Professional Camera Settings and Essential Tips for Church Weddings

Church ceremonies are one of the toughest ceremonies to photograph! You know the churches I mean, right? They’re beautiful but dark. They don’t have natural light because of the stained glass. There are lots of glowing yellow incandescent lights on the altar and guests seated in pews that might as well be a black hole. Oh, and you probably can’t use flash because you’re in a church and they often have strict rules against using flash during the ceremony. I knew there had to be a better way to quickly hone in on my ideal manual mode settings for church weddings so I could capture those tricky ceremonies beautifully.

Manual Mode Starting Settings for Churches

Over the years I’ve developed a set of starting points that take the guess-work out of finding my settings and allow me to hone my settings quickly for each wedding day scenario. Here are the starting manual mode settings for church ceremonies:

• ISO: 2500 — A nice middle ground that allows me to properly expose the church altar without losing the highlights.
• f/stop: 2.8 — This is as wide open as it gets with a 70-200 lens, letting in as much ambient light as possible.
• Shutter Speed: 1/200 — To avoid camera shake and make sure hands in motion aren’t blurring.
• White Balance: 3200 Kelvin — This should bring the yellow glow of incandescent lights to a slightly warm, but fairly neutral clean light.

Understanding Your Settings

ISO: Even though the church itself is often quite dark, the altar is usually well lit. In some cases, I pop my ISO up to 3200, but starting at 2500 lets me fine tune quickly. I can then quickly adjust my shutter when I turn and grab photos of the reactions from parents in the first few rows.

f/stop: I list 2.8 as my starting setting because I’m almost always using my 70-200 during church ceremonies. I’ll go as low as 2.0 with my 35mm. By stopping down as low as possible I let in as much ambient light as possible.

Shutter Speed: I adjust to 1/400 for the altar or down to 1/125 for people sitting in the pews as needed. Mastering your camera settings is essential for capturing high-quality wedding photos.

Mastering Planning and Shot Lists

One of the key elements of successful wedding photography is thorough planning. As a wedding photographer, creating a detailed shot list is crucial to ensure you capture all the important moments of the wedding day. Work with the couple during their wedding planning to highlight key moments they don’t want to miss.

Tips for a Comprehensive Shot List:

• Include key moments: First look, bridal party preparations, wedding ceremony, group photos, first kiss, family photos, and the wedding reception.
• Detail shots: Don’t forget to capture close-ups of the rings, table settings, and other décor.
• Group shots: Plan for group photos with the wedding party, bridesmaids, groomsmen, and family members.
• Different angles: Use a wide-angle lens for grand scenes and a prime lens for intimate, close-up shots.

Capturing Nighttime Wedding Photography

Night photos at a wedding are quick, simple, and always impressive. It is a time to get the couple alone, let them take a quick break from the dance floor, and ends the evening on a high note, photographically speaking. To me, a night shot is a photo or series of photos that you take of the bride and groom, which usually involves setting up off-camera flash.

Typically it's backlit, and that is what I find the easiest. One of the things that I am always looking for are frames that I can backlight. Doorways, trees, ruins or structures, interesting foliage patterns, tunnels, or a peaked roof – once you start looking, it won't take long to get inspiration. You'll need a little bit of gear, namely an off-camera flash and a radio trigger, to document the true essence of the couple’s big day.