Excited but stressed. - DPChallenge Forums

10/29/2008 12:38:52 AM · #1

We are shooting our first event tonight, our children's school's year 12 graduation. We will be taking shots of everyone as they recieve their certificate and any awards. We are also taking a group shot (72 students) before the service and family portraits afterwards. The part I am most stressed about is the group shot, how to light everybody well. WE have two Bowens strobes 500's with 2 umberellas and a soft box. We are thinking of taking the shot with the kids possitioned on the stair case in the foyer, if we were to place one of the lights on the balcony pointing down towards the stairs from side on would that work to light up the people in the back? The other thought is to have the kids at ground level looking upwards to us shooting from the balcony.
Any advice would be appreciated.

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 ED

10/29/2008 01:21:59 AM · #2

Bump??

BeeCee

Nikon D40

10/29/2008 02:03:26 AM · #3

Unfortunately, all the Americans who know anything are in bed by now :(

Prof_Fate

10/29/2008 02:10:47 AM · #4

if you get high and shoot down that would probably be better - you'll see more of their faces, less chance of one being behind another, etc.

how wide and or deep is the group going to be? What about ambient light (regarding the background?)

I shot a reunion group photo of 150 people in the dark ( 9 pm about 2 weeks ago) using two strobes - one with a large softbox for the front 1/2 and just a 7 inch reflector for the back half of the group. I had less than 10 minutes to set up and no time to test - the guy in charge started moving the folks into position before he was supposed to.

It was at PNC Park (home of the Pittsburgh Pirates) and you can see in the background and upper left the city - there were NO lights on at all in the stadium. Shot at ISO 1000, 5.6 and 1/15 second, handheld, canon 10-22 lens at 10mm.

BTW, this is a horizontal crop from a vertically framed shot. I printed a 12x18 of it for him and it was very very nice - excellent considering the situation!

Message edited by author 2008-10-29 02:13:13.

Prof_Fate

10/29/2008 02:11:23 AM · #5

Originally posted by BeeCee:

Unfortunately, all the Americans who know anything are in bed by now :(

Are you inferring I know nothing then? LOL

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 ED

10/29/2008 02:53:42 AM · #6

Thanks Prof.
WE have 72 people, maybe around 7 rows. We have the canon 24-105 L lens, I hope that is wide enough.
I think I agree the shooting from above will probably be easiest to light, but I thought the stair well shot would look nicer.
The lighting in the foyer is a bit of an unknown until tonight although with daylight savings now in effect we will probably have a fair bit of daylight as there are windows all along the wall. The venue is actually on the waterfront and it would have been nice to shoot outdoors with that backdrop but it is blowing a gale at the moment.
Thanks for the info on your settings.
Sarah

BeeCee

Nikon D40

10/29/2008 04:37:17 AM · #7

Originally posted by Prof_Fate:

Originally posted by BeeCee:
Unfortunately, all the Americans who know anything are in bed by now :(

Are you inferring I know nothing then? LOL

You hadn't commented when I typed! :P

Prof_Fate

10/29/2008 09:36:20 AM · #8

Originally posted by Penny Lane:

I use a 40D and it (any crop body) has one more stop of DOF than a FF at the same aperture - so you should probably shoot at 5.6 to 8 range (there are things around the net that let you calculate this). Point being, you don't need F11.
Don't be afraid to up the ISO.
While you lens has IS, unless your flash is a couple of stops over ambient you may still get motion blur from the kids moving if you shutter is below 1/40th. Dragging the shutter works for some groups but they gotta sit still. Wedding parties will, preschoolers may not.

as you drag the shutter keep an eye on WB too.

To get their attention and have some fun bring a dog's squeaky toy or something similar and use it to get them looking at the camera. The first time or two you use it will really get their attention and they'll get quiet - it's unexpected. But unless you make a game of it, it won't work more than 3 times.

10/30/2008 12:32:03 AM · #9

Thanks for all the advice. We ended up going for the stair well shot, it looks good. We used both strobes and had some daylight comming in from the side.
Half way through the graduation certificate presentations the speed light decided to spit the dummy, thankfully we had a spare camera with us!!
We have learnt a few things and know what we will do differently next time, but overall it went well for our first large event.

10/31/2008 09:34:21 AM · #10

The orders are rolling in so we must have done a descent job. Not sure I'd want to do events photography all the time though! It was a learning experience and if the families are happy with their shots then I'm happy :)

Beetle

Canon EOS-5D Mark II