no_surrender wrote:
Justin, may I ask why f/5.6? Personally, I would have been nervous to shoot that open out of fear of having too shallow a DOF. It looks great and I'm willing to bet now or years from now your family will appreciate your efforts.
Hey Kevin, I use Olympus 4/3, which has more dof than the other formats. I was pretty sure that 5.6 would get them all in focus, and after a couple of test pops, it looked ok on the LCD. Cheers!
BTW, your image isn't coming up for me.
EDIT: nvm, they're there now. Those are great, nice light on them. If you have the skill, or know someone with the skill, you can do some 'head transplants' to get everyone with a nice smile (or nice frowns, if that's what you want). Heck, if you send them my way, I'll do some transplants for you if you want. Only $10/head (kidding, email is in my profile).
Okay, I'm in. This was made this past weekend at a fundraising event to support our local high school football program. I was asked to do some couples portraits, so I was set up for that. These are 16 moms of the seniors on the varsity team. They asked me to shoot a quick group shot (emphasis on quick, as in very quick). Posing is kinda awkward for some, but they loved it. Light was provided by one Qflash behind a small shoot-through umbrella almost directly over the camera position, with one 580EXII fitted with a half-cut CTO to provide some warm fill on the left side of the oak tree, which would otherwise have been in deep shadow.
Steve Wylie wrote:
Okay, I'm in. This was made this past weekend at a fundraising event to support our local high school football program. I was asked to do some couples portraits, so I was set up for that. These are 16 moms of the seniors on the varsity team. They asked me to shoot a quick group shot (emphasis on quick, as in very quick). Posing is kinda awkward for some, but they loved it. Light was provided by one Qflash behind a small shoot-through umbrella almost directly over the camera position, with one 580EXII fitted with a half-cut CTO to provide some warm fill on the left side of the oak tree, which would otherwise have been in deep shadow. ...Show more →
Very nice, Steve! I saw this on your fb and am glad you came here to disclose your set-up info. What size umbrella did you use and how close to the group did you have it set up?
It's a small shoot through that I purchased from David Ziser (www.digitalprotalk.com). It's probably about 20" or so in diameter and folds down to next to nothing. He had it made by Westcott; he calls it the Zumbrella. It is more translucent than most shoot through umbrellas. You can order it from him at the website above. I use this all the time. Frankly, I didn't expect to be shooting a group of 16 with it, but it worked well. You have to look very closely to see the fall-off from the center to the right. On the left, there's some ambient sunlight creeping in on the outside lady. The distance from the light to the center of the group is probably 12 feet. I had set it up about 45 degrees to my right and about 8 feet from the subjects for the couples portraits I made (they were waist-up). For this big group, I needed to move it back and center it to get even coverage across the span of the group, including those in the back.
It's a small shoot through that I purchased from David Ziser (www.digitalprotalk.com). It's probably about 20" or so in diameter and folds down to next to nothing. He had it made by Westcott; he calls it the Zumbrella. It is more translucent than most shoot through umbrellas. You can order it from him at the website above. I use this all the time. Frankly, I didn't expect to be shooting a group of 16 with it, but it worked well. You have to look very closely to see the fall-off from the center to the right. On the left, there's some ambient sunlight creeping in on the outside lady. The distance from the light to the center of the group is probably 12 feet. I had set it up about 45 degrees to my right and about 8 feet from the subjects for the couples portraits I made (they were waist-up). For this big group, I needed to move it back and center it to get even coverage across the span of the group, including those in the back....Show more →
Steve, I missed the part in your original post where you said "small shoot-through umbrella." You're right, 20" is a lot smaller than I was expecting you were going to tell me. That's impressive! I read up a little on the Q Flash and am still curious how it compares to a 580 EX II in power? I have one 45" umbrella that's probably not as translucent as the one you used. I'm definitely going to have to experiment with it outdoors now after having seen your success shooting 16 beautiful women with just an umbrella, 20" no less! I can barely see in the left side of the frame on the leaves where you used fill. I'm guessing had you left it in deep shadow the whole image would have looked like you used flash instead of ambient light, huh? Nice job! Loved perusing through your Italy pictures by the way, bet that was a lot of fun!
Kevin
Justin, looks like I've got a project on my hands...I'll definitely post back here with a group shot of 5 or more. Wish me luck!
And here's my largest group shot - my daughter's residence hall at the University of Kansas. I shot their residence hall yearbook photos the past couple of years. Somewhere around 40 girls or so, all dressed nicely for the main group photo, so I wanted to stage them on stairs where we could see faces and outfits as much as possible. It was a bright sunny day, so we set up in open shade.
I used two off-cam flashes (430 EXII and 550 EX) on stands with shoot through umbrellas. The flashes were positioned about 10 feet above the ground and about 6 to 8 feet to the let and right of the camera. I was on a step ladder hand-holding the camera about 10 feet above the ground. We also did small group shots (3 or 4 in each group) - one for each room. Those were generally a variety of fun, informal shots.
ESC in KC wrote:
Nice job on the impromptu family shot jfinite.
And here's my largest group shot - my daughter's residence hall at the University of Kansas. I shot their residence hall yearbook photos the past couple of years. Somewhere around 40 girls or so, all dressed nicely for the main group photo, so I wanted to stage them on stairs where we could see faces and outfits as much as possible. It was a bright sunny day, so we set up in open shade.
I used two off-cam flashes (430 EXII and 550 EX) on stands with shoot through umbrellas. The flashes were positioned about 10 feet above the ground and about 6 to 8 feet to the let and right of the camera. I was on a step ladder hand-holding the camera about 10 feet above the ground. We also did small group shots (3 or 4 in each group) - one for each room. Those were generally a variety of fun, informal shots.
http://edinkc.smugmug.com/photos/i-FcSt4Sj/0/L/i-FcSt4Sj-L.jpg...Show more →
Front row, 3rd girl from the left knows the "model pose". I teach it to all females I take photographs of. Hope I am not preaching to the choir hear, but essentially you place instep anywhere from 45 degree angle to directly inline with camera then place all of body's weight on that foot. Heel of other foot goes in front of instep. You slightly lift heel of front foot off ground. Bring hip of front leg slightly towards camera. Great way to achieve uniformity...nice shot
Michaelparris wrote:
Front row, 3rd girl from the left knows the "model pose". I teach it to all females I take photographs of. Hope I am not preaching to the choir hear, but essentially you place instep anywhere from 45 degree angle to directly inline with camera then place all of body's weight on that foot. Heel of other foot goes in front of instep. You slightly lift heel of front foot off ground. Bring hip of front leg slightly towards camera. Great way to achieve uniformity...nice shot
The images aren't coming up on my work computer so I'll have to check back later, but wanted to say thank you for describing the "model pose." Things to keep in mind when shooting groups of females...
