Taking Pics in a church. Tips please.

Redtech · Apr 17, 2014

My son has an event in our church in a couple weeks. It's a large one with lots of stained glass. Pictures tend to come out very dark. In the past, I always just had a point and shoot, but I was given a Nikon D40 and am slowly learning how to use it. There will be a "Professional" photographer there, but we've ordered pics from him before that he took in the church that were yellow and even out of focus. Very disappointed.

I'm going to take my camera along and at least get a couple of my own. I will NOT stand behind the "professional" while he's taking his. That's beyond rude.

So does anyone have any tips taking pics with a lot of stained glass light streaming in?

Thanks in advance.

Designer · Apr 17, 2014

"Fast" glass.

Welcome!

robbins.photo · Apr 17, 2014

Well one of the biggest factors is going to be the speed of your lens, meaning it's maximum aperture value. The smaller the aperture number the wider the lens will open and the more light it lets in.

So my suggestion wpuld be to shoot in A mode, aperture priority. Set the aperture to as small a number as you can get to let in the most light,

You will probably need to use a slower shutter speed like 1/80 so try to get shots of people when they aren't moving around to much so you won't have problems with motion blur.

If you need to increase shutter speed increase the iso. Shoot in raw so you can deal with any white balance issues in post. If you can get to the church before the big day and practice to find the best settings.

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astroNikon · Apr 17, 2014

What he means by "fast glass" are lenses that have an aperture opening of f/2.8 or greater (f/1.8, f.1.4)
Most consumer lenses do not do this (the lenses that generally come with cameras)
The fast glasses, also have a fast price though, some, such as fixed focal lengths lenses like a 50mm f/1.8 can be had for much less money.

The larger aperture opening helps in low light, basically giving you a larger opening to let in more light while that camera takes a fast picture. Then you get proper light exposure.

you could always use a hot shoe mounted flash to help.

Redtech · Apr 17, 2014

Thanks guys, I have 2 lenses. One goes up to 50MM and the other goes up to 200MM. I'll have to look at them to see what their f# is. I shouldn't have a problem with motion, though my son is squirmy. I'll be taking stills.

I do shoot in raw and use LightRoom to make edits, but I'm still learning on that too. I get frustrated easy and walk away.

Designer · Apr 17, 2014

While using your 50mm, be mindful of the aperture and shutter speed. You might have to boost the ISO.

Consider using your tripod and letting the shutter speed to go to 1/40 sec.

TCampbell · Apr 17, 2014

This is a _very_ classic "church" problem. Most churches are poorly lit. Photography is generally frowned upon during a ceremony.

This forces you to use high ISO settings (which generates a lot of image "noise") and also slow the shutter speed (which makes "hand held" photography extremely difficult).

A "fast" lens (low focal ratio) means the lens collects substantially more light while the shutter is open... this results in two good things and one bad thing. The good things are (1) you don't have to use such a slow shutter speed which helps the "hand-held" problem and (2) you can also reduce the ISO setting which reduces the "noise", but (3) it also means the range of distances at which a subject will appear to be more or less acceptably focused (what we refer to as the "depth of field") becomes very shallow.

To deal with the slow shutter speed problem... you need to find a way to improve the stability of the camera AND anticipate and shoot at moments when your subject is not moving. There actually is a "right" way to hold a camera which improves your stability... your body center of gravity needs to be centered over your feet and your feet should have a moderately wide-ish stance for stability. Your camera needs to be supported with the palm of your left hand with elbow tucked in at your stomach (underhand grip - not overhand grip). Of course a tripod is best for stability (assuming it's not a flimsy tripod). You can also learn to lean your body and camera on objects (e.g. if there's a column you can lean on, etc.) then that helps too.

When the depth of field is shallow, only one person may be in acceptable focus (unless they're lined up in such a way that they're all the same distance from the lens) -- if you were hoping to get a few people in acceptable focus, that may be a problem.

