Shooting with a nikon d80 in a church?

Hi! I'm shooting at a christening and I would like to stay on manual if possible, but I'm a begginer with dslrs. I understand the importance of shutter speed andits relationship with light. Any helpful tips you have would be greatly appreciated!

That will depend on the lighting of the church, and your lens.

That is a tough situation for a beginner photographer. It depends of whether or not you can use flash in the church or not (most of the churches I have photographed in were cool with it, but definitely ask). If it is bright (or even if it doesn't look like it, really) give natural light a shot (no pun intended). You are likely going to have to bump up the ISO to get a sharp image. Shooting in low light is particularly difficult with beginner lenses (I know how broad that sounds, but I mean any lens with a fairly small max aperture). I would set the ISO somewhere around 800-1600 with the largest possible aperture and start with a shutter speed of something like 1/40. That is cutting it close even for steady hands, but you can make adjustments from there. If that doesn't work out well, give flash a try (assuming they allow it). Perhaps you could try mixing flash with natural light to a greater extent than the auto mode(s) would do to get a bit of both worlds. I happen to have a D80 as well and I know that it would perform mediocre in that ISO range, but noisy shots to me are better than blurry ones!

If you don't know how to, avoid manual mode. Set camera to Auto mode then turn flash on. If picture is too bright, step back. If too dark, go nearer.

Churches and priests allow flash during weddings. They'd tolerate photographers just to get people wed. Some priests do not tolerate photographers who move around a lot so ask around church what and what you can't do.