Group shots with D7000

<p>How can I best shoot a choir with only my D7000 and speed light SB910. lens is 18 - 200 mm in a church.</p>

<p>How many people? How much ambient light? Have you shot in this church before? How high and what color is the ceiling? Do you have a shoot-through umbrella?</p>

<p>Will the choir be performing or posing for you? </p>

<p>If that's all I had to work with, I would:<br />1) Line them up in rows so that the group is not so wide that you can't see anybody. I don't know how many people in the choir but I'm guessing you'll need three rows, mabye more. If they perform on risers, that can make your job easier in being able to see everybody's face. If not, are their stairs you can use for the same effect? If not, at least a row with chairs in front.<br />2) It can be helpful in shooting a large group to get yourself up a little high. A stepstool, or even a chair with someone helping you balance, will let you shoot slightly down on the group. This helps to make sure heads are not hidden behind other heads.<br />3) Use the diffuser that came with your flash to soften the light.<br />4) Crank up with ISO to at least 800 so you can close down the lens to get some depth of field. F/8 should work well.<br />5) Work close, with the lens at or close to its widest setting. You may not have any choice in order to get the whole group in. And working close makes it easier to get a good f-stop from the flash.<br /><br />I'm basing all of this on your subject line "group shots" as opposing to closeups of choir members singing.</p>

<p>Paul Paul, I am assuming that this is a posed group image and not a "live" image during a concert or worship service, as you probably would not be allowed to use the flash for the latter situations. The architecture of your space is going to determine a lot for you, especially if the choir is in a loft setting. You may need a ladder to get your perspective to look more natural. Many churches have pretty good artificial illumination, so you may only need to supplement the existing light. In the case of a very high ceiling, you may want to put the speedlight on a tall pole and trigger it wirelessly.<br /><br />Depending upon the purpose of the image, you could also think creatively and let the choir be photographed outside of their "Native Habitat." They could pose on the church steps outdoors, or in a hallway of the church. If the choir is in robes and has some bright colored stoles you could do something with that. Maybe the could gather around the piano and you could shoot down at them from that ladder perch. <br>

I am both an amateur photographer and a pastor who sings in the church choir. I would love to see what you end up with! Have fun.</p>

<p>Thanks for all your comments:</p>

<p >Choir will be posing in their uniform and not performing and consists of about 60 members four rows I guess. I will have a step ladder in centre aisle. Unfortunately there is only one step in church so can’t really be tiered. Not many windows so will be existing church light and ceiling not very high ish. Modern church.</p>

<p >My main concern is how far the flash will travel width and depth and what setting to put camera on to get best quality. I will use the diffuser to get softer light and the flash also has a filter to spread the light. Can I use both? Is bounce flash an option?</p>

<p >Further ideas most welcome and yes will show you the result. Am taking a few practise shots next week but only of the area no people.</p>

 

<p>if you look in the manual for the flash, there is a setting where it spreads light out evenly across its range. I believe the default setting might be for a little falloff toward the edges, which you don't want in this situation. You can use the diffuser or the wide-angle filter but probably don't need both at the same time. Whether to use the diffuser depends on how much light you have at whatever distance you end up at. Given the choice between maybe f/8 with direct flash and f/4 with the diffuser, I would go with direct. Softer light is nice, but it's more important to have everybody in focus than to have soft light. I would not both to try to bounce in a church -- you're just going to lose too much light.</p>

<p>So, I guess that's 60 = 15 x 4? Hummmm....as you've only got 1 step, tiering won't help. I'd be tempted to try and get them in a staggered 18, 16, 14 and 12 arc centred on your step-ladder with as nice a background as you can find. I'd try the wide end of zoom ~24mm but loosely framed so no-one near the edge is too badly 'stretched'. The 18-200mm is pretty distorting at the full wide end, but it improves quickly, so by 24mm you shouldn't warp too many people! I think (?) the D7000 has built in distortion correction, if so, ensure it's selected in menu. If not, some of the RAW converters such as DXO will have a module to correct any problems automatically.</p>

<p>Absolute full power (with the diffuser clipped on) <em>through</em> (+1 Peter C) a white brolly at f5.6/f8 and adjust ISO to fit. Shoot RAW and big JPEG. If you could borrow another flash of similar power you could reduce your ISO by half....so 800 down to 400. </p>

<p>As for shutter speed, that's more tricky. Using as much ambient light as possible, but without <em>any</em> risk of double images, ie you moving a little...BLAM!...= blurry shots! I'd reckon, if you're using say 24mm on the zoom, say 1/60th sec? Others can help out here better.</p>

<p>If the uniforms are dark, try and ensure that you don't blow-out the skin tones. You can always lighten the clothing, but darkening skin is horrid!</p>

<p>There's nothing better than a few test shots, so go play! It's hard to judge, but the area would be about 30ft across. If it's pretty narrow, you could try 5 ranks. I'm not think a full semi-circle, more a 1/4 arc maybe. </p>

<p>How to hold a brolly for shoot-through up a stepladder is something I can't answer.... if you've got a very tall light stand next to you that's fine. Maybe, tape a light-pole vertically up the ladder leg so it's above your head? The D7000's pop-up can trigger the big flash so no cables are needed.</p>

 

<p>mm Did a group shot like that before ( four rows, first row kneeling down , second row on chairs, thirth ro standing, fourth row standing on low beches) , ==> classic group pose...<br>

Aafter that also put the group in a "half circle "around the camera on tripod and took 6 shots ( could also be done in 4 i guess) with a 1 person "overlap". and stiched the whole thing into a panorama. Eceryone from the group choose the panorame to have, everyone realy loved that one.. </p>