Posing a large group?

[Alison]

I am shooting a family reunion of 50 people this weekend. I know there will be one large group shot of about 20 people. Any suggestions? With that many it's kind of hard to get an interesting pose. I do have a wide angle lens that I will use but I don't want to just line them up. I thought somebody here might have some good ideas.

I am excited though, it will be fun to get some candids and small group shots as well.

 

[drlynn]

It isn't always easy to get good composition with that size group.

The best way I've found is to group each immediate family together, maybe one person seated in a chair (if possible) and the rest of the family around that one, on the ground, standing behind, etc. in an attempt to give each person's face its own "plane." In other words, try not to have two people's heads on the same horizontal plane.

Have each group close enough together that the image is cohesive, but make sure each group is identifiable as a unit.

 

[fadingaway1986]

When I was little - maybe around 8... My nan arranged for us to have family photos done. I would say there would have been maybe 15 - 20 of us in the photo... We went to a park... where the photographer spread us all out, maybe across 10metres... and took the photo like that. I'm not sure if he used a panoramic setting, or if he took several photos (obviously it was about 10 years ago, and i was a kid)... I love looking at that photo - its really interesting - it doesnt have everyone perfectly posed and looking absolutely beautiful - but its something i remember having done - and I love the photo now...

So maybe keep that in mind? I would love to show you what it was like - But I have no idea where that picture is at the moment... (Did I mention we were among trees - so there were people leaning against trees - i think there was someone sitting on a tree stump... etc)

 

[ismael]

Hi,

I've done several large group pictures and it is a challenge, especially if there are children involved. My favorite setup is to shoot from a ladder or standing on a chair, so people will be looking slightly up. I usually have more than 1 row of people, older and or shorter up front, younger / taller to the back. I try to have taller people in the center, shorter to the corners. If it is a family reunion I usually have the older people sitting and the rest standing around them. If the group is not too big, I have at least one shot of them holding champagne (cheap Cider works fine ) glasses pretending a toast. I prefer shooting away from background with wide open aperture to blur the background. But if you have a nice background you may want to the opposite. The key is to take as many pics as possible per group trying different compositions. I try to get 4 or 5 with different aperture settings. I use a 28-70 zoom lens set between 28 and 35 mm. Fill flash is almost mandatory. Hope this helps.

Thanks,
Ismael

 

[Alison]

Thanks for the tips! I think it went fairly well. There were some faces that we partially cut off, but it was a matter of working with the 8 children in the group, and while I would have liked to get people to move around the kids were really antsy.

Here's a link to the photos...
http://stalleyphotography.morephoto...ds2=no&groupid=0&bw=false&sep=false&ckw=false

 

[molested_cow]

U know, I always think the moment just before they are expecting the click to happen is the best.

A bit of nervousness, anticipation and lot's of unexpected surprises.

 

[fadingaway1986]

I like what i see. I think you did a good job.