Photographing a large group:

Just curious to know how you would approach the subject of photographing a very large group of people over 250,

they will be in probably six tiers and about 30 foot across, the photograph will be outdoors and I intend to use a

Nikon D3 with a 24-70mm F2.8 lens with the camera tripod mounted, I am hoping to position the tripod and camera

where I can utilise a focal length of between 50 and 60mm.

 

My main concern is aperture to use, I had thought f16 to maintain sharp focus from front to back of the group,

the final images will be enlarged to 16" x 12" for presentation purposes.

 

 

My last group photograph was of about 150 people in a similar outdoor scenario, however that was a few years

ago and the camera was a Nikon F100 using Fuji film, the resulting photographs were first class, but obviously film

and digital have their differences.

 

I would welcome any comments from anyone who has experience of large group photography, regards. Mike

Main thing here is to be able to recognize 250 heads and faces! So get up on a tall ladder and if possible stage the group on a stair or in

an amphitheatre. As the rules of diffraction are optical, f/16 would be a bad idea - possibly - if you shoot wide enough, even in digital. Always

keep around 2.5 to 5 mm of your lens open.

Hi Frank

The group will be on the same level with me facing them on the same level, however I will have the camera raised on the tripod, and the tiers are first row seated on mats, second row kneeling behind those seated, third row sitting on chairs, fourth row standing, fifth row standing on a long bench eight inches off the ground, sixth row standing on a long bench eighteen inches off the ground. This worked fine on the last photograph taken ten years ago, though I was not the main photographer on that occasion, the main photographer was using a Nikon F4 if memory serves me correctly.

f16 with that enlargement and that lens is not good -- you will get a soft image. Try to get the focal length more to the 50-35 area; you will not yet have significant perspective distortion, DOF will be deeper and positioning the camera is easier.

Hi Oskar

I have a variety of other Nikon lenses, 17-35mm F2.8, 35-70mm F2.8, 50mm F1.4, 85mm F1.4, 60mm F2.8 Micro, which of these would you suggest would be the most appropriate with the D3, and what would be your suggested optimum aperture, regards Mike

Mike, I cannot tell you what focal length lens to use, but you should be able to figure that out given the size/position of your group, its " fit " on the sensor, etc. (And getting the camera higher might be needed to keep it flat to the group.) Once you have the focal length needed, this link wil help you figure out the depth of field and other things like that: http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

 

I would try and shoot a couple of images at varying f stops if you do not know the lens' sharpest f stop. I rarely ever go above (smaller) than f 11. That 60mm micro is supposed to be a sharp lens. So is the 35-70mm f 2.8 zoom.

 

I agree that using a the smallest f stop for max DOF rarely yields the sharpest picture because of diffraction.

 

Joe Smith

Here is info on Nikon lens evaluatuions:

 

http://www.naturfotograf.com/lens_surv.html#rating

 

Joe Smith

I recently attended a high school reunion where the photogrpher took groups of 8 or 10 against a plain background and then stitched the photos together to make a class picture. Good result.

Last time I was taking picture of large group I used aperture f/8 and made a panorama out of several shots. Effects

were really nice: high

resolution picture.

The 24-70 is optimized for use at large apertures and suffers from some field curvature, but is in general a very good lens. Try to find a suitable sized practice subject and take some shots to see how things could work out. It's hard to estimate the exact DOF needed and the space where you're taking the photo, but the aperture should preferably be f8 as a compromise between DOF and resolution. The shorter focal length will give you more DOF and ease of positioning. 35 mm usually doesn't give noticeable distortion, 50 might be sharper but then you loose DOF; shoot test pics if you can. Last time I did a pic of a group of about 50 or so, I took some test pics and used two people as models for test pics to see how things will pan out.

Funny I actually had to do this last night... I did it at F5.6 / ISO 400 @ 28mm from a balcony in a large room using a bounce flash at +2 FEC.... actually turned out quite well.

 

The hardest part was organizing 300 people!

Hi

Thanks everyone for all your replies, all very interesting, and certainly the advice of test shots is one that I intend to pursue, I have since been told that the group may only be about 150, however it is still quite an undertaking, and getting everyone in sharp focus is extremely important for the finished print, again many thanks to you all for taking the trouble to respond, regards, Mike