I haven't shot that many, but I have done groups of 25 or so. It all depends, of course, on how far you can get from the group. I like the 50L on my 5D II, but I'm intending to try the next one with a Zeiss 35/2 on a 1D IV; then I'll decide which I prefer.
I see... that presents a problem, for sure. They used to use a rotating camera to do class photos when I was in school; I wonder if there's any such mechanism for digital. Short of that, the only way I can even imagine to avoid the perspective distortion inherent in a wide-angle lens might be to do a panoramic stitch from two or three exposures; but that seems unlikely to be feasible.
I don't know if this is a best practices sort of thing...but I've used an ultra wide angle in the past. I purposly leave a lot of room on the edges (where distortion is the worst) and then cropped away the distorted edges so I'm just using the sweet spot of the glass. They usually they turn out OK - the bigger problem is getting everyone to look at the camera. Good luck!
I do these shota all the time.....I usually use a canon 24-70L at about F8 and ISO 400. I have a white lightning flash at about 10 feet over my head .......I get up on a short ladder and shoot....Easy shot and no distortions at F8.....No umbrella...that glares glasses too much...I do groups up to 70 all the time...I photoshop a nice title and thats it. I can get good results on a 580 EX flash too...yes you can light 70 people with this flash easily.
Bullseye5d2 wrote:
I would not have been able to get far enough to use a 50mm...
Then the only way is to get the people closer together - more rows of fewer people - and get you back up against the railing or wall or whatever limits you
WestFalcon's shots have some good tips too, but it seems like you couldn't get that far away
