Large Group Photo

[NoLight]

All my uncles aunts cousins my whole dang family is getting together soon and I would like to get a picture with all of them together. I was wondering who do you focus on? What f-stop would be a good starting point. I know there will be at least 100 people in the shot and that all will not be in focus, but I would like most of them to be recognizable. Any thougts would be great..

Thanx Chaz

[jagphoto]

OH MY!!! I have that same issue coming up in the summer!! I hope you get some good answers for this one!!!

[steve817]

What camera are you using?

[JPalmer]

get a tall ladder.

[CaptainTom]

It sounds like a pretty challenging situation.
I recommend the following:

1- try to get everyone to understand that it is THEM that will make or break this effort.
2- work fast. Attention spans are not on your side.
3- small apertures F11, fast shutters 1/500, wide angle lenses, 24mm are your friends.
4- pre plan what you will say, do, and have your gear ready.
5- altitude is your friend. The higher you can get above this mob the better off your shot will be. You will have a much better chance of not covering up someones face.
6- If using a flash, make sure they know you will take several pictures. people will wander off after the flash goes off.
7- bull horn?
8- brandish a weapon?
9- pray

[Bill]

There are some books available on group portraits. Subject is also covered in wedding photography books and online forums. So much depends on the practical constraints. Picnic at a park. Meeting hall. Day or night.

If the group is on risers and you get some height on them, you can tilt the camera down so that your camera is parallel to the angle of the risers. That puts all their heads in pretty much the same plane and in focus. Shooting from high helps even if they are on level ground.

That could be shooting from the balcony of a church. Bleachers at a football field shot from coach or band director's stand. Steps leading up to a church or school work the same as other risers.

Scheimpflug Effect Find a lens with tilt. Canon and Nikon make them. Tilt allows the plane of focus to be tilted back from perpendicular to the camera to angled away. Shoot a brick wall in front of you. All the bricks are in focus, up/down and left/right. That is because lens is parallel to wall. What if wall is old and tilts back? Top of wall is fuzzy. Remedy is to tilt lens so it remains parallel to wall. All will be sharp. Most common users are shooting, architecture, then landscapes, and then probably macro. Architecture is obvious. Other two are trying to extend depth of field. Infinite field of wildflowers starting from 3 inches away. The Scheimpflug Effect is typically used by large format shooters who just tilt the fron standard of the view camera. No special lens needed for that.

If digital, shoot left and right sides of group separately and stitch together. I just read about that recently in something like The Rangefinder. That effectively increases your pixel count by maybe 70% after discounting overlap.

If you shoot several pix, you might be able to piece something together with all eyes open and looking at you.

Plot it out ahead of time so it goes quickly. I've heard it's hot in Lubbock in the summertime. Some open shadow might be your best bet. Morning, side of a church or other tall structure.

Focus on the eyes in the row that will allow you to take the best advantage of the depth of field for whatever f/stop you use, which will probably be f/11 or f/8. Otherwise, get the eyes of the people in front as sharp as can be.

[acer0001]

I did a group shoot of about 100-120 people for a company's yearly conference about a month ago. I had about 10 mins. to coordinate and get the image.

I used a tall ladder and was able to find a slightly sloping hill to have everyone stand. I used as small aperature as possible. It helped to have a assistant from the group who knew everyone and could take my ideas and get people on a personal basis to do what I asked. I took about 10 images total, not to bracket, but to be sure that averyone looked OK (all eyes open, looking he right way, etc.). Humor goes a long way as well...

Good luck!

[CaptainTom]

I forgot to mention that people will not usually violate the space of others. You will need to tighten the group up as much as possible. "If the person in front of you is not smiling, you aren't close enough !!" breaks the ice and lets them know what you need.

[NoLight]

Great info guys any other ideas!!!!???? Weapons, yep got a few of those!! :)

[jerrykr]

if you have an assistant to help position people, get a pair of those cheap walkie-talkies to direct your assistant while you stay behind the camera and evaluate the scene.