Tips for photographing large groups...

[Si Micklewright]

Hi all, I am in need of your excellent advice!
Im shooting three bands for a local music mag and the editor wants me to shoot all three bands together for a centre page feature, thats a total of 18 people!!! One of the bands is Bad Manners! yes they are still alive!! The location is going to be a car park, (ive not seen it yet, will go and take a look soon as i know where it is) its proberbly gonna be late afternoon so the light may be poor, I have only one flash a nikon sb600, its a tall order, any tips greatly appreciated. gulp!

Si.

 

[pxl8]

Increasing the ISO would be the first option. But consider this, if you'd been asked to take a picture of the cars in the car park would you be worrying about flash?

 

[Gilly B]

Take some mates down to the car park and practice some set ups at approx the same time of the day. You don't need 18 to practice, just spread them out and use your imagination. Up the ISO as pxl8 suggests. :smile:

 

[W.Smith]

Hi all, I am in need of your excellent advice!
Im shooting three bands for a local music mag and the editor wants me to shoot all three bands together for a centre page feature, thats a total of 18 people!!! One of the bands is Bad Manners! yes they are still alive!! The location is going to be a car park, (ive not seen it yet, will go and take a look soon as i know where it is) its proberbly gonna be late afternoon so the light may be poor, I have only one flash a nikon sb600, its a tall order, any tips greatly appreciated. gulp!

Si.

A car park don't sound good for an 'interesting setting'... So you'll probably have to forget about the 'setting' (get it out of frame or out of DoF amap) and concentrate on the bandmembers themselves. And what time of day will it be? Because you will need daylight as your main light, so the possible angles – dependent on the time of day – are important.
Will they be with or without instruments?
18 huh? How about jamming all of 'm in one van with their heads poking out on all sides?

Just some unconnected thoughts.

 

[inaneredstripe]

bad manners. cool . i saw them a couple of years ago. buster is the only original member.make sure he has his tongue out.
try shooting em from a higher vantage point .(step ladder) . or even getting them in an arc. ie.
(stand in a curved line).
or two rows , front men ..erm.. at the front.
if its a multi storey, try and get a floor above them and shoot down.maybe even with them all laying on their backs?
arent car parks fairly well lit?
any more ideas guys?