Pics from church -- C&C

[DerekSalem]

I'm a member of 707 (basically a 20-30 something church within another church) here in Cleveland and I've always thought about taking pictures of the service (It's been going on for about 7 years and I've been here 6+). On average each service gets around 300-400 people (we've gotten up to around 900 a service, with 3 services every Sunday).

Anyway, nothing has been done to these pics (no PP at all) -- they were just uploaded and linked. Let me know what you think of the actual composition and whatnot (and also what you would do in PP if you'd be so kind). I plan on taking some more, next time actually moving around (this was all done from my spot). Also, sorry about the number of pics. Only meant to put up 3-4 but wanted input on a few more =P

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[DerekSalem]

lol mention church in the title and nobody views or responds =P

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Patience is a virtue.

 

[DerekSalem]

Anybody? Hoping somebody has some criticism for me.

 

[max3k]

I can appreciate how difficult it is to photograph in churches. Our is painfully poorly lit for photography. Overall I think they're good, Might try to get a better angle on the lead singer so there's not a mic in his ear.

 

[DerekSalem]

Aye placement definitely will be adjusted. Next week I'm going to try to get some different heights, as well. Might go upstairs to get some good heightened pictures, probably walk around a bit (we have 2 video camera-men walking around throughout worship anyway so most people won't even notice. The band and pastor are friends of mine so walking around won't be a problem with them either).

Lighting is obviously the problem with pictures in church though...I was using my f/4L and I still wished I could have a bit more light. At 800ISO (didn't want to jump to 1600 although the T2i handles 1600 pretty well) I couldn't really get much higher than 1/60 or 1/80 at most (except when the pastor was up because those spotlights are much brighter).

Might mess a bit in PP but overall I'm not really sure what I'd do with it yet.

 

[PerfectlyFlawed]

way out of focus, blurry, and a ton of distractions in the way. ( example: Mic stands, music stands, ....)

first shot isnt to shabby though.

 

[pbelarge]

Derek
Maybe on your next shoot, try to get some shots that are not as close in as these are.

 

[DerekSalem]

way out of focus, blurry, and a ton of distractions in the way. ( example: Mic stands, music stands, ....)

first shot isnt to shabby though.

Hrm...I can understand the distractions part...but out of focus and blurry?? I had the aperture set to f/4 so ya there's a somewhat shallow DoF (had to set the aperture low since there wasn't too much light and wanted to stop most of the action), but the pictures are focused fairly well and I see absolutely no blur (even blown up to full screen or more). Was that sarcasm??

The distractions I might not be able to get around too easily. I can try to get them to move around a bit next week and move up to the top level (to kind of see over them) but I don't know how much I can really do.

And pbe I'll try getting a few more zoomed out shots next week too. I had a few of them but none I liked.