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Group Photos

bellaphotobellaphoto Registered Users Posts: 100 Big grins
edited June 9, 2008 in Technique
i have to do some group photos of 20 or more people. i use a Nikon D40 SLR. i have noticed that some of the people come out sharp and the ones in the back do not. what is a good technique to get them to look closer to the camera and in sharp focus??? i want all the faces to be seen. are there any special lenses etc....???
i am new to all this so bare with me. thanks

Romina Ludovico
Romina Ludovico

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    evorywareevoryware Registered Users Posts: 1,330 Major grins
    edited June 3, 2008
    http://www.digitalgrin.com/showthread.php?t=92999

    Here's some advice on a previous thread.

    How are you lighting them? Sunlight or artificial?
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    bellaphotobellaphoto Registered Users Posts: 100 Big grins
    edited June 4, 2008
    the first group was on the beach at about 6pm, the one that i have to do will be also outdoors at sundown. there will be about 20 people. thanks
    evoryware wrote:
    http://www.digitalgrin.com/showthread.php?t=92999

    Here's some advice on a previous thread.

    How are you lighting them? Sunlight or artificial?
    Romina Ludovico
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    Scott_QuierScott_Quier Registered Users Posts: 6,524 Major grins
    edited June 9, 2008
    bellaphoto wrote:
    the first group was on the beach at about 6pm, the one that i have to do will be also outdoors at sundown. there will be about 20 people. thanks
    The first thing that comes to my mind is to refer you to the thread indicated by Evoryware - good information there.

    The second thought that entered my mind is that shooting at sundown - your light is going to be changing very, very quickly and you may have significant problems adapting fast enough.

    Finally, at sundown, the light is going to be quite dim. Unless you are supplementing it with flash or high ISO you are going to be restricted to wide apertures and/or long exposures - neither of which will facilitate a successful group photo. The wide aperture will significantly limit your DOF and that leads to some people being in focus and other not. The long exposure leads to capture significant subject movement - blurry faces are not flattering. At higher ISO, shadow areas are going to be quite noisy - maybe more than either you or your client would like.

    Maybe you can schedule it a bit earlier in the evening so you don't have all these issues to contend with?
    Scott
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