Graduation shoot-need help

goodguy

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Sorry didn't know exactly where to post this so I am posting it here.
Need some guidance, I am going to shoot for first time senior graduation, I never shot such a big group of people (70 students). My main concern is lighting will 2 off camera flashes with umbrellas be enough ?
Maybe 2 constant LED lighting be better ?

Second question is how to organize everybody so everyone is visible.
 
I think it's time to test that ISO performance! The problem is the size of the group. If you go 4 deep your going to be about 27' wide or so. 4 deep it's hard enough to ensure all faces are fully visible. You not only have to cover the width with the light. But also the depth! And since I am guessing 4-5 rows deep. We are talking about 5-6' in a tight standing group, to 12' or more in a sitting group.

Is it inside or outside (or dependant on weather).
 
I just did some checking. A 4 row low rise bleacher is rated for 72 people at 27' length. The rise per row is 8" and 24" deep per row. Think of this as a typical softball field type bleacher. So, 27' wide by 8' deep.
 
If I will need to stretch my ISO then that sounds like the D750 will be better suited here.
I really have little information, I am almost certain the shoot is indoors, it starts at 4:30pm and ends at 7pm when its totally dark and VERY cold in Toronto.
 
Maybe 2 constant LED lighting be better ?
Flash is better than LED. What kind of flashes do you have? (How much power)
 
That last group I did like that was a football team; about 50, done in four rows. The problem with four rows is fall off and depth of field. You need to have the lights a fair way back so that you get an even exposure from front to back. I would estimate that you'd want the lights about 18' back, and will likely need about 1200 w/s spread over at least three lights to cover the distance at an aperture which will give you sufficient depth of field. I would not feel comfortable doing this with only two speedlights.
 
That last group I did like that was a football team; about 50, done in four rows. The problem with four rows is fall off and depth of field. You need to have the lights a fair way back so that you get an even exposure from front to back. I would estimate that you'd want the lights about 18' back, and will likely need about 1200 w/s spread over at least three lights to cover the distance at an aperture which will give you sufficient depth of field. I would not feel comfortable doing this with only two speedlights.

No expertise...just asking a question. When you're working with groups like this, do you have ISO preferences? At your minimum light requirements, what kind of settings are you looking at? 1/200s (or whatever sync is), 100 ISO, F/11? or something else?
 
ISO as low as practical; I was probably at 400 for the team shots ('they're all in archive, and I'm too lazy to dig out the discs to check), shutter at sync (1/250 for me), and I think f8 gave me me a couple of feet in front of the nearest and behind the rear as a focus 'safety cushion'.
 
For shutter speed, I will have low shutter speed and have camera on tripod, I will have it fast enough so faces will not be smeered but slow enough so I get as low as possible ISO, this will help me to work on faces of people post processing and keep image as clean as possible, might shoot 1/40 or 1/30
 
For shutter speed, I will have low shutter speed and have camera on tripod, I will have it fast enough so faces will not be smeered but slow enough so I get as low as possible ISO, this will help me to work on faces of people post processing and keep image as clean as possible, might shoot 1/40 or 1/30
Couple of problems with this plan: One, you're going to get movement. In a group that size, it's a certainty that people are going to move, blink, twitch, etc. 1/60 would be the absolute minimum, and 1/125 would be much better. Second, you're going to be incorporating a LOT of ambient light in to your images, which in any room large enough to do this is probably ugly light. Fluorescent, sodium/mercury vapour, etc.... Not to mention the possible of cycling for fluorescent.... Have you thought of borrowing/renting appropriate lighting gear?
 
For shutter speed, I will have low shutter speed and have camera on tripod, I will have it fast enough so faces will not be smeered but slow enough so I get as low as possible ISO, this will help me to work on faces of people post processing and keep image as clean as possible, might shoot 1/40 or 1/30
Couple of problems with this plan: One, you're going to get movement. In a group that size, it's a certainty that people are going to move, blink, twitch, etc. 1/60 would be the absolute minimum, and 1/125 would be much better. Second, you're going to be incorporating a LOT of ambient light in to your images, which in any room large enough to do this is probably ugly light. Fluorescent, sodium/mercury vapour, etc.... Not to mention the possible of cycling for fluorescent.... Have you thought of borrowing/renting appropriate lighting gear?
Might have to consider that, either way I will follow your recommendation to use minimum shutter speed of 1/60
 
If you can I would pick up at least 2 more speedlights. In this situation I would probably bring 6 with me. I would set up 4 lights, keeping 2 for spares or extra light if needed. Honestly I would probably bring more speedlights, but intentions would be to use 4 to 6 lights. I already have a large quantity of lights though.
 
For shutter speed, I will have low shutter speed and have camera on tripod, I will have it fast enough so faces will not be smeered but slow enough so I get as low as possible ISO, this will help me to work on faces of people post processing and keep image as clean as possible, might shoot 1/40 or 1/30
Tripod, yes. There are many advantages to mounting your camera to a tripod. Also use a cable release. Or the self timer.

There is no particular advantage to holding to a low ISO. ISO has nothing to do with exposure, only with the image that the camera will produce. I would set the ISO to "auto" or set a maximum setting, based on the camera's ability to deal with a lower signal-to-noise ratio (S/N). Do some testing with your camera to find out how much noise you get with each ISO setting. I seriously doubt if your shot will be spoiled by noise alone.
 
...There is no particular advantage to holding to a low ISO. ISO has nothing to do with exposure, only with the image that the camera will produce. I would set the ISO to "auto" or set a maximum setting, based on the camera's ability to deal with a lower signal-to-noise ratio (S/N). Do some testing with your camera to find out how much noise you get with each ISO setting. I seriously doubt if your shot will be spoiled by noise alone.
Ummmm... I would respectfully disagree. Given that this is a graduation photo, it's entirely likely that some will want to print it, and potentially at larger sizes. As well, given how small each face is going to be, even a bit of excess noise is going to have an effect as people zoom in to see themselves. You also need to consider exposure. It's a virtual certainty that some people will require local exposure adjustment due to shadowing, and increasing exposure on an already high ISO is a great way to turn an image to junk. Rather than allowing the camera to use auto, do some experimenting with your gear so that you know exactly what results you can expect at a given ISO, and keep it as low as practical.
 

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