Advice for organised group photoshoot.

ioliver

First post here, so apologies for no formal introduction yet - later I promise :-)

In a couple of weeks, our local camera club (or part of it) has arranged an evening at a local theater complete with a few actors/actresses and lighting manager for our disposal and use of for a few hours.

So, there'll be a group of about 10 photographers of varying levels of ability (newbie->pro) and probably a lot of competition for time and use of the said actors, lighting man etc. But, we have more or less free reign to do what we want and photograph what we want.

So, I'm asking for advice in preparing for such an opportunity given that there'll be a few other people taking pictures (and hogging the lighting man and actors' time), and of course the rest of the theater to take pictures of (inside, eg: seating, stage etc).

In terms of experience, this is my first "real" organised photo shoot opportunity and I'm going there with my Canon 500D and the two kit lenses (and whatever else I light beg, borrow and steal). No flash, no tripod, no "nice" extras, just me and the camera.

Anyway, what I've thought of and also been suggested would be to go for candid shots of everyone else. Possibly b/w pictures (RAW) with the 55-250 f/4-5.6 lens. I'm not going to get that much control over lighting (think normal theater conditions => dark stalls, bright/varying stage etc).

Ideas, technique hints etc for such an event all gratefully received...thanks

Ian

BradfordBenn

Suggestion from the other side
My comments are completely from the other side of the equation, I have done lots of "behind the scenes" work. Having done both formal and informal photo calls.

The biggest thing that helps is to have a schedule. As you said it is for a few hours, and having to make lots of changes and adjustments during the process will typically make people tired and cranky faster. Very few things are more demoralizing than making a lighting and scenic change for one shot, and then having to undo it for the next shot. However if one can put the schedule together so that the changes are minimized it makes it go much smoother.

For example when I was working on a show that had both day time and night time lighting, and many people in the cast we would do something such as this and keeping time is important to keep it fair and everyone understanding how much time they have.

Lighting Mode #1 (1 hour 25 minutes - round up to 90 minutes)

1. Actress #1 (10 min)
2. Actress #1 & #2 (10 min)
3. Actress #1 & #2, Actor #1 (15 min)
4. Actress #1 & #2, Actor #1 & #2 (15 min)
5. Actress #2, Actor #1 & #2 (15 min)
6. Actor #1 & #2 (10 min)
7. Actor #2 (10 min)

Reset Props and Lighting (15 min - let everyone take a break)

Lighting Mode #2 (1 hour 25 minutes - round up to 90 minutes)

1. Actor #2 (10 min)
2. Actor #1 & #2 (10 min)
3. Actress #2, Actor #1 & #2 (15 min)
4. Actress #1 & #2, Actor #1 & #2 (15 min)
5. Actress #1 & #2, Actor #1 (15 min)
6. Actress #1 & #2 (10 min)
7. Actress #1 (10 min)

Repeat as necessary.

The idea is to give the actors an equal amount of time "on stage" as resting. But just doing this much takes up more than 3 hours. And keeping a stop watch with time intervals is important to keep it fair and moving. Without that it can go on much longer than anyone wants - DAMHIK, IJK. Obviously you can adjust your time allotment as appropriate.

We also would assign a lead photographer for each "session" so that that person could have control and the "best shot" position, and it would rotate as well.

pathfinder

Brad I want to just say what an excellent suggestion you just made, that is something that rarely gets discussed. Pre planning, timing, and execution. Those are the marks of a real professional. They know before they start what they want to capture, they have a plan, and they follow it unless something better comes along while shooting.

Again, an excellent suggestion

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.