Baptism-- Camera settings?!?! NERVOUS

[krm4zd]

Hey there,
I've been asked to photo a baptism. I'm nervous. I've never been to a baptism. What standard shots should I try to get? Any tips on camera settings? I only have a Canon Rebel XS. I was considering renting a flash. Should I? I'd like to have more natural lighting.

[Jim Bryant]

You might want to check with the pastor to see if flash photography is allowed. If not,
go early, set your camera on manuel, your lowest f-stop and adjust the shutter speed until you get the correct exposure. You most likely have to increase your ISO to 800 and higher.

[Nicole]

What lens do you have?

In general, you might find this discussion over on Flickr to be helpful to figuring out what shots to get: Flickr: Discussing Help....Photographing a baptism in Nikon Digital Learning Center

In all reality though, it's quite difficult to recommend settings for your camera though. What time of day will it be? How bright is the church? Are there a lot of windows? Where will the sun be in terms of those windows? For the very basics, I'd probably try to get a shutter speed that freezes the action, my starting point is usually 1/125 and then I change that depending on what's going on. Then I'd pick a wide aperture to get rid of as many of the background distractions as I can. So in order to get that I'd adjust my ISO as necessary.

[inkista]

Since nobody else has said it yet:

EF 50mm f/1.8 II. $100. It's all about the maximum aperture, and it's hecka easier to learn how to get something that looks good with a fast prime than it is to learn to get something that looks good with a flash.

Shoot RAW and do white balance correction in post.