17 Church Photography Ideas To Add To Your Shot List

The term “church photography” to many means photos of live worship or a pastor preaching. While those are important shots to have in your portfolio for sure, there are plenty of other things you can photograph to help reach people.

I’ve listed seventeen different things that you can photograph for your church as well as some details and tips, consider adding these shots to your church’s portfolio!

Looking for some help staying organized? Check out my article teaching you how to create a church photography shot list.

1. Staff Headshots

Staff headshots help to personalize your church’s website. The congregation and newcomers need to get to know your staff. A faceless organization is not a very welcoming look for a church. Once you have staff headshots, you can consider doing staff highlights on your church’s social media. This takes personalization a step further and can be accompanied by some text about the staff member being highlighted, both personally and professionally.

When taking these photos, you can choose to use a neutral backdrop (studio style), use the church facility as a backdrop, or use nature to show your church’s surrounding environment.

2. Youth Events

Photographing your church’s youth events is a great way to grow your youth ministry. These photos are great for using on social media as a way to showcase what these events look like for newcomers. It’s important to not just show the games and outreach events but to also show the Bible study and prayer that happens at these youth groups. While the games and events may help to reach youth and show them that your youth group is a fun time, it’s important to show your church’s congregation that the youth are being mentored and taken care of spiritually.

Always check with your local regulations when it comes to photographing minors, even in a public or private event. Parents should always be made aware if a youth event has media coverage and be given an option for their child to opt-out. Even if your local regulations mean you don’t need parental consent, it’s the ethical choice to have parental approval.

3. Live Service

Photographing a live church service is what many people immediately think of when they hear the term “church photography”. It involves photographing things like the pastor preaching, communion, and the benediction. The goal is to show the progression of the service as completely as possible. You want these photos to look like they were shot at the same time and place; completely cohesive.

Looking for more tips to shoot a live service? Check out my article teaching you how to do church photography.

4. Kids Program

The kid’s program includes Sunday school, kids programming, and the nursery. As with youth events, don’t just show the kids doing activities like colouring, make sure to show that their relationships with God are being fostered responsibly. Always make sure to have parents sign waivers if you intend on taking photos of children. No exceptions. Even if you’re a small church and know the parents well. Never photograph a child whose parents have not signed a waiver. It’s not okay to take the photo and not use it until the waiver is signed; if there is no waiver, the photo should not exist.

If you’re worried that knowing which child has waivers signed will be difficult, consider using a wristband system. A simple paper or rubber wristband from the dollar store can make it easy to tell which kids are not approved to photograph.

5. Church Branded Materials

Welcome cards, connection cards, and other information packets can all help your church appear organized and professional. They also make it easy for newcomers to navigate your church and get connected with your church community. Branding these items with your church’s logo helps them to look more personal and less like you just used a stock template off Canva, even if you did (no judgment here).

Take detailed shots of all of these materials for your social media and website. For example, if you have connection cards for newcomers to fill out, take some detailed shots of them and post them to the contact page of your church’s website. This makes it abundantly clear that, by collecting information from a contact form on its website, your church intends to connect with new visitors.

6. Production Behind-The-Scenes

Photos of behind-the-scenes of your church’s production teams show the congregation the amount of work that gets done every week, potentially without them knowing. These photos can also help recruit new volunteers. These photos can be from the tech team, the setup crew, the live stream crew, or even the photo and video teams. These photos are especially important for volunteers who don’t work in the sanctuary, like the live-stream audio engineer for example.

Looking to upgrade your gear? Check out my guide to church photography lenses.

7. Pre & Post Service

When photographing a church service, it’s important to also have coverage of before and after the service. This means photos of people pulling into the parking lot, walking into the building, socializing, and getting refreshments. These shots help to show the progression of a Sunday service from the perspective of a congregation member. They help newcomers to visualize what it’s like to attend your church and they may help the experience more comfortable for them.

