Family Reunion Portraits - C&C welcome

Scott_Quier

This family came together over the weekend for a family reunion. As part of the fun & games, the decided they would like to spend some time in front of the camera and contacted me to play the part of the photographer. I have to say that it was one of the most enjoyable portrait sessions I've done in some time.

For those that are interested in such things, these were taken just as the sun was coming up over the trees in the background (hence the golden glow in the hair - built in hair light ) and were, thus strongly backlight. The idea was to put the sun at their back so as to avoid squinting eyes and to provide the sweet light in the hair. To counter the strong backlighting, I used a single, unmodified, Sunpak 622. The flash was off-camera (naturally) and placed some 10 or 15 feet (3 to 5 meters) from the subjects. At that distance, there was very little light falloff across the groupings.

1. Grandma and Grandpa


2. Some of the grand-kids


3. Grandparents and the grandkids.

jsmiley

HI Scott
Very nice sit. If you're used to doing weddings, This would be relaxing.

Halite

Very nice. Your flash work opens up their faces without calling attention to itself. Grandma's glasses catch a bit of flash reflection, but not objectionably. You could've avoided it entirely with a slight shift of camera or flash

lisap

Very nice Scott

And thanks for including the information about the lighting. I find it very helpful.

-- Lisa P.

Blurmore

Nice shots Scott. I really like the hair (or bald head) light in the 2 shot. I too use a 622 (super) as my middle weight off camera flash. If you can find one it is REALLY worth it to get the diffusion head, you lose a little off the maxium GN but the light is so soft it is like shooting with giant stofen omni. I even use it full power bounced into white umbrella (at close distances under 6 ft) in HSS. Diffusion head + white bounce umbrella make an interesting and well wrapping key light. I also use the 622 in churches to foof off of the wall or bounce off the ceiling. I also picked up the bare bulb and infrared head for the 622 but haven't used them yet. I've been working on a way to snoot the barebulb as so far as I can tell there was no snoot originally designed for it by sunpak.

Agnieszka

Hi Scott. Very nice photos & perfect lighting!

jeffreaux2

Nice series of photographs Scott.

I was treated to a similar job a couple weekends ago. A friends grandmother's 90th birthday party. There was easily a couple hundred guests made up mostly of family. My location wasn't nearly this nice, but the family was very pleased.

This was an area that I wanted to exploit as a photographer. I am glad to see I am not the only one! Did you photograph any candids of the gatherings? Just curious how you approached this as a service. My approach was to treat it very much as a wedding reception...plus many formal type groupings.

Again, the samples you posted are very nice. Thanks for sharing.

Scott_Quier

jsmiley wrote:

HI Scott
Very nice sit. If you're used to doing weddings, This would be relaxing.

Thanks for looking and commenting. One would have thunk so, but with the temperatures rising and the humidity what it was - well it was fun, but not so relaxing. I would do it over again in a heartbeat - these folks were fun to work with!

Halite wrote:

Very nice. Your flash work opens up their faces without calling attention to itself. Grandma's glasses catch a bit of flash reflection, but not objectionably. You could've avoided it entirely with a slight shift of camera or flash

Thanks for looking, the nice comment, and for the idea. Given the distances involved, slight angle changes would have required significant re-location of either the flash or the camera (or both). With the vegetation I had to work around, it wasn't worth the effort/time.

lisap wrote:

Very nice Scott

And thanks for including the information about the lighting. I find it very helpful.

Lisa - thanks. As for the lighting comments - well, I have learned so much from others here that I feel more than a small obligation to offer what little knowledge I have to those "coming up behind me". If you find value in it - well that just makes life that more rosy for me!

Blurmore wrote:

Nice shots Scott. I really like the hair (or bald head) light in the 2 shot. I too use a 622 (super) as my middle weight off camera flash. If you can find one it is REALLY worth it to get the diffusion head, you lose a little off the maxium GN but the light is so soft it is like shooting with giant stofen omni. I even use it full power bounced into white umbrella (at close distances under 6 ft) in HSS. Diffusion head + white bounce umbrella make an interesting and well wrapping key light. I also use the 622 in churches to foof off of the wall or bounce off the ceiling. I also picked up the bare bulb and infrared head for the 622 but haven't used them yet. I've been working on a way to snoot the barebulb as so far as I can tell there was no snoot originally designed for it by sunpak.

The hair light is just the sun - it's amazing how well it works if you can get the clients to cooperate and be there on time. These folks were just fantastic. The client asked me about the "best time" for the photos and when I told her that it would be best if we could start working between 7:00A and 7:30A, she had a small intake of breath, pause, "Ok, we'll be there!" It was fantastic to see clients that committed to making my work as productive as possible.:D

Any idea on where one can find the diffusion head(s)? I've done a little quick look and didn't have an success.

Agnieszka wrote:

Hi Scott. Very nice photos & perfect lighting!

Thanks Angie. I don't know about perfect, but I will agree that it's pretty good. I posted these to show that it is possible to get good light from an un-modified flash unit - but conditions have to be right for it and it worked pretty well here.

jeffreaux2 wrote:

Nice series of photographs Scott.

I was treated to a similar job a couple weekends ago. A friends grandmother's 90th birthday party. There was easily a couple hundred guests made up mostly of family. My location wasn't nearly this nice, but the family was very pleased.

This was an area that I wanted to exploit as a photographer. I am glad to see I am not the only one! Did you photograph any candids of the gatherings? Just curious how you approached this as a service. My approach was to treat it very much as a wedding reception...plus many formal type groupings.

Again, the samples you posted are very nice. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for looking and commenting. I appreciate it.

This was not the location of the reunion, but a specially rented location just for the photography (hence the nice location ). Since this wasn't the event, there weren't any candid opportunities.

I have a gig to photograph a 30th Anniversary party this Sunday and I will, as you have indicated, be treating it as I would a wedding reception.

jeffreaux2

Maybe I will post a few from the birthday party.....but....they aren't nearly this nice!

Swartzy

Good use of the natural light Scott in conjuction with the sunpack. The first one may benefit by rotating to the right as Grandma & Grandpa are leaning back, making the frame look off balance. Also, burning in the edges or darkening the curves a bit will give it some pop (similar to the 3rd shot). These look like fun, well done, and wow, what a difference it makes to actually have the time to set up a light somewhere.

Blurmore

hehe...I realized the hairlight was just the sun, I was just commenting on how good of a placement it was. Wow I just checked out all the usual suspects (ebay and KEH) for the diffusion head and struck out both places. People must be snapping them up. Save it as an ebay search the model designation is DH-1.

jeffreaux2

Halite wrote:

Very nice. Your flash work opens up their faces without calling attention to itself. Grandma's glasses catch a bit of flash reflection, but not objectionably. You could've avoided it entirely with a slight shift of camera or flash

An easier fix...usually...is to just tilt the eyeglasses slightly by moving the earpieces a bit off the ear.