My first attempt on (small) group photo

I was asked to take a group photo at our work for their website. I selected a few spots in our building which looked promising. However, I was not impressed by the results. It shows that I still have a lot to learn! I'd appreciate your feedback: how can I improve these photos?

1. This was taken with Sigma 50-150 f/2.8 in a large atrium with diffused natural light. It looks a bit bland. I don't want to increase saturation, though. How to make it more lively?


2. Another Sigma 50-150 f/2.8 in the same atrium. Similar bland effect.


3. The lens was Sigma 17-50 f/2.8. The atrium is in the background, I used a hot-shoe mounted flash with a diffuser to fill in. Perhaps not enough? Surprisingly, this image is quite noisy. What you see here is a processed version with increased contrast and removed noise, but the original is quite noise, despite using ISO200. Underneath, there is a 100% non-modified (i.e. ACR conversion with default parameters) of the face. I guess it was underexposed and when I brightened it up and increased contrast, the noise came out of darkness.





4. We had huge windows in our offices with nice views, so my idea was to sit them against one of them and use flashes to get some light. This turned out to be very tricky, as it was difficult to set up two umbrellas without getting reflections the glass. Below, a not entirely successful attempt. What happened, and I noticed this only in the computer, couldn't really see it on my camera screen, is that because the umbrellas had to be positioned quite deep on the left and right (to avoid reflections), the front row of people is not illuminated correctly (side lights are too harsh). The second row looks perhaps better. In the hindsight, I'd probably need a third flash underneath the camera to fill the shadows. It could be low enough to avoid reflections.



Anyway, my impression is that pictures 1-3 look dull and I'm not quite sure how to improve them. Any help?

If these were mine, I'd start by warming up the white balance a little; the shots feel very "cool" to me; possibly some blue or green color-cast that needs correcting for, I'd have to poke around to see. I'd also try applying a subtle Curves adjustment to increase the contrast. You say you don't want to increase Saturation but I think it could help a lot if done correctly. I'd probably punch them up using the Clarity, Saturation and Vibrance sliders in ACR. Again, a light touch can work wonders.

The one thing that really jumps out at me is I notice most of these were shot at f/2.8; which I really don't think offered you enough depth of field these shots. I probably would have shot these no wider than f/4; and that's only if f/5.6 wasn't an option.

....

I agree with HFish

#1 may have worked a bit better if you mover those tables out of the way, lower your point of view, and they sat up a little straighter.

Thanks, Fish. I processed these pictures at work, immediately after I took them. We have cold energy saving lights with weird colour cast at work, so it must have affected my perception of white balance. I'm back home now, with natural light around and indeed, #1 and 2 seem to have a greenish tint. I will have a look at it.

They are all processed in ACR and then Photoshop with NIK plugins. I did a few tweaks in ACR before importing them to Photoshop (lens correction and exposure in some cases). I checked white balance, but as I said, I was in the wrong environment to do it correctly. Then, I did use Pro Contrast and a bit of Detail Extractor in some case, Brighten/Darken Centre. A bit of Viveza to brighten eyes (the natural light pictures had rather darkish eyes). So contrast is already increased! The originals were even more bland. I think I did increase saturation slightly in #1, what I'm saying is that I don't want to push it any more, as it can affect skin tones.

What I really want to know is how to improve them before PP. Different angle, distance? Different light? Some other tricks? Perhaps I should have posed these people differently?

BTW, f/2.8 was almost necessary in #1 and 2 because of low light. I could probably push it to f/3.5, but not much more without risking blur (except for #4, they were taken handheld). #3 could have been done with smaller aperture and more flash, I can see it now.

I have re-edited two of the photos correcting the white balance and adding a little bit of warmth and saturation (isn't it too much?)





There are two lessons for me from this photo shoot. First, f/2.8 is not perfect for a group photo, in particular when people are in two of three rows. Second, when the light is weird, use a grey card. The light in the atrium was coming through a semi-translucent roof, adding its own cast and then reflected multiple times from the walls, which are bright, but not white. In addition, the floor had a weird greenish shade that probably confused the auto white balance system.

The next thing I need is to learn how to set these people into an interesting composition. This is much harder...

Nice shots. Although they need improving. The first, the woman needs to get rid of the ID card in her lap. The fella in the center has something in his hands plus I feel he's not dressed for the occasion. The first arrangement, they looked cramped and uncomfortable and yes I understand the thought in shooting at 2.8 but I would have moved items out of the frame before I would have tried to make them fall out of focus. Nice lighting and I think you did a good job on the WB.