The D40 is a very old body with a max ISO of 1600 ... and a mode where you can up-cap that limit and take it to ISO 3200 (but you won't like the results). You can reduce noise when post-processing images on the computer, but this comes at the expense of softening the image. A newer body would provide significantly better low-light performance. It's the easiest way -- but also most expensive way -- to solve the problem.

vintagesnaps · Apr 17, 2014

I agree the lens would make a difference in shooting in low/mised lighting. What could happen depending which way you face in relation to the window,s and how sunny it is (and the time of day), is that the meter could be reading the light coming in the window instead of the interior light. So it might indicate settings that won't get enough light into the camera (because it's reading that it's bright).

Sometimes in mixed lighting I'll point the camera somewhat downward toward the area in front of me to meter and then adjust settings - then I'll reframe and focus.

Sometimes I'll bracket shots - take more than one shot and adjust one setting each time - if the meter indicates 1/125 at f8 then I might also take one at 5.6 and 11. I use that technique more for shooting B&W film in tricky lighting to make sure I have a negative that's not too thin or too dense, but I sometimes do it outdoors in mixed/changeable light, or if the meter is fluctuating in between two settings.

Depending on where you can stand/sit and take photos, you might think ahead of time about where may be the best vantage point. It could help to go early and take some test shots of where the event will be happening to give you some idea what camera settings will work, how the background will look in your pictures, etc.

ecphoto · Apr 17, 2014

Redtech said:
My son has an event in our church in a couple weeks. It's a large one with lots of stained glass. Pictures tend to come out very dark. In the past, I always just had a point and shoot, but I was given a Nikon D40 and am slowly learning how to use it. There will be a "Professional" photographer there, but we've ordered pics from him before that he took in the church that were yellow and even out of focus. Very disappointed.

I'm going to take my camera along and at least get a couple of my own. I will NOT stand behind the "professional" while he's taking his. That's beyond rude.

So does anyone have any tips taking pics with a lot of stained glass light streaming in?

Thanks in advance.

You need fast lenses and a speed light. If you don't have a budget for glass you can bump up the iso a little, the d40 is pretty old so don't go to high or you may have substantial noise. A prime 35 of 50 f1.8 will be pretty cheap and enable you to shoot in darker situations as well.

Redtech · Apr 17, 2014

Thanks everyone. I'm really learning a lot here! I know the D40 is old but it was given to me for free. If I can figure it out and start taking decent pics (which I have... in Auto *blush*) then I will invest in something newer and higher MP.

Our priest would probably take a cane to anyone trying to take pics during church, but there will be plenty of time beforehand to take individual photos in front of the altar and I'm not too interested in the group shot afterward so I'll just get one from the other guy taking pics. There are also lots of nice old statues outside in the courtyard. I'm hoping to get a few nicer spring pics out there. Hopefully the weather will be good. Of course, if it's cloudy and nasty, the indoor shots might be better. I'll take plenty of shots and tweak the settings as I go.

JosephW · Apr 18, 2014

There is no shame in Auto my friend! Although I'd try to get out of it as soon as possible. Like said, try aperture priority, with the lowest aperture possible. With the D40 i wouldn't go any further than ISO 400, and even then be careful. ISO 800 is gonna be painful but if you MUST use it, don't hold back and miss anything. As Designer said, try a shutter speed of around 1/40th and 1/60th if there is a little bit of movement.

Designer · Apr 18, 2014

Redtech said:
Of course, if it's cloudy and nasty, the indoor shots might be better.

Not necessarily. Bright sunlight streaming in through stained glass windows makes wonderful (though mixed in color) light.

However, try it by all means. Some of the more delectable light occurs around burning candles, for instance.

NancyMoranG · Apr 20, 2014

Can you try photos before the big day? Go early for church next time you go and see what happens.
Nancy

Braineack · Apr 20, 2014

God I love being able to shot low-light. When I shot in a church earlier this year, I had a 3.5-4.5 lens attached for the Lens Across America campaign. I don't shoot very well without VR on low shutters, so I set to 1/250 and just bumped the ISO to 5000

didn't even bat an eye doing it.

UVA Chapel by The Braineack, on Flickr

the sun was shining very bright directly into a side window in the shot above, if that will help you get a frame of reference about the lighting challenge of a church. The window in the rear was completely washed out, but I was able to recover most of the data in the stained glass.

table1349 · Apr 20, 2014

Here is a thought that is probably a little on the old fashioned side. If this is a religious event, how about taking photos before and or after and celebrate the occasion instead of recording it?