At 07:44 PM 2/16/2001 +0100, you wrote: >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. > >The photo probably will be indoors. In March we cannot rely on >having good weather for an outdoor shot. The room where this will >be taken is a typical low budget meeting hall -- no windows, >overhead lighting, cream walls. > >The equipment I have includes: Elan IIe, two 550EXs, one ST-e2 >transmitter, a Tokina 28-80 pro, Canon 28-135 IS. I used to do A LOT of this for a living. No disrespect intended but you are inadequately equipped for this assignment and my first suggestion is that the group employ a suitably equipped professional. In many cases, he will charge the group very little in return for permission to sell prints to individual members of the group. The company for which I worked used to charge the organization nothing, and in fact often returned a 10% commission / fund raiser to the organization for the privilege of selling images to the individuals. In order to execute this properly, a medium format camera is the minimum requirement. I know many who'd shoot this on 4x5, either with 4x5 film or with a 6x7 or 6x9 reducing back on the 4x5 camera. A very tall tripod and ladder are necessary since you want the film plane parallel to the plane of the faces and I presume the individuals will be lined up in rows with the back rows higher than those in front. You can mount a camera to a ladder with a Bogen Super Clamp, BTW. For lighting, I used two 400ws sources into large Photogenic Eclipse umbrellas. They were mounted as close to the camera axis as possible and feathered towards the edges so that, when metered the light was uniform across the entire scene. Setting the lights apart and aiming them in the the typical tyro error as it creates multiple light sources and causes those in front to cast dual crossed shadows on those behind. Set-up for this kind of event usually took not less than 30-60 minutes (and I was experienced) before the group entered plus an additional 30 minutes getting the group set neatly. With risers, or gymnasium seats, this can be simplified, but if you're on a flat floor, plan to have some seated and the ones you ask to sit will argue, since their "fancy" dresses won't look as well. I used to line them up in height order. Do NOT put the tallest in the rear. Too often they're so much taller that their heads are a full row higher than the next row in front. >Also, how does one keep 100 women in fancy dress all organized >long enough to arrange the flashes, etc. This is all done before you get the group, and the more you can discuss this with the group organizers and with whoever controls the location the better off you will be. regards, Henry Posner/B&H Photo-Video http://www.bhphotovideo.com * **** ******* *********************************************************** * For list instructions, including unsubscribe, see: * http://www.a1.nl/phomepag/markerink/eos_list.htm ***********************************************************
