Help with setting up for some team photos with a car. Picture of location included

Rob E

Rob E

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Rob
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Good Evening All,

My manager in work has asked me to take some team photos with our new car in work as he knows that photography is a hobby of mine. I have never really attempted group photography before but don't want to let the team down and love the idea of trying something outside of my comfort zone so I'm asking for some advice on the best way to go about it.

The plan is to have this photo framed in a few offices around the workwplace in anything upto A3ish size so I want to get the best result possible in camera. I have photoshop and dont mind carrying out some small touching up

This is the location I have to work with, its quite light being glass fronted with all interior walls painted white and weather forecast is predicting another glorious cloudy day on the day -

location_zps3f14ad50.jpg


Equipment I have -

7D with Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 (non VC)
Tripod
x2 Yongnuo 560-II
x1 Yongnuo 565EX (ettl)
Hahnel wireless triggers
x3 lightstands + swivel hotshoe mounts that will extend to 2m high
x2 white shoot through umbrellas
x1 silver reflective umbrella


I'm 99% sure the car is going to be a dark metallic grey colour and will be positioned similarly to the photo above. It is just as important as the people being photographed.

Here is a very rough setup I was thinking of trying -

Lightingdiagram_zpsc8424771.jpg



I have about an hour to set up before the shoot and one of my work colleagues who has recently taken up photography is willing to help me set up and try some test shots etc.

The group size will be x3 groups of around 15 people followed by x1 group shout with around 45 people.


Any help/advice would be tremendous.

Thanks,

Rob
 
You really don't want to
1. Shoot it through glass
2. Use shoot through umbrellas

Shoot through umbrellas will put a horrible reflection on the paintwork/glass/everything else on the car. The concave shape of the light is exactly opposite to what you want on a convex shaped car... and anyway, it will also produce horrible reflections on the glass windows.

The inside of the showroom is dark, in relative terms, so will require the flash that will cause you the problems so...

Get the car outside and get the group of people in a group behind it. Have the showroom as the background, which will still do an excellent job of branding the showroom.

You will still need light of course, so use what's already there. If it's a dull day then the reflections on the car will flatter it. If it's a bright day, the reflections will still be better than if using flash.

This doesn't of course mean that flash can't be used, but getting good results with flash would need a very high level of skill, shedloads of equipment and man hours of skilled computer work.
 
Thanks for your reply Garry,

I'm relatively new to off camera flash too so thats not what I was hoping to hear :lol:

I know for a fact that I wont be able to move the car outside. We will all be on the inside of the glass show room.

I was supposed to do some smaller groups on Monday but unfortunately I had to take the day off work. I have seen the photos that were taken from that photoshoot with no flash and a 450D set on auto mode and the light looks very natural but the pictures look quite flat. They came straight off the camera though with no post processing.

Am I best attempting this without flash and just sticking to the basics using the light available? I would have liked to have had a practice run but its SO difficult to get permission to shoot on site because its the development/manufacturing site and full of highly sensitive material :(
 
Right - in that case you could try bouncing the flash off of the ceiling - the lighting will be flat on the car, which will suit it very well and also flat on the groups, which won't be ideal but which will be OK.

Access may be tightly controlled, but if I was doing this shoot I assure you that I would get access... If you can't gain access on a different day, then at least insist on getting in there before the groups do, so that you can practice and see for yourself how well bounced flash works - which will of course be affected by both ceiling height and colour.

You know, one of the most important skills or qualities that we need to have as photographers is assertiveness. Just tell people what they have to do, never ask them whether they can help you out. Think about it - if you get in there a day or two in advance, find out that it can't be done with your lighting equipment then you'll be able to hire suitable equipment at their expense and produce a much better job for them.
 
photo si said:
That looks a VERY high ceiling to be bouncing speedlites off!
Click to expand...

Maybe it is. But most decent DSLR's can produce acceptable results a fairly high ISO, it may be perfectly OK. But the doubt creates all the more reason why the OP needs to get in there to have a look in advance, see if it works and hire in a couple of studio flashes if necessary.
 
Tell them to hire a professional.

Seriously, as briefed this is far from an easy shoot. For one thing your shooting angle is very restricted. That will require a wide angle to include everything they want and that will do nasty things to a group of people arranged on that plane. A professional will be able to advise them just what is achievable here.

For example, the first piece of kit I'd pack for a shoot like this is a ladder.

Personally I'd be tempted to use the inside of the windows as a big reflector for the lights but I wouldn't really try this with a couple of speedlights. I'd also be considering composite images if they want a proper job.

Really, do Bentley showrooms say to their staff "hey, you have a bucket and sponge at home - I bet you'd love to polish our cars all day. Would be great for your portfolio...."?
 
It was not meant for a professional level, its more for a team memory showing the team with the product they have been developing for the past few years which is going to hang on an office wall in a very secure area.

Anyway, I had the shoot today. And it didn't go too badly. I didn't use any of my gear in the end as it wasn't worth the hassle trying to get it on site so I used works trusty 450D with kit lens and no flash at all. It was a fairly overcast morning, but it did the job ok for its purpose. Pics looked a bit soft and flat but hey that's to be expected with such a kit lens. I ran them through GIMP in work just to crop, straighten them, clone out some ventilation covers and tweak the levels. It was the first time I have used GIMP and you can't grumble for a free piece of software, however I wouldn't do any extensive editing with it personally.

Given what I had to work with I was reasonably happy with the outcome bar I couldn't correct the lens distortion in GIMP. I had to crank the ISO up to 1600 to maintain a reasonable shutter speed and aperture but its not too evident.

I'll post a couple of results tomorrow.
 
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