Lighting in the church

Hi, I have been shooting a few friends christenings in the past and have been invited to wedding on Friday. I seem to have trouble with the light. I am getting orange tones which is coming from the stain glass windows the lens I used last time was a 55-300, iso 1600, white balance set on daylight which may have been better on auto. you only have minutes to get it right and every time had to change the lighting in photo shop. I have used a light metre and got a reading of f5 at 125 of a sec using 55-300. I have other lenses I could try which may be better in low light.

Regards Dave

Personally I would never have white balance set to daylight for shooting inside a poorly lit building, I would tend to have it set to cloudy. That said - generally WB is fairly easy to correct pp so not necessarily a big deal.

In my experience - the 55-300 would not be a good lens choice for low light work and if you have other faster glass - you should certainly consider your options.

Carl

I would still go for daylight WB, but it does depend on the light. If there's mixed lighting, such as daylight and tungsten bulbs, then I might even try AWB and let the camera sort it out.

The 55-300mm isn't really the right lens for this, the standard 18-55mm would be better. I suppose the new 16-85mm or the existing 18-135mm would be better still.

Hi, the other lenses I have are 50-200, tamron sp90, and one of old pentax 50 1.7 which I had with the me super years ago and the kit lens 18-55

regards Dave

Am I right in assuming there is some tungsten coloured lighting inside the church? Generally when well within the interior this would be the predominant colour cast, so I'd go for tungsten wb setting, with the a manual tweak back towards cool(blue) to balance. The k7 has a CTE setting (colour temperature enhance) which helps retain natural yellow/orange tones in daylight ... This might be worth exploring in the mixed conditions you're working in, assuming your camera also has this.

Unfortunately it's rare that tungsten is the main light source, and even if it is you would get horrible blue window light. So the Tungsten setting is rarely suitable.

With mixed lighting the overall impression is what counts, and AWB or Daylight should usually be OK. The alternative would be a mass of flash units strategically placed and balanced, like the US Kodak books show us for domestic settings, but on a grand scale.

Yes, I suppose that's right, it must vary depending on how near you are to the windows, their size etc. I should have said before that the manual tweak would be towards yellow, to reduce the blue effect ... I guess that brings us back to awb and seeing what the camera can do. I've found awb very good with mixing flash and ambiant, but I admit to not trying it where there is such extreme difference, such as a church. What do you think about the CTE idea John? It's typical use is to hold colour in sunsets but where daylight is still the overall cast ... Perhaps a church interior has similarities?

If you shoot RAW then you're not 'baking in' a camera choice from the day. I'm all for getting it right in camera, but if you are pushed for time then white balance is something you can correct later fairly easily.

Personally in this instance I'd shoot raw, opt for some faster glass (how close / far back can you get?) The 35mm f2.4 or 50mm f1.8 should give you autofocus and allow you to have a wider aperture, thereby keeping the ISO down or allowing you to up your shutter speed so you get sharper pictures. It all depends on what type of photos you're after, how close you can get, do you want/need a narrow depth of field etc.

Practical tips wise, I'd consider using a grey card initially. Get in there, prearmed with general settings you're likely to use and then tweak as quickly as possible inside the venue. Shoot a shot with someone holding a grey card and you'll be able to select this for colour correction afterwards and apply those settings to all quickly.

youtube example

The only light is from the stain glass windows which are on the sides and front of church they rely on this in the daytime, when I get the images on to my pc their is a orange tint on their faces. My kr is just mid range, going to use the sp90 tomorrow in church and then use kit lens for the group shots and reception, will use awb inside church and see how it goes, thanks for your replys

regards Dave

Was going suggest the sp90 which should give you good results and as you say use the kit lens for the other shots. Also as Richard suggests use raw to give you the chance to get WB spot on - this is a situation where raw is indispensable. The KR is a very capable camera which should give you great results.

Definitely use AWB and RAW for mixed/difficult lighting situations.