Group photo advice- use flash?

Darthchaffinch

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Am taking a photo of our dept in an indoor meeting room (maybe 4m high and fairly well lit like a standard office is) on Monday. For the particular formation everyone will be in a line just in front of a plain wall and I'll be using a tripod and 18-55 kit lens: should I use flash? I have a so-so external one. We don't have too much time as everyones busy on a monday morning!

Thanks!
 
If this is a modern office I'm making some assumptions:

With all your colleagues at one end of the room there'll be a bank of windows to one side of them, the overhead light will be flourescent.

That in itself is a lighting nightmare, the people at one end will be lit with quite bright daylight and at the other with just flourescent. The colours and intensities will vary on every one of them.

The first question is 'how many of them are there?'

The 2nd question is 'Is there an alternative location?'

3rd and 4th 'How many flashguns and do you have a method for firing them off camera?'

Some thoughts; If you can get them all at one side of the table facing the windows and turn the lights off, see how much light you've got and if you need to supplement it with flash at least the amount of daylight will be uniform, and if you have to add flash, at least all the light will be a similar colour.

Getting them behind a desk also adds some interest (people standing in line against a wall is very boring / ugly), and you can shrink the width and add interest by standing some behind.

Bouncing the flash off the ceiling will help with softening, not having them against the wall will help reduce ugly flash shadows.

Watch out for gaps between them, it'll be more difficult getting colleagues bodies to overlap than it is families, and gaps between people ruin the look of shots.

Test the set-up and lighting out beforehand with a couple of colleagues and then you'll have the confidence required to pose them all in an instant as soon as they are all together. This is the most important bit btw.
 
Thanks very much Phil!

You're assumptions are correct, but the fluorescent lights are inset and diffused.
There is likely to be around 15 people and they'll be standing tightly together with some folk lying at their feet (to look like a part of the body).
Because of the shot needing ton clearly show some peoples hands in the air and some with balloon s above their heads I want a cleanish background- which is something I could only find in this particular meeting room.
I have 1 nissin flash with a stofen diffuser that in was going to fire from the camera in the opposite direction to the big side window. The onlynway I have of firing the flash off camera is to use the onboard flash (which I don't want to do of course?)

Thanks again!

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Talk Photography Forums mobile app
 
You can fire the flash using the built in flash without it having a noticeable effect on the image.

As you seem to have a plan in place, all I'll add is make sure you're bouncing the flash (ditch the stofen, they're largely useless)
 
Thanks. As the window is level-ish with the people is it best to fire the flash horizontal to the other side?
 
I wouldn't, I'd bounce it off the ceiling, but I could be wrong too.
 
Phil would this be done by turning the power of the onboard camera flash down?

Sorry to hijack your thread dartchaffinch:)

You can generally set a ratio, you can't eliminate it completely, but near enough.
 
Thanks Phil but after all that we found out the onsite photographer was able to take the photo and print it for us!
 
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