8. Church Groups

Church groups may include prayer groups, Bible studies, book studies, men’s groups, women’s groups, and mental health support groups. Photos of these groups can help you spread the word about them – to let the congregation know the resources they have available to them.

Show both the members of each group and the space they meet in. Try and get shots of important details. For example, if you’re taking photos of a Bible study, get a shot of a Bible being read or in someone’s hands. If it’s a book study, get shots of the book the group is reading along with shots of people discussing.

9. Church Offices

Photos of your church’s offices give the congregation an insight into the church’s behind-the-scenes. These can be real estate-type shots of the office facilities or candid shots of the church staff in the offices. Try and get shots of decor that makes the offices personal. Anything branded with your church’s logo, or things personal to each staff member, like their workspace (remember to get permission from the staff member first).

10. Volunteer Highlight

Volunteer highlight photos are a great way to show recognition to volunteers, recruit new team members, and show the congregation behind the scenes. Get some shots of a volunteer working, and also try and get shots of them attending as a congregation member. Show the church community that this volunteer is one of them. A great example of this is a volunteer with their family and friends alongside a photo of them working. This solidifies the idea that anyone can volunteer for the church in some form.

Have some room in your budget for a new camera? Check out my guide to church camera bodies.

11. Baptism

Baptisms are an important moment in a believer’s faith journey personally but are also significant corporately as a church body. This is why it’s important to capture baptisms; not just for the benefit of the one being baptized, but for the church community as well. Remember not just to capture the physical baptism but everything leading up to and after the baptism. Show the person who is being baptized with the church community leading up to the event. Show the prayers before, during, and after.

12. Live Worship

Live worship is part of the church service but takes special care to photograph. To get close-ups and detail shots, make sure you show up during rehearsals. Also, be sure to show the worship teams practicing and setting up, showcasing the hard work and dedication that goes into being on a worship team. Photograph the worship team praying together – it’s important to show that this isn’t simply just a “band”. It’s a team of committed church members who have taken on the responsibility of leading others into a place of worship.

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13. Community Outreach

A church needs to be engaged with its community; sharing photos of your community outreach programs and partners encourages this in your members. Show up to some outreach events either hosted by your church or its partners. Be sure to always be respectful and not make anyone feel like a “spectacle”. The community is the main focus of these events, not your photos. That being said, I find that people usually love to have their photos taken and are often excited to see them posted.

14. Global Church Missions

Photos highlighting your global church ministries can be tricky because you probably don’t have the budget to fly out and photograph your church’s missionary or global missions partners. See if your missionaries or partners can send you photos to share with your church communities, and possibly touch them up in editing software to match your church’s other photos. Be sure to get permission before editing anyone else’s photos, especially if the photos come from a photographer whose livelihood is centred around how his/her photos look.

Speaking of editing photos, check out my my article showing step-by-step how I edit my photos. I even show the exact export settings I use for my client work.

Alternatively, you can take photos of things that have been brought back from these global partners in the past. Anything that would symbolize the location that the ministry your church supports is located in.

15. Church Congregation

While it’s important to showcase the staff and volunteers of your church, it’s also important to take photos of your church community. This is usually done at events or church services. During services, try to get shots of people engaged and focused on the sermon, people following along with their Bibles, and people engaged in worship. Bonus points if you can get some shots of people looking at info packets, welcome & connection cards.

16. Church Building

Photos of your church building help newcomers get a good sense of where things are before they show up, these photos are great for your website. If your church rents out spaces, these can be a solid way to find new renters. These photos can be both real-estate and event-style photography. Also, try photographing events that take place in the church building. This shows the congregation how the space is used to foster community and is much more personal than displaying only real-estate-style photos.

17. Church Service Refreshments

When you invite someone over to your house, as the host you offer them a drink and some refreshments. The same goes for churches; whatever they may be, photos of refreshments help to show that your church is welcoming. Some people like to have a cup of coffee in the morning; show that your church provides that for them.

Looking for more tips on church photography? Check out my article outlining 16 common church photography mistakes.