Toronto Photography Meetup Group

At the last minute a work colleague asked me to do a "formal" family portrait at his wife's 50th birthday tomorrow. I said I would do it.

How should I approach this?

I have access to the following: 2 Nikon SB-800s, a Stroboframe bracket, SC-29, and nothing else (no stands, or assistants but I may ask someone working at the venue (a golf club) to help if possible). I don't know how high the ceilings are at all.

I am thinking I should probably use one of the sharper lenses I have (a 20-35mm f2.8 ), perhaps at 35mm or so at around f/5.6 to f/8.

Please let me know your thoughts or any useful links. Many thanks!

My first instinct with the equipment you have is to bounce off the ceiling if it's low and light enough. If that's not possible and you don't have stands I would ask a couple people to hold the flashes 45 degrees on either side of the group (wide a beam as possible) - use bounce umbrellas if you have it and use CLS (I'm assuming you use Nikon) to trigger the flashes. F8 or higher aperture to increase your chances of getting everyone in focus.

Keep it simple and don't worry about complicating things too much.

Take shots wide and also, don't fall into trying to shoot the portraits at the most open AP. F4 and above should definitely suffice.

If you need to, use your flash but make sure its well diffused (some modifier). Also, if at all possible, like SD said, bounce it off something. It'll help quite a bit.

And be relaxed cause the people you take pictures of, can pick up on your nervous energy very easily.

Good luck!!! You're going to do awesome!

if possible, go for F8+... I've had shots at 5.6 and they are still not sharp enough.
It also depends a lot on the focal length you will be shooting. Of course, shoot double or triple to make sure there's no blur and everyone's eye is looking at you.

only thing I'll add is use a tripod, don't use too wide a lens, ideally if you're using full frame use a 50mm so that you get some compression.. wide angles tend to distort and you'll have to move the strobes quite far back from the subjects where as if you use the 50 and stand 15-20 feet back you'll be able to keep the lights fairly tight and avoid including them in the frame...you'll also avoid taking in too much floor and ceiling... if you're shooting during the day, you're best off shooting outside to take advantage of natural light and just use fill flash... if you're not experienced with lighting a large group indoors it'll be tougher because you not only have to light the subjects, you need to account for lighting the background (2 sb-600s might not be sufficient depending on the size of the group and how dimly light the interior will be) and if there is artificial light in the background, balancing it with your strobes may be a pain in the ass...

good luck

How many people are in this shot? If it's a small group, say 10 odd people, you can use a tripod and shoot head on. If it's a group of say 15 or a lot more, shooting head on will mean some of the faces will be obscured by someone head/hair etc. You might want to stand up on a chair or a step stool and shoot them form a higher elevation. That way all the faces will be looking up at you and reduce the chance of someone's head blocking someone's face. Just to add, go earlier, setup your lighting, get your test shots done so you know your setting before you get your group together. Nothing worse for a group of people to become restless than to sit around while you play with the lighting setup and taking a bunch of test shots. Five minutes will seem like an hour to them.

When you're ready to take the pic, get vocal. Tell them "Ok everyone, we're going to take 3 shots. Everyone please look this way. "Smile!" <click> "One more...big smile!" <click> "On the count of three... 1, 2, 3, BIG smile!" <click> and don't forget to thank them after. Telling them that you're going to take x number of shots get's them prepared and sets their attention span so they know that you will be taking x shots so they don't start getting chatty with the other members of the group. Counting and telling them to smile gets their attention focused on you and they'll know to keep their eyes open. If you're a quiet person, you'll need to really speak up (depending on the size of the group of course) to be audible.

Have fun!

did you get the "feet" with the sb-800s?
if so plop them into those and sit them on tables or stools or even kitchen chairs if need be...you're prob gonna be bouncing the light off a ceiling so don't be too worried about the height of the flashes

How did it go??!?

Thanks for all the helpful advice; it is very much appreciated.

The photos ended up being much more informal, particularly given the nature of the family (their personalities and mood) and attire that some had on. So, I may have had wrong expectations and over-sweated it more than I needed to (but I think that always is a preferred situation than not).

I ended up shooting almost all the photos at about 30-35mm (it's just the way the room worked out) and all at F8, using the two SB-800 (held by helpful assistants) being bounced off the ceiling (one each to my left and right).

My biggest problem was getting everyone to look at the camera. Some people just have a tendency to have their eyes appear closed, and some others (mainly children) seem always to be daydreaming. I have multiple shots of various different sub-groups, and I think I will need to go through and cut and paste someone's open eyes into one in which they are closed. Can I get some help here please? How's the best way to tackle this?

Again, thanks for everyone's help.

There's the PERFECT way to do this.

http://www.peachpit.com/guides/content.aspx?g=photoshop&seqNum=353

Using Auto Align it's amazing what you can do.