Shooting groups

00SS

I took some shots for a neighbor friend of mine whilst his oldest son was visiting before deploying to AFG. The only bad part was i didn't get to pick what time of day to shoot, this was taken at 1pm :cry

Anyway, I came away with this one as a group shot and wondered what / how to improve on shooting large groups. C&C welcomed, also, does the bw conversion work here? any thoughts appreciated.

Photosbychuck

Good photo
I think the B&W looks good.
You did great by getting them to pose in the shade & wearing dark colors.
The only nit I have is you cut off fingers on the right side.




Take Care,
Chuck,
www.icurdigital.com

adbsgicom

Devin, I'm just getting started in this area, so certainly not expert opinion here...
For this one, I think the nits are the clipped fingers, and some of the feet get cut off at the ankles. Dad (?) has is legs wide open at you and mom (?) looks a bit jammed in.

I don't know how high up that branch is, but i looks like a low live oak branch. If you could have had more vertical variance by having some folks in front of others, that may have provided another look. Other option, if the branch supports it, is go wider and get more distance between them, sort like a shot Zoomer had in sports with a bunch of cheerleaders in a tree.

I think your lighting is nice but the image is darker to the left. I'd run a brightness (maybe exposure) gradient across to even things out a bit.

zoomer

Lighting is reversed, need light on them and a darker background.
I think the location would be good at either early morning or late evening.

Hypothetically if you had to shoot here at this time. Bring the exposure up on them and let the background blow out.
You may be able to get away with doing that in post with this photo.

jpc

This shot is VERY flat. Your exif shows a flash being used, but you needed more, along with a faster shutter speed to keep the background from blowing out. Not much you can do about that now, of course.

Like Zoomer, said, it would be worth blowing out the background to brighten up your subjects.

00SS

Photosbychuck wrote: »

Good photo
I think the B&W looks good.
You did great by getting them to pose in the shade & wearing dark colors.
The only nit I have is you cut off fingers on the right side.




Take Care,
Chuck,
www.icurdigital.com

Thanks Chuck - i'll have a look at the original and see why i cropped so tight on the right side.

00SS

adbsgicom wrote: »

Devin, I'm just getting started in this area, so certainly not expert opinion here...
For this one, I think the nits are the clipped fingers, and some of the feet get cut off at the ankles. Dad (?) has is legs wide open at you and mom (?) looks a bit jammed in.

I don't know how high up that branch is, but i looks like a low live oak branch. If you could have had more vertical variance by having some folks in front of others, that may have provided another look. Other option, if the branch supports it, is go wider and get more distance between them, sort like a shot Zoomer had in sports with a bunch of cheerleaders in a tree.

I think your lighting is nice but the image is darker to the left. I'd run a brightness (maybe exposure) gradient across to even things out a bit.

Andrew - nits taken and agreed, it took 6 shots to get this one (baby would not cooperate). I just noticed after you said that, that the left side is darker... i'll look at a gradient adjustment and see if i can correct. Thanks for taking the time to check it out, much appreciated.

00SS

zoomer wrote: »

Lighting is reversed, need light on them and a darker background.
I think the location would be good at either early morning or late evening.

Hypothetically if you had to shoot here at this time. Bring the exposure up on them and let the background blow out.
You may be able to get away with doing that in post with this photo.

Yes, i would have preferred to shoot early or later... but this was the only time available.
I was going to check the crop and while i'm at it look at bumping the exposure.
Many thanks for the input..

00SS

jpc wrote: »

This shot is VERY flat. Your exif shows a flash being used, but you needed more, along with a faster shutter speed to keep the background from blowing out. Not much you can do about that now, of course.

Like Zoomer, said, it would be worth blowing out the background to brighten up your subjects.

Yep, on board flash, I should have left it at full power.. but thought that would be enough fill light.
I'll have another go at the processing and post up the result.

thanks again everyone

Hackbone

You did a fair job on the lighting for 1PM. You found a shady spot with back lighting, good for you. Your straight line posing is the biggest problem. Try to arrange a group in triangles (refering to heads). Build a triangle with three people and then add one person at a time and use the first triangle to start another etc. Generally this keeps the heads at different levels and is more pleasing.

Have mating couples touch each other to keep the wild hand placements to a min. Crouch shots are tough so watch out for that.

If your going to do this and charge for it, it is your responsibility to your client to have the proper equipment to do the job. A much larger light source and modifer of some sort to complete the job is required.

Hope this helps.

00SS

Hackbone wrote: »

You did a fair job on the lighting for 1PM. You found a shady spot with back lighting, good for you. Your straight line posing is the biggest problem. Try to arrange a group in triangles (refering to heads). Build a triangle with three people and then add one person at a time and use the first triangle to start another etc. Generally this keeps the heads at different levels and is more pleasing.

Have mating couples touch each other to keep the wild hand placements to a min. Crouch shots are tough so watch out for that.

If your going to do this and charge for it, it is your responsibility to your client to have the proper equipment to do the job. A much larger light source and modifer of some sort to complete the job is required.

Hope this helps.

Charles - exactly the kind of feedback i was looking for, and indeed your spot on, i didn't have my sb600 and that's on me. i will try out the 'triangle' approach on the next outing. thanks for the input.