Massive group photo...

[JTP]

Ok, I'm at school now and I'm on the yearbook's computer. I found the original shots taken last year. Here are a couple of them. From the first one it's easy to see the position of the two lights.

I guess one of the main questions I have now is, umbrellas or no umbrellas? I don't know what he did last year.

 

[Socrates]

Also easy to see that the camera was quite high, per the recommendation from Peanuts.

 

[Alpha]

High powered strobes are a must. I would say Speedo Black Line, for heads, not monoblock. They're lighter and easier to raise on stands. Gel them blue and fire into large silver-lined umbrellas. This will approximately match the cool light temp in the gym. You need to bounce A LOT of light into that room. You'll need increased power because of the gels, which will cause you to lose 1-2 stops. Inverse square says you're gonna get a lot of falloff firing them from that far away. Again, everything points to high power. Rent some pocket wizzards...cords would drive you insane.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[Big Mike]

why would taking the photo from such a high angle help?

With a large group, people's faces may be hidden behind other people's heads. The higher you are, the better view you (your camera) will have of every one's face. Not to mention that people usually look better when they are looking up.

If shooting in a gym like that, some high powered strobes would be your best bet. Ideally, you would want to match the color to the existing lighting, as Max points out. That will rob some power but that's why you need plenty of power.
What lens to you have avaliable to use? A faster lens will help with the lighting power, just make sure that you have enough DOF to get everyone in focus.

I agree with Peanuts that shooting outside would solve a lot of your problems. Just get everyone outside on an overcast day and there you go. Maybe have someone take the shot from on top of a building or high ladder.

Also, if you are shooting in the gym with strobes, keep in mind that you will have to shoot in manual mode and either use a flash meter or some other method (trial and error) to determine exposure. Beware of using your camera's flash or your 580EX because they use E-TTL metering (pre-flash) which won't play well with studio strobe lights.

 

[JTP]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I'm still not confident because I've never shot anything like this before so I essentially have no idea what I'm doing - can someone recommend the basic settings that I should start off with that are appropriate for this?

Also keep in mind... everyone knows that I'm not a pro and I've told them not to expect pro-quality results. I don't mind doing a bit of extra PP work to make it look good.

 

[Peanuts]

It completely matters the lighting in the gym. I would personally boost your lights up to teh maximum and start testing the light and tweaking.

I would shoot no wider then 22mm most likely - even at 22mm watch your edges where people will be distorted.

Reason to shoot form above is you can use a much smaller f-stop as the change in distance is less across the group and you could probably surive with a single light source and not worry about too much fall off on the edges

 

[JTP]

Thanks for your help everyone... the photo is tomorrow morning and I ended up renting 4 strobes instead of 3 just to be safe... also got a light meter... played around with them a bit at home and my 580EXii seems to trigger them just fine. I have lots of time to set up and play around with the settings to get it right in the gym and I have some people coming to help me, so I can see what works.

Feel free to give me any last-minute pieces of advice! I'll post the result tomorrow. Thanks again.

 

[ScottS]

GOOD LUCK!!!!!

 

[Peanuts]

You'll do great!

 

[keith204]

also make sure all your flashes fire

 

[Puscas]

good luck. I'm really interested to hear/see how you did.






pascal

 

[CanadianMe]

Is it a two man lift? If so the Custodian should be certified and may be able to get you air born. Worth inquiring.

 

[JerryPH]

1 - Go to the http://strobist.blogspot.com website and read till your head hurts. Take a big breath, and read some more. This link is specific to your needs, but read all of lighting 101 and 102 so that you know what you are doing! (http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/04/on-assignment-big-gym-little-lights.html)

2 - Using that info, get the equipment that you will need. Do not even think or dream of using on camera flash.

3 - Practice, practice, practice!

4 - Shoot only RAW. Zero need to worry about white balance

5 - Use the numerically lowest ISO possible for minimal noise. If flashes permit... ISO 100 would be ideal, but I doubt it will happen.

6 - Use a very small aperture (F8-F16 or so) for best DOF. Experiment and see what gets you the sharpest pic at good focus from end to end.

I feel you will need a minimum of 3-5 good strobes at full strength using umbrellas instead of softboxes... maybe even without umbrellas and go straight flash. Nikon SB-800's would be what I would be looking at if I was in your place and had a Nikon camera.

A setup like this will take most amateurs AT LEAST 4-5 sessions to get an idea of what is right, thats where the practice comes in.

Thats my advice. Now my thoughts. I think that becuase they are being cheap, it is going to cost them one way or another. Throwing a student into this kind of situation without adequate equipment or experience is ludicrous. Unfortunately for you, if things do not come out, guess who gets the blame?

Remember... preparation is 99% of this, the other 1% is luck. The more you prep, the better your results will be.

I can only wish you the very best of luck.