How to take Big Group photo

[lovells19]

Hi,

I have yet to try this, What equipment would you guys recommend for a family portrait of about 50pax? do i need those umbrella thingy?

say Indoor and Outdoor.

What lens would you recommend for this shoot? i think a single SB-800 would not be able to light everyone up rite?

how about the settings? higher F-stops?

any advise is appreciated

 

[eastwest]

A single SB800 is not going to cover 50 people although you might be just about ok with three. Better to use professional studio lighting for such a big group. Or ask a professional to do it. PM me if you are interested in hiring some to do it for you who has all the equipment for indoors or outside.

 

[zac08]

Hi,

I have yet to try this, What equipment would you guys recommend for a family portrait of about 50pax? do i need those umbrella thingy?

say Indoor and Outdoor.

What lens would you recommend for this shoot? i think a single SB-800 would not be able to light everyone up rite?

how about the settings? higher F-stops?

any advise is appreciated

Man, this is a large group. You'd probably need to lights to fill up evenly on both sides. 2 SB-800's would be a start for outdoors. Indoors, you may need more lighting. Umbrellas would be good to diffuse the lighting but not totally necessary.

As for lenses, any 1 lens which can drop down to about 18mm for DSLR would be feasible (you'd be at about 27mm on the film equivalent)

Yes, a higher f stop of about f11 would be good to get a longer DOF.

 

[lovells19]

Thanks!

I guess it'll be quite a hard to find a place to house 50pax for a group shot,

do you think i'll be able to shoot it with natural light only? if say i manage to get everyone to wake up early enf for the rising sun? haha

so i'll need 2-3 SB-800 for a proper exposure then hmmm

 

[siriuslim]

hey man.. still diving..? now taking group photo of your students?
from my experience, a sb800 may cover 50+pax for a group photo. it also depends on how near are you to your subject, ie how wide is your lens too.
if the group is too big and lighting is bad, use a tripod and shoot using ambiance light.. maybe shoot in raw and touch up later... it is do-able..

 

[lovells19]

yeap still diving

haha taking a family portrait

hmm i think long exposure might be a little tricky as there would be kids so i think slowest i can go is 1/60 at f11 i think need a very strong sunlight and hope the participant don't squint leh

maybe ask them chip $20 each then get a pro to do it hahaha

 

[jnet6]

first you got to have a location first, any place in mind??

your shutter speed can go as low as 1/10~1/30 depending on the Kids.

As for lights, other have already mention, so you will need to get your location first.

 

[Del_CtrlnoAlt]

50 - 5 row of 10s... 2 row of 25, 10 row of 5, etc...

depending on the arrangement, for each style, have different requirement...

 

[lovells19]

50 - 5 row of 10s... 2 row of 25, 10 row of 5, etc...

depending on the arrangement, for each style, have different requirement...

guess not. maybe gonna book a event hall for it, maybe 4rolls mix and match oldest sit on chair, father generation stand behind, my gen stand on ben at the back, kids all go to the frond and sit on the floor

 

[grumpy]

just curious, how is the family portrait going to be complete without you in the photo? (assuming you are the photog)

 

[lovells19]

just curious, how is the family portrait going to be complete without you in the photo? (assuming you are the photog)

self timer?

 

[yehosaphat]

Shutter speed has to be way faster than 1/60s if kids are arnd so best if you get a bright enough outdoor spot and boost up your ISO. Then you can slowly process later in PS (remove noise and recover shadows)... that is if you want to avoid paying for the setting up of studio related stuffs ;p

 

[artfakeme]

Shoot outdoor, is the best. But the disadvantage is the weather. Imagine half of the 50 people took their leave just for this photoshoot, then it rains.

 

[catchlights]

for the size of gounp, best bid is do it outdoor, if do it in door, you flash is weak and won't recharge fast enough, but with old folk and kids are tough for outdoor, weather to hot,

with small kids around, very hard to shoot, all kids take turn to look away, some look up, look left, look right, turn a round, run away.... maybe 50 shots only 2 or 3 useable, and the worst is that you can't shoot more then 10~15 shots, else everyone start to faces black black.

all you can do is camera mount on tripod, just bang as many as you can, before someone start to walk away, than you go back and cut and paste all the best looking faces into one photo.

 

[lovells19]

for the size of gounp, best bid is do it outdoor, if do it in door, you flash is weak and won't recharge fast enough, but with old folk and kids are tough for outdoor, weather to hot,

with small kids around, very hard to shoot, all kids take turn to look away, some look up, look left, look right, turn a round, run away.... maybe 50 shots only 2 or 3 useable, and the worst is that you can't shoot more then 10~15 shots, else everyone start to faces black black.

all you can do is camera mount on tripod, just bang as many as you can, before someone start to walk away, than you go back and cut and paste all the best looking faces into one photo.

wahhh won't that be alot of work? hahaah but can use to salvage the few faces that cannot seem to stare at the camera one