Note: all images in this blog are very low-res to increase your loading times; if they look a bit blurry that’s why! For sharper, truer images of my weddings, click here.
A Church Wedding in Manchester
Although a traditional church wedding may be what everyone thinks of when they first think “wedding”, more and more services are taking place elsewhere. Around 40% of my bookings last year were church services. The rest took place in registry offices, country barns, town halls, even the homes of literary heroes.
But for Candice and Nathan, there was no question about where to get married. Their local church is a huge part of their life together – with friends & family both a regular part of the congregation.
That’s why it was a delight to be invited to shoot their church wedding in Manchester!
Pros and Cons of shooting a Church Wedding
The best things about shooting in churches: the architecture, the amount of space inside, the organ music, and that every church looks different.
The bad things: the lighting!
Churches are renowned for less-than-ideal lighting. In a lot of cases, ceiling fluorescents to boost the (often minimal) light coming through the stained glass. Churches are lit from a practical standpoint – the light is needed to ensure everyone can see during a service. It’s not lit for the benefit of wedding photographers!
Adapting to the environment
But in 2024, as this wedding was, a photographer can push their technology to the limit. Shooting at 3200+ ISO is possible without the images getting too noisy. Most definitely needed in a regular church. The best part of this is not needing to use a flash, which can be very distracting for everyone in the church (and is often not allowed at all!).
The other drawback from the fluorescents was the amount of strobing it caused my mirrorless camera. While this can usually be easily remedied by switching to the Mechanical shutter, it’s a lot louder! In the end I stayed with the Electronic shutter and adjusted settings to make the best of it.
The result was being able to capture the glory of this church in Levenshulme with its huge ceilings and wide spaces.
Outside in the sunlight!
It was certainly a relief to get outside for the group shots though!
Another bonus of a church wedding is that the grounds usually have a lovely aesthetic. Often lots of brick work to pose against! This church even had a fairly unique logo in the walls, I think to mark it out as part of Manchester?
Churches also usually have well-kept gardens, and this church wedding in Manchester was no different. Beautiful green grass and bright, flourishing flowers abounded.
And a nice big door for our couple to pose in front of – perfect!
Note: all images in this blog are very low-res to increase your loading times; if they look a bit blurry that’s why! For sharper, truer images of my weddings, click here.