100+ people portrait lighting question

[kbs]

I've got a question for you that have been in similar situations. I have an outdoor family reunion of 100+ people coming up. The plan is to shoot them with the sun setting behind them this summer in more than likely lined up in two rows with;
- two alien bees 1600s on 9ft max stands (with a PCB power pack and flash triggers)
- I was toying with the idea of bringing my step ladder to add some height to my shot
- The widest lens I own is a 28mm on a crop sensor D7000 (unless I keep my tamron 17-55 I am selling)
Another thing to note is they are people of color so I may need to increase the light a stop or two correct?
So the questions are,
- Is this going to work? lol
- What light modifiers if any should I use if any or should I just bare bulb it and use the Alien Bees reflectors.
- Would I have any use for my SB700 flash? (If so I would have to buy another flash trigger)
- How far apart should my strobes be?
- Would I be wise to save up for a light meter for this one?
That is all I can come up with at the moment.
Thanks in advance for the good advice I hope I will be getting.

 

[RobertOK]

Based on doing a group of about 50, here is my advice:

* 100 people in two rows would be VERY wide, consider 3 rows of 33 or even 4 rows of 25
* consider a row of chairs in the front row
* you did not mention demographics - kids?? If kids, get all the adults arranged first. Have some distractions / attention getters for kids or babies to look at the camera. Make it a contest for the kids to see who can look at the camera the longest
* Ask everyone if they can see the camera lens when they are arranged
* arrange your people into 4 or 5 groups according to what row and then arrange them group by group
* ladder would be good, you will have easier time seeing all faces
* Wider lense would give you more options, if this is an important shot, then RENT a new lens and do it ahead of time. Use an Aperature of at least f8 to get some depth
* backlit with sun seems like you are making it more challenging on yourself
* bring some orange cones to set up your width after you set you ladder. be sure to remove the cones before the shot
* have one or two assistants (or pick people from the group) to keep people lined up

 

[Robin Usagani]

Ill be more worried about how to put them all together to be visible on the camera. Personally I wouldnt go wider than 50mm.

 

[RobertOK]

Ill be more worried about how to put them all together to be visible on the camera. Personally I wouldnt go wider than 50mm.

I don't understand how you would fit 100 people with a 50mm on a crop camera (d7000), maybe I am missing something. Or do you mean 50mm on a full frame?

 

[Robin Usagani]

Ill be more worried about how to put them all together to be visible on the camera. Personally I wouldnt go wider than 50mm.

I don't understand how you would fit 100 people with a 50mm on a crop camera (d7000), maybe I am missing something. Or do you mean 50mm on a full frame?

? I can take a picture of the whole Earth if I take my 50 mm to outer space.

 

[RobertOK]

LOL -- exactly, i just meant wouldn't you have to be really far back with 50mm on a crop camera to fit that many people. No worries.

 

[Robin Usagani]

If you use really wide angle, aunt Sally wont be happy with her photo if she is standing close to the edge of the photo. Look at this photo I took. Notice the people on the left look more stretched than the middle? You dont want that.

 

[KmH]

That is barrel distortion. Barrel distortion varies depending on the lens.

My favorite group shot lens was the Nikon 24-85mm f/2.8-4.0D IF AF Zoom Nikkor Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras because it has very little barrel distortion at 24 mm. I also usually used that lens on a crop body.

RobertOK is right that 50 people wide isn't a good idea. What it boils down to is that each person would be very small in the image frame, and nearly unrecognizable. Frankly, even 25 wide will be pushing it.
Also, 2 AB's wouldn't evenly light 50 people wide. It would tale more like 4 or 5 AB's to do that.

I agree you will need to get the camera up, but not to high up. I take it you won't be in the shot?
The lights up the full 9 feet too, so any head shadows fall below the faces in the next row back and far enough apart to light 25 people wide evenly.

Kids sitting on the ground in front, second row of kids on knees for 2nd row, adults/bigger kids in chairs make 3rd row, 4th row of adults standing.

 

[cgipson1]

I agree with Schwetty... a wide angle can cause distortion. With a good, top of the line lens, the distortion will be minimized. A good 50mm price would work great.. and if you go 33 wide or 25 wide, you won't have to back up too far.

Personally I think would rent a full frame body for that shot... even though I think the D7000 would do a good job. I would definitely do some bracketing... just to try to get good exposures on everyone.

Good luck!

 

[2WheelPhoto]

People will gain weight in their face and arse the wider you get past 50mm. They may get shorter too. How dow you want them to appear? If they are anorexic and tall, you may be the groups next hero. If not, you may be the zero =)

 

[gsgary]

Why not take smaller groups and make a montage

 

[Sw1tchFX]

If you're going to have the sunset behind them, you'll need a pretty tight aperture to keep the sun from blowing out to paper white at 1/250th (unless you shoot film LOL)

Speaking from experience..keep the wide angle, get a ladder out, rent two high-roller's and sandbags, rent two 2400ws lights like Speedotron's, Profoto's, or Broncolor's, use 12 inch magnum reflectors, nuke it at f/16 and 1/250th. That should be pretty close to get the sunset, and will let the sun act as a nice hairlight without blowing things out, and give you enough power to get some DOF. Wouldn't be too surprised if you needed 4800ws packs.

Did that a few years ago shooting a Sales meeting with 200 people in it.

 

[EchoingWhisper]

Even without barrel distortion, you still get volume anamorphosis. I suggest you to shoot with less people and shoot as long of a focal length as possible. Also, at that distance from subject, I think that depth of field would not be a problem.

 

[Sw1tchFX]

Even without barrel distortion, you still get volume anamorphosis. I suggest you to shoot with less people and shoot as long of a focal length as possible. Also, at that distance from subject, I think that depth of field would not be a problem.

Shoot with less people? LOL sure..

 

[gsgary]

If you poison half of them it will be much easier