Team Photography

kenwood

I have been asked to take some photographs of our club hurling team who won a county championship recently. The photo will be taken indoors in a hall where there is flourecent lighting. There are 30 players, 3 selectors with a chairman and a sponsor ( too many I think but anyway).

I have the EFS 17-85mm IS USM lens with the Canon 350D. I'm not too sure this lens is up to it ?? Also will use the 430EX Flassh and a tripod.

Any suggestions to help me make this a success??

Denis

Borderfox

up the ISO and bang the flash exposure compensation up about a stop. Otherwise suggest to them to take it outside at the pitch with a sponsors logo in the background. Try a few tests before you do it indoors with one person in different positions to try to get an idea of the settings and shoot in RAW too or RAW + JPEG.

ThOnda

The longer focal lenght the better. Use a tripod (and another for off-camera flash).
Make also lots of snaps when they are going to be ready for shooting and make some "unofficial" ones - they are the best to give away.

And tell them, if they would look ugly in the picture, that you will go there again and take close-ups ;-)

Borderfox

Crowd control is very important also and try to organise the heights of the players so everybody is seen, what county is it Kenwood?

Borderfox

Bring a stepladder and take the picture from the top of that, minding you dont fall off. Groups always look better looking up at you.

kenwood

Thanks folks for replies


Just wondering is the lens up for the job?

Would a faster lens be more suitable?


Borderfox - a full blown Rebel here !!

Denis

the_manchine

How would you guys work the flash?

I've got more or less similar kit to Kenwood and I've been wondering about the same thing.

If the flash is on the camera as standard I'd set it up to bounce of the ceiling and use a bit of white card to send some of the light directly to the subject. The range on this is limited though so would you have to use the flash directly for a large group? Also I'm guessing that the ceiling in the hall is fairly high so you mightn't get too much out of a bounce.

One more: can yo use an off camera flash with only one flash unit - I've always been under the impression that one flash unit had to be the master and trigger the remote (off camera) unit? Or does off camera just mean "slightly to the side"?

Borderfox

To be honest if the ceiling is high then I would nearly flash straight at them, I have two flashes and would put one on a tripod stand and set that to slave and at maximum power and bounce it up. To use one flash off camera you can use a cable/slave unit/infra-red/radio trigger. Just make sure to use RAW and take a good few shots as the more people the more blinks there will be.

Noono

Only as a last resort would i take a team shot indoors. Can't beat natural light and if its sunny make sure the sun is in front and not behind you!
Also make sure you setup the chairs in the right postions, as you'll be using two rows of chairs (one sitting, one row standing and last row standing on chairs.)
Have the centre chair in the first row line up with the centre chair in the second row, that way eveybody's head will be showing clearly in all three rows.
Don't have coach and sponsor sitting beside each other, put a player (captain) between.
Don't have anyone kneeing!

kenwood

Thanks folks,
- Noono, I was going to stagger the players on the second row (standing) and have the players on the third row in line with those sitting on the front row........... that way all their heads will be in view.

Noono

this pic is a good guideline for a team photo done well