First time shooting a christening

JonnoC

JonnoC

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Jonathon
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Hi Guys

i am looking for some advice as a friend has asked me to get some photos of his baby sons christening, i have never done this form of photography before

does anyone have any tips etc that could help me out, im purely doing this to help gain my experience and as he is a friend wont be charging him

ive got plently of time to practice etc as its not until the end of august, so i can arrange to get used to photographing the baby etc

its mainly the type of shots that people go for

thanks for any help
Jonno
 
Not sure why you haven't had any replies as yet but I'm sure you'll get some more tips soon enough :)

You tend not to be able to shoot flash inside a church so my basic advice would be lens wide open and up the ISO and have the confidence to get into the prime position for those key moments. Try to catch the emotion of the day, the proud parents/grandparents/godparents etc
 
but don't open too wide, cause you'll need enough DoF to keep all the important people in foci at the same time. Have you been to a christening at all (as a non photographer?)
 
more to the point what lenses do you have at your disposal fella??

Les (y)
 
cheers for the help guys

i think visiting the church could be a good idea

ive currently got the standard sony 18-70mm, tamron 70-300mm and a sony 50mm, i am looking to invest in at least one more lens before the christening though, what would you guys reccomend?
 
A reasonably high shutter speed is good, if available light allows, to freeze the water as it is poured over the child's head. Only do basic portraits in the church - get some others outside after.
 
JonnoC said:
ive currently got the standard sony 18-70mm, tamron 70-300mm and a sony 50mm, i am looking to invest in at least one more lens before the christening though, what would you guys reccomend?
Click to expand...

Depending on how close you can be and available money I would upgrade the 18-70 for a 2.8 version. Somthing like the Sigma 18-50/24-70 or Tamron 28-75 would be good.
 
I went to a christening yesterday, and there were three children being christened at the same time. The vicar stated that you could only take photos around the font, but had to wait until all three were done. At that point everybody charged forward to take the pics. Absolute chaos followed. My advice is to ask the vicar if you can take some when everyone else has left, otherwise all you will get is flashes, arms, heads and of course uncle k******d.
 
i had christening about a month a go and I was NOT able to use a flash. As my baby is not the greatest on higher iso i had not to many great shoots. still quite few to show tho :)
was using Tamron 28-75.
I also invited parents for studio shoots. as I never done christening before i was little stressed lol :)

this is one of the studio shots
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That's nice Paul, I actually think it's better than a church shot as the focus is 100% on the little man

Jonathon - have you done it yet?
 
sorry not been on here in a while been sily busy with work
the christening is this sunday, im good friends with the childs father so im sure if i miss some photos i can arrange a differnt setting aswell as the church photos, ive asked him to also make sure that i get priority over as someone called them earlier uncle k******d so that i can get my shots before everyone else

thanks for all the advice it is much appreciated
 
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