Large Group Shot

Brunswick · November 23, 2012

:help Hello,
Would someone mind taking a moment to share some advice with me. I am about to go shoot a large group shot of a family of 14 at their home at night, indoors. I figure I will have to use my 24 to 70 lens. School of thought says stay as close to 70 as possible to stop wide angle affect. Is it wise if I do have to go wide to go wider than necessary to lessen the distortion affect from hitting the subjects? i.e making it possible to crop it out? or do I stay as telephoto as possible and maybe liquify correct in photoshop or lens correct?
Also Should I try running ISO up and do natural light shots with on camera flash only or just plan on using my studio strobe system. They want an 11 x 14 image out of this. I have been practicing with the studio strobes to see how the lighting spred is. The only thing I noticed on my test subject was that I will get two catch lights per eye, one on each side of the pupil. Is there anything I can do about that or is that just the way it always is and because its a large group it won't be really noticed like it would in close ups?
Normally all these questions would go to my mentor but he is out of town and I am on my own. The shoot is tonight. I just thought of asking you folks this morning. Thank you for your time. I hope you had a great Thanksgiving.

Art Scott · November 23, 2012

Personally, i would go just a tad wide, so you have extra room to crop to the 11x14 size ... ...Also so you can enlarge better if some one comes back and wants a larger image, use the studio flashes, either with softboxes or umbrellas.... use a small an aperture that your flashes will allow, depth of field is very important for group shoots as you want everyone in the best focus as possible .... 2 catch lights is the nature of the beast in this situation, you can live with it (that is what I do) or spend lots of time painting them out of the eyes....

Remember: it never hurts to ask a question when it 1st arises...ask here and your mentor at the same time, more than 1 opinion is never a bad thing....

Good Luck with the shoot

ziggy53 · November 23, 2012

Too little information provided to give really meaningful advice. It would be helpful to know:

What lenses you have available to use? (Please be explicit in make, model and version.)
What host body/camera?
How the group will be arranged?
What sized room for the shoot?
What color are the walls and ceiling?
What shape is the ceiling?
Ceiling height?
What distance from camera to group?
What flashes (both compact and studio strobes) do you have available?
What flash modifiers?

As an example, the following was shot with a single flash, using a large (improvised) bounce card. The situation was a large open room, with a white, slanted ceiling, with the ceiling peak camera left. I canted the flash to the right, into the ceiling perpendicularly, and the bounce card was simply a piece of white letter-sized paper, folded into quarters, held in place with rubber bands.

Camera body was the Canon XT/350D, with a Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 EX DC, and a Sigma EF-500 DG Super flash. I believe that ambient lights (florescent) were on and provided hair light (mostly).

Arrangement was 2-rows, front seated.

Since this was a single, bounced, flash, I chose a focal length based on quick tests for an optimal balance between the bounced light and the fill light from the improvised bounce card.

In this shot, I used a pair of studio monolights (1800ws ea. rated, 900ws actual power ea.), bounced rearward into the pseudo-domed white ceiling, with a single, bare and direct, Sunpak 383 Super flash for fill and catchlight. The monolights were full-power on one side and a little over 1-stop less on the other, to give a type of graduated lighting and depth. 9 in. reflector bowls on the monolights.

Camera body was 5D MKII (FF) with EF 28-80mm, f2.8-f4L, USM (@52mm). Flashes were triggered with radio slaves. Ambient lights turned off.

Curved arrangement, which also worked for more individuals, staggered by stairs.

Art Scott · November 23, 2012

You said shoot was tonight...let us know how it turned out.

Brunswick · November 24, 2012

I survived....and so did the client!

I am exhausted but happy. Thank you for replying to my help call. I have a nikon D700. I was using a nikon 24 to 70 F2.8 lens. I had two speed lights with me Nikon SB900 and SB800. I also had my Paul C. Buff White lighting Strobes X1600. I used gold umbrellas with diffuser material on them. It was a standard house with lots of very nice stuff in it like heavy marble tables and I struggled with finding the shots and having enough space. I used the white lighting strobes for the group shots and my on camera flash for the rest. I am learning the art of posing. That was a real challenge. I still have a lot to learn but I am happy that I ended up with some options to present the client. The shoot was at night so I did not have any natural ambient light. I tried to maintain my ISO around 600 to 800 but on the shot I have attached it was at 1600. I don't like to do that but I was trying to keep my apeture at f16 and I was shooting handheld. I moved furiture out of the photo's way but then I was climbing all over it trying to back up. Sometimes I was up on a ladder. It was an experience. I learned a lot. I am glad I did it but I was very stressful for me. I look forward to being more experienced!
Thanks again.
PS. This is just a ruff image. Next stop photoshop to remove the unwanted stuff which was every where I turned.......

Art Scott · November 24, 2012

not bad at all for 1st time learning experience.

pathfinder · November 25, 2012

I agree.

Shooting in a home for that large a group can be a challenge, as it sounds like you described.

I think you did pretty good indeed.

Brunswick · November 25, 2012

Thank you. I appreciate all the input and the sample shots Ziggy sent. I like how you hid the lighting completely in your photo's. I will have to learn that technique!

Large Group Shot

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