So I have learned to shoot with jpeg and have never shot raw, but even with my d3, my ceremony pictures are looking grainy due to the dark churches, and I'm wondering if shooting raw would fix that problem? I think I would stick to jpeg the rest of the time due to the amount of space they take up (I only have 8 gig cards), but is this my solution to the grain and weird colors in the church??

You are getting grain with the D3? Ours has nearly disappeared altogether with the D3. What ISO were you on?

Raw will help some but it is probably not your answer. And switching back and forth between jpg will create even more headaches for you.

6400. Do you shoot raw or jpeg?

If you're getting a lot of noise with the D3, you're either shooting in REALLY dark churches, or you're not exposing correctly. What mode do you shoot in? What light metering do you use? Always best to shoot in raw because then if you miss exposure, you have SO much more latitude to fix it.

I shoot in raw + jpeg, all maunal settings all the time, watching the highlights and making sure my exposure is spot on in the area of the picture that is most important. That way, if the jpeg sooc is fine, I don't have to mess with it at all, but if I missed exposure on a great moment, I can usually fix the raw version so that the picture is perfectly acceptable. With jpeg, you just don't get enough work with.

We shoot both but for different reasons than what Jules mentioned. We shoot raw (an 8 gig card) in slot 1 and jpg (2 gig) in slot two. We use the jpgs for the reception slide show (faster downloading). The other reason is security. If the raw card happened to become corrupt, we have a usable duplicate image from the jpg card. We have about 70 gig of cards btw.

We always process the raw image. The rest of what she mentioned is how we work/shoot.

Thanx for the advice. I shoot in manual all the time, but have the setting for iso sesitivity turned on once in a while (I put my maximum at iso 6400.) The last one was a dark church, but nothing that extreme, so i must be doing something wrong. I try not to go under a shutter speed of 150 with the 70-200 lens because I am afraid of blur. Could this be the problem?

Have you considered a tripod? You'd be able to dial the ISO down as well as the shutter.

Well yes, if a proper exposure should be down around 1/30. VR will be a tremendous help as will a tripod or monopod.

Can you post an image with the EXIF intact?

Plus, since I've been shooting in jpeg+raw, I can see exactly what the camera does to the jpeg. It bumps the shadows up A LOT, and so if there's noise in the picture, that's going to be seriously magnified in a jpeg. (And again, barely any latitude for fixing it.)

You're not really shooting "all manual" if you have your camera set on that auto ISO thing. I tried that setting and wasn't at all happy with the noise I was getting in a gym at my son's basketball games so I stopped using it.

Practice, practice, practice before your next wedding. Nailing exposure is the only way to get that no-noise beauty of the D3.

wow. i had no idea that is affecting the noise. I don't use it too often, but I won't from now on. THANK YOU!

Also, I will post up a shot when i get home tonight.