--- "Kotsinadelis, Peter (Peter)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
> William Bloor wrote:
> > I will be grateful for any thoughts or suggestions
> about
> > photographing a large group of people.
> >
> > Here is the situation: My daughter is in an
> organization that will
> > have a regional meeting in March. There will be
> about 100 girls and
> > women, all in fancy dress. They want a "good"
> group photo. It will
> > be enlarged and presented as a gift to some
> dignitary at a later
> > meeting. They asked me to take that photo.
You've gotten lots of advice on the technique. FWIW,
I agree with having the light parallel to the
subjects, not at 45 degrees. You'll get too much fall
off toward the middle if they're at 45 degrees, I
think.
Put the camera on a tripod. Sharpness is going to be
a big enough issue without having to worry about
camera shake.
Spot (or partial) meter. You don't want a dark or
light background (or reflective--even worse)
background biasing your exposure. Use FEL if your
body has it, or bracket.
But there's another aspect to this beyond photo
technique. How are you going to arrange 100 people?
You're going to have to put them in multiple rows to
keep the width manageable. In fancy dresses, you're
not likely to get anyone to volunteer to sit or kneel
on the floor. You might get away with front row
sitting (on chairs), and middle row standing, and a
back row staning on...what??? Are there risers
available at the facility? Will these people climb up
and stand on chairs? (Are their 67 chairs available?)
You probably don't want to go more than 3, or at most
4, deep or it will be too hard to evenly expose
everyone, front to back.
Make sure the rows are staggered, with space between
every person. Before you take the picture, try to
look carefully at every face from the camera position.
If you can't see someone's face, neither will anyone
looking at the picture, so rearrange them.
You absolutely need to visit the location prior to the
event, to figure out where you can arrange the
subjects. Measure a few people standing side by side,
and esimate how much room you'll need. Figure out
where you'll have to stand to cover that much space,
and where you can put your lights.
Don't have the subjects get in position until you've
got everything else set up. Make sure you have an
assitant who can help get peoples attention, tell them
where to go, etc.
Back to equipment: when you're visiting the location
beforehand, figure out what focal length you'll need
to shoot (stay as close to the middle ranges of the
zoom range as you can). Use DEP mode to figure out
what aperture you'll need for adequate DOF. Shoot a
few test shots with each lens, and figure out which is
sharpest and has the least distortion at the
appropriate focal length. If you can take along half
a dozen friends, have them stand at several places
within the frame, and check out the evenness of the
lighting. And make sure the remote flashes are
triggered in the position you want to place them.
Good luck. I'm afraid you've bitten off more than you
may have realized.
=====
Bob Meyer
Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first.
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail - only $35
a year! http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/
*
****
*******
***********************************************************
* For list instructions, including unsubscribe, see:
* http://www.a1.nl/phomepag/markerink/eos_list.htm
***********************************************************
