High-quality photographs of your church will help visually communicate the warmth, welcoming atmosphere, and sense of community a visitor will feel on Sunday — building trust before they ever walk through your doors.
Failing to clearly communicate through your photos will impede your progress in reaching your community. This guide will give you the basics you need to know in order to take excellent photos that will draw people in on Sundays.
There are 3 categories that a photo of your church can fall into:
To make all of your church photos excellent, focus on two key things: technical quality and storytelling.
1. Technical Quality
- Use a quality camera: While phones have improved, a modern camera will provide the best results — particularly in low-light environments. If you choose to use a phone, the rear-facing camera on a newer model will produce the best photograph.
- Be mindful of your composition: Be aware of clutter in the foreground or background of your photos. Don’t be afraid to move things around to create a visually pleasing photo. It can be helpful to ask yourself what story your photo is telling — and then remove anything that doesn’t move the narrative forward.
- Use natural light: As a general rule, don’t use the built-in flash on your camera — they tend to create excessive contrast and photos that look dated. They also announce your presence in a crowd, making subsequent candid photos a challenge. When possible, use the natural lighting that is already available — and, if it’s dark (like in the auditorium during worship), use a lens with a large aperture to gather the most light possible.
- Balance ISO, shutter speed, and aperture: If you’re shooting on a professional camera, learn to balance shutter speed and ISO to reduce blur and noise.
- Capture both horizontal and vertical photos: With an increasing amount of content being viewed on phones, vertical format photos have become popular. Be sure to get a variety of both landscape (horizontal) and portrait (vertical) images.
- Utilize the rule of thirds: Putting your subject slightly off-center can help your photos seem more natural and eye-catching. Another trick is to shoot with extra space around your subject, allowing you to crop the composition in post-production.
2. Storytelling through photos
- Capture the entire Sunday experience: Don’t just focus on the speaker or worship team—highlight the people who make church feel like home. Snap photos of volunteers in kids' ministry, greeters at the doors, conversations in the lobby, and even parking lot teams in action. These images help people see what being part of your church truly looks like.
- Arrange your subjects to tell a story: Be aware of how people are positioned and what message their body language conveys. Do people look happy or bored? Alone or together? Welcomed or unsure? Look for candid moments to capture — a hug, a smile, a handshake — and, when needed, a bit of directing can go a long way.
- Sunday morning isn’t the only time to take photos. Capturing special events, youth groups, and small groups can help tell the full story of the impact your church has (and why someone might consider attending).
Below are two examples of the same scene captured by two different images and what technical details set them apart:
