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Need help shooting a large family group photo
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<blockquote data-quote="Revet" data-source="post: 221737" data-attributes="member: 17612"><p>Thanks all for the great input. I have learned a ton and it will help me. But lets be realistic. We are not going to make me a professional grade indoor large group photographer in the time I have. Now I know why I saved flash photography for last on my learning curve. But saying that, I know I can do better with two speed lights, some tripods, a ladder, and using post processing, shooting in Raw, than what it was going to be; a person shooting on the ground with a decent digital SLR and speedlight with a jpeg image and no post processing. Thus let me review what I think I am going to try and you can tweak it from there.</p><p></p><p>First, the restaurant is Biagio's in Paramus New Jersey in their Ballroom. They have great pictures on line in the weddings and special events section if you feel so inclined to check. To sumarize, the ceilings look 12-14 feet, they are white with recessed white rectangles lined with wide wood trim. The walls are white with a lot of wood and windows in the room. The shot will be late in the day so (4-5 pm) so I don't know how much light will filter in but some will I'm sure. I might be able to get them to turn up the room lights for the shot.</p><p></p><p>Step One - set up camera and speedlights and get some quick test shots using 4 people in the predicted area of the shot. Figure out from this if my lighting is ok and what F stop I should use. Knowing the F stop, I will set the shutter speed and ISO, trying to keep the ISO at 800 or less. I plan to use single-servo auto focus but possibly manual if I am having trouble in low light (doubt that though). Also, single point AF for AF-area mode, and spot metering. I will use the histogram on the camera to get the exposure close if not right on.</p><p></p><p>step 2 - call in the group. I plan to arrange them with my mother sitting in the center probably in the 2nd row. The form a arc starting from here with families in groups trying to keep the group as narrow both in width and depth as possible. My daughter is an art major and is all over this for me.</p><p></p><p>Since it sounds like the SU-4 is only good for the SB 600 (which is not mine) I don't think I am going to go that route but I might be able to rent another SB-700 for the weekend. Thus I see two possible senarios for the camera and flashes.</p><p></p><p>One - use the 600 on the camera and trigger the 700 using the SU-4 mode. I can either point the flashes straight ahead or angle them slightly outwards a person or two from my mom (which ever you feel is better). If I go this route, would you use the pull out wide angle diffuser that is part of the SB 700 and I hope the 600.</p><p></p><p>two - If I can rent another speedlight, I can trigger both using SU-4 mode so I can use both flashes off camera and possibly get them in closer and higher and bounce them, or put them in another place you might suggest (straight on, angled or bounced). If a bounce would work, I could pull out the card to get more light on the faces.</p><p></p><p>Lastly, the group may not be as big as I thought. We might be looking at 40 people total for the big shot, and a couple of pics with 12 or so people in it (siblings and Mom, families and Mom). I mostly care about the big one, I can handle the smaller groups. I can't thank you all for the time you put up with me on this and all your help. I will most definitely post the photo when it is all done.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Revet, post: 221737, member: 17612"] Thanks all for the great input. I have learned a ton and it will help me. But lets be realistic. We are not going to make me a professional grade indoor large group photographer in the time I have. Now I know why I saved flash photography for last on my learning curve. But saying that, I know I can do better with two speed lights, some tripods, a ladder, and using post processing, shooting in Raw, than what it was going to be; a person shooting on the ground with a decent digital SLR and speedlight with a jpeg image and no post processing. Thus let me review what I think I am going to try and you can tweak it from there. First, the restaurant is Biagio's in Paramus New Jersey in their Ballroom. They have great pictures on line in the weddings and special events section if you feel so inclined to check. To sumarize, the ceilings look 12-14 feet, they are white with recessed white rectangles lined with wide wood trim. The walls are white with a lot of wood and windows in the room. The shot will be late in the day so (4-5 pm) so I don't know how much light will filter in but some will I'm sure. I might be able to get them to turn up the room lights for the shot. Step One - set up camera and speedlights and get some quick test shots using 4 people in the predicted area of the shot. Figure out from this if my lighting is ok and what F stop I should use. Knowing the F stop, I will set the shutter speed and ISO, trying to keep the ISO at 800 or less. I plan to use single-servo auto focus but possibly manual if I am having trouble in low light (doubt that though). Also, single point AF for AF-area mode, and spot metering. I will use the histogram on the camera to get the exposure close if not right on. step 2 - call in the group. I plan to arrange them with my mother sitting in the center probably in the 2nd row. The form a arc starting from here with families in groups trying to keep the group as narrow both in width and depth as possible. My daughter is an art major and is all over this for me. Since it sounds like the SU-4 is only good for the SB 600 (which is not mine) I don't think I am going to go that route but I might be able to rent another SB-700 for the weekend. Thus I see two possible senarios for the camera and flashes. One - use the 600 on the camera and trigger the 700 using the SU-4 mode. I can either point the flashes straight ahead or angle them slightly outwards a person or two from my mom (which ever you feel is better). If I go this route, would you use the pull out wide angle diffuser that is part of the SB 700 and I hope the 600. two - If I can rent another speedlight, I can trigger both using SU-4 mode so I can use both flashes off camera and possibly get them in closer and higher and bounce them, or put them in another place you might suggest (straight on, angled or bounced). If a bounce would work, I could pull out the card to get more light on the faces. Lastly, the group may not be as big as I thought. We might be looking at 40 people total for the big shot, and a couple of pics with 12 or so people in it (siblings and Mom, families and Mom). I mostly care about the big one, I can handle the smaller groups. I can't thank you all for the time you put up with me on this and all your help. I will most definitely post the photo when it is all done. [/QUOTE]
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