Large Family Portrait

mpriest13

I have been hired to shoot a large family portrait (18 people)in two weeks and was wondering what gear would be best to use. She wants a large canvass made...I currently have a Nikon D300..a 50 1.4 and a 24-70 2.8. I am willing to rent ANYTHING I need to make it better. I have set of strobes as well if needed.

The pictures will be taken in the middle of a field and it might be pain to bring my set of strobes since I don't have a battery pack for them. I could run a REALLY long extension cord from their house? Would a sb-900 off camera be enough to light such a large group?

Should I rent a 35mm or 85mm (85 probably too tight) lens for this portrait.

She wants at least a 40x60 canvass made. Should I be worried about the loss of resolution of my crop sensor with the 24-70?

Any and all advice is much appreciated!!!

THANKS!

ARKreations

Your 24-70 should be all the lens you need for that setting.
If you're still worried about lighting and "willing to rent anything", then why not just rent some portable lighting instead?

mpriest13

Is it true that you lose megapixels shooting a crop sensor with a full frame lens? If so, I would be worried about an enlargement with the loss of megapixels...

Sam

mpriest13 wrote: »

Is it true that you lose megapixels shooting a crop sensor with a full frame lens? If so, I would be worried about an enlargement with the loss of megapixels...

NO..............you will not loose any pixels. When using a lens that was designed for a full frame camera the only thing that happens is the so called crop sensor is the camera uses a smaller amount of the image optically displayed to the sensor. The crop sensor uses the center area. The pixel dimensions remain the same for your camera.

Sam

Sam

mpriest13 wrote: »

I have been hired to shoot a large family portrait (18 people)in two weeks and was wondering what gear would be best to use. She wants a large canvass made...I currently have a Nikon D300..a 50 1.4 and a 24-70 2.8. I am willing to rent ANYTHING I need to make it better. I have set of strobes as well if needed.

The pictures will be taken in the middle of a field and it might be pain to bring my set of strobes since I don't have a battery pack for them. I could run a REALLY long extension cord from their house? Would a sb-900 off camera be enough to light such a large group?

Should I rent a 35mm or 85mm (85 probably too tight) lens for this portrait.

She wants at least a 40x60 canvass made. Should I be worried about the loss of resolution of my crop sensor with the 24-70?

Any and all advice is much appreciated!!!

THANKS!

This isn't a strait forward question. What type of field are we talking about? A two feet high wheat field or a two inch high grass field?

What time of day is the shoot? What direction options do you have in relation to the sun?

You might consider a large diffuser covering the group.

Also what is the planed group arrangement? Two deep, three deep?

I would want to shoot this on a tripod using F8 or even f11 at the lowest ISO that will give me a shutter speed of say close to 1/200. Also try and get the framing right in camera. to limit the amount you may need to crop out.

My reasoning is to insure a sharp image from front to back with limited noise for your large print. Large prints require a good clean image to start with.

Once you have your insurance shots you could play with the settings and even try to shoot the left side of the group then the right side and stitch them together.

Sam

mpriest13

Sam wrote: »

This isn't a strait forward question. What type of field are we talking about? A two feet high wheat field or a two inch high grass field?

What time of day is the shoot? What direction options do you have in relation to the sun?

You might consider a large diffuser covering the group.

Also what is the planed group arrangement? Two deep, three deep?

I would want to shoot this on a tripod using F8 or even f11 at the lowest ISO that will give me a shutter speed of say close to 1/200. Also try and get the framing right in camera. to limit the amount you may need to crop out.

My reasoning is to insure a sharp image from front to back with limited noise for your large print. Large prints require a good clean image to start with.

Once you have your insurance shots you could play with the settings and even try to shoot the left side of the group then the right side and stitch them together.

Sam

as far as the location goes...I am walking into it fairly blind. they live on a big property that supposedly has lots of nice places for the photo. We are planning on doing around 5-6 o'clock to avoid midday sun.

wildviper

Its funny but I am about to post a similar request. But since you are covering the equipment, I will try and ask about posing. In any case...my one BIG advice to you.....go check out the spot at the time before the day of the shoot. Take your camera...see what is working and what is not. It will make you less nervous on the day and also focus your efforts in solving other problems that you will inevitably have on the day.