Shooting large group outdoors, HELP!

[rowingbum]

Shooting 25 people on the beach around 6:30 in the evening from a ladder.
Not sure if I should even try to use fill lights (4 400w studio strobes with pocket wizards) as I hope the sun will be enough. Hope to have them looking out at the water and not into the sun. Sun on their right shoulders more or less.

Was going to use my 17-55 2.8, but could also use 50mm, 85mm or 18-200mm, or even 10-28mm wide.

Also F11?....or more like F6-22?

Never made a large group shot like this...ANY advice would be so helpfull!

Thank you!

[KdLaneJr]

Put the sun behind them. Meter ambient, adjust your strobes 1/3rd stop over ambient. Manually set the camera to 2/3rds below ambient.

Three rows of people, 10,8,7. Consider four rows depending on the lens you are using. Adjust the # of people per row as necessary.

Use an aperture gives you the correct exposure and depth of field or use the Online Depth of Field Calculator to determine your f-stop in advance, For three rows you should strive for at least 7 foot of dof. For four rows, strive for 9 ft. Focus on someone in the second row. Your aperture will most likely be f/8-f16. I wouldn't stop down more than f/16.

In my opinion you don't need four studio strobes for this. Three should be more than enough. What you do need.., is a 60 inch umbrella for each strobe. Bounce out of the umbrella, don't shoot through them.

Enjoy!

[rowingbum]

Got it. Thanks Ken!!! Was already planning on the umbrellas, using my 17-55 2.8, around F-11 because I want the water to still be semi in focus, don't want any boka per say. I had thought I would try to use the sun to light them yet trying to avoid it making them squint.
Good advice, thank you.

[Angelo]

Ken, your advice makes perfect sense.
Thanks for sharing...