How To Create A Church Service Photography Shot List

One of the worst feelings as a church photographer is getting back from a shoot and realizing you forgot to capture a crucial moment. The best way to avoid this is to create a shot list.

To create a church service photography shot list you need to plan ahead with your church team leads, look for inspiration online, outline your shots, and organize your shot list by timeline. A key to using a shot list is ensuring it is easily accessible while shooting.

Whether it’s written or in your head, a shot list is a powerful tool that beginner and professional photographers use, keep reading as I explain exactly how to create a church service photography shot list.

Plan Ahead With Team Leaders

Planning ahead with the church’s relevant team leaders will ensure every shot that is needed actually gets taken and with due process. To explain what that means, first I’ll explain the two different types of team leaders that will be involved.

The first type of team leader is the one who uses the photos you take. Some places your photos may be used are for website design, social media, print materials, and newsletters. Leaders who will be using your photos may have specific shots they want for their materials, be sure to ask them if there is a specific time that works best for these photos.

The second type of team leader is one who is involved with your shoot. Some things you want to go over with relevant team leaders are; no-go zones for live stream cameras, order of service, and photo permissions.

An important note about photo permissions, you should always check your local regulations around photographing people in public and private spaces. Also, NEVER take pictures of children without parental consent.

Meeting with these team leaders doesn’t need to be in person, it can be a Zoom call or even an email chain. The benefit of an email chain is that you have everything recorded for reference and people can reach out if they forgot to mention anything initially.

Look For Inspiration Online

This step is less formal and doesn’t need to take a long time. You could spend 15-20 minutes looking around online, noting anything worth remembering. That being said, I personally have some go-to places for when I need inspiration.

The first place I look, as weird as it sounds, is at my own portfolio or at photos from the church I am photographing. No, I don’t actually look through every church service photo I’ve taken. I just think through any significant or impactful photos I’ve taken and consider if there’s any merit to taking a similar shot.

Looking through the church’s photos will give you a general sense of their preferences, what kind of composition they prefer, and any colours they seem to like.

The second place I go is Pinterest. Pinterest is an amazing resource for finding interesting compositions. You could search “cup of coffee” and see more or less the same cup of coffee photographed in thousands of different ways. You don’t even necessarily need to look for church service photos on Pinterest, you could even search for something as broad as “public speaking” instead of “pastor preaching”.

The third place I go is to the social media or websites of other churches. The beauty of photography is that it’s subjective. This means another photographer may see a different shot in their head when looking at the same subject. Just remember, we’re not looking to copy other photographers, we’re looking for inspiration so we can carry out our own creative vision.

The fourth place I go for inspiration is a bit of an interesting one; I go to church live streams. Photography and videography are very closely related, which is why you can find some really cool shots skimming through different church services online. It may also be worth it to look at live worship performances for that same reason.

Inspiration is only one step toward taking great photos, check out my article where I give 19 tips to help you take impactful photos at church.

Outline Your Shots

When outlining your shots, you can be as specific or unspecific as you want in your description. This photo could be described as a “close-up of the bassist’s hands in-between playing” or a “close-up of the bassist”

I really only recommend a detailed description of there is a hyper-specific shot someone has requested of you. When possible, just give a general description like “close-up of bassist”, there are two reasons for this.

The first is that it will give you room to be creative with your shots. Use your instincts and creative vision to take different shots. If you are too specific with your shot list, you may miss out on a great shot because you did not leave yourself room to experiment.

To understand the second reason you should use general shot descriptions I’ll ask one question; what happens if the moment you described never happens? I’ll tell you what will happen, you will spend too much time stressed out, waiting around for that moment to happen.

If you absolutely need a very detailed and specific shot, consider these two questions; can this shot be staged? Will staging affect the emotion behind the photo?

If it’s a close-up of someone pouring coffee, you can probably get away with asking a volunteer to stage the shot. Going back to the shot of the bassist, someone in a moment of genuine worship, this shot isn’t something you should or probably could stage without taking away genuine emotion.

Try to shoot candidly as much as possible, if you want to understand why I wrote an article outlining why candid church photography is important.

A final note on shot selection, remember to always be respectful of the congregation members. Never take a picture of someone who is in an emotionally vulnerable state like someone in tears. Their connection with God will always be more important than your photos. Some moments are better left between them and God, no matter how amazing of a photo it may make.

Emotion in photography is a difficult concept to materialize, check out my article explaining how to capture emotion in church photography.

Organize Your Shot List By Timeline

In the meeting with the church’s team leaders, be sure to get an outline of the service. Knowing the timeline for the service allows you to plan out when and where you will take your shots. This reduces the likelihood of you missing a shot that is on your list.

This also helps you to start planning out your timeline and envisioning your shoot. Knowing the worship team shows up at 7:30 AM for pre-service rehearsal means you have some time to get some up-close and personal shots without disturbing the congregation.

While organizing your shot list, also try your best to organize by priority. If you have a group of photos to take during the sermon, put any specially requested shots at the top of your list. That way you get them out of the way, freeing up time for you to be creative.

Also, be sure your shot list is somewhere accessible while shooting. If you created it on a website like Milanote make sure you export it for offline use, just to be safe.

Creating and organizing a timeline for your shoots can be challenging, which is why I have an article outlining a church service photography timeline and giving tips on how to make sure your shoots go smoothly.