church will most likely be dim during the service. I find the key to good high ISO shots is to get it right in camera, or overexpose if you can and bring the exposure down later, seems to help with noise. Also after the ceremony you will be able to get nice posed shots with a little more control. Keep your camera away from the water, but if it gets wet it will be blessed. :P |
I love my pancake. LOVE. ISO800 maybe? or even higher? My Pentax K100D doesn't handle noise that well as compared to higer-end cameras of course, so that's gonna be a problem. Maybe I could just use some noise-removal software during post-processing. Any suggestions?
Originally posted by aguapreta:
I am not really familiar with Pentax lenses, however, I see that they have a 50mm f1.4 for around $200.
That is the lens you need.
Depending on how dim the church is, the f2.8 may not produce any good images without using flash, which can be very distracting during a special ceremony like a baptism.
Are you doing this as a favor or is your cousin going to pay you something?
My suggestion is either buy, beg, or borrow the 50mm f1.4 for shooting the baptism.
I hope it all goes well for you!! |
Well, getting another lens for this particular purpose is pretty much out of the question for now. Though I'd think the 40mm is close enough to the 50mm although definately not as fast.
I'm just doing this as a favor and to be able to practice. My cousin isn't paying and I'm not asking for anything. I just want to be able to give her decent enough shots of her kid's baptism =)
Originally posted by HawkeyeLonewolf:
Wait until the baby is old enough to make that decision for himself? :) |
eh?
@drewbixcube: Thanks for that anecdote. I'll talk to my cuz and see what we could arrange =p I'll also try talking to the priest before the ceremony.
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06/04/2008 05:05:21 PM · #8 |
The Baptisms I have shot go pretty quickly as I go to a baptist church and range from young children to adults. I have my camera set to multiple shots so I don't have to wait for it to save an entire image before shooting the next shot and I get them entering the baptismal pool, one just before they go under, one under, and one coming up all wet. The last 3 shots happen in a matter of seconds. I have only used my on camera flash and stand in the back of the church but then our church is small and well lit.
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