Need Suggestion for a large group photo

Gringriff

I have been asked to take a group photo of our marching band. It was done by someone last year who is no longer available so now it is my turn.

The director wants a shot pretty much the same as last seson with the entire band on the bleachers.

I have a Canon 50D, primes 50 and 85, 70-200L, a kit 18-55 IS, and a Tamron 17-50 f/2.8. My quetion is what setup from my gear would be the best solution for this photo? It will be on a Friday night around 5:30 before a football game.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Here is the one from last season:

Nikolai

I suggest shooting from the opposing ("guest") bleachers using the longest lens you have (200mm). The marching band of my kids HS is ~180 ppl, so yours should be easy...
If it's too far - well, just as far from the field as you can/need at your longest lens.

You can also use drum major "tower" as your shooting position.

Make sure to line them all up by height (regardless of gender) and then put the tallest kids on the back.

HTH

Gringriff

Nikolai wrote:

I suggest shooting from the opposing ("guest") bleachers using the longest lens you have (200mm). The marching band of my kids HS is ~180 ppl, so yours should be easy...
If it's too far - well, just as far from the field as you can/need at your longest lens.

You can also use drum major "tower" as your shooting position.

Make sure to line them all up by height (regardless of gender) and then put the tallest kids on the back.

HTH

Thanks Nikolai for the great tips. I will get over there and try this setup to see how it will work for us.

bendruckerphoto

Nikolai's advice is solid. Get as high up as possible. The one from last year sucks, so you don't have to do much to do better.

Use a small aperture to make sure it's in focus edge to edge. Since you can't get any strobes in and you may not have the ability to do the shoot when the light's right, you may have to do a lot of PP work to get a good result with strong color and contrast.

Nikolai

I know this may sound a bit too far fetched, but in case you have a powerful computer....
Rent a long glass (400mm..600mm), use a tripod and use the multi-row pano technique, then stitch the result in PS (CS3 or better recommended) or other good stitching software. You will end up with a super high resolution composite image which will be printable wall size. Or at least you will be able to put it into a zoomify, and let the kids enjoy every tiny pimple on their faces - out of the group portrait
I would discuss it with the band elders first though - you wanna make sure some ROI will be in place...

whiteagle

And remember the number one rule of large group shots...

They all suck.

Hackbone

Try to stretch the band out left to right instead of top to bottom as this photo shows. This will make the faces somewhat larger. Try to put some of the students in the rows in the empty spaces between the band and the color guard. The costumes and silks will still make the guard stand out.

bendruckerphoto

whiteagle wrote:

And remember the number one rule of large group shots...

They all suck.

Quite true. Your motto has to be: strive to suck less.

Gringriff

Thanks for all the replies.

I think our band director may like this style but getting higher should really help. I checked out the field last night and I think it may work from the other bleachers. I will run some ideas by him and see what he thinks. Maybe he will want to mix it up a little but I doubt it as it will probably be a rush before the fans start filing in.

Neat idea about stitching together several shots to get more close detail but he (the school) is against any closeups unless there are signed releases from every parent/child.