GROUP SHOT

[roberta_pratt]

I was asked to take pictures for my son's basketball team.........the coach

wants me to take the freshmen, JV, and the Varsity teams. Any suggestions for

me. I have a D70 Nikon. Should I use a tripod? I never use one, but do have

one. What should I shoot at also? Thanks

 

Roberta

[ptkeam]

Hi Roberta,

I did this kind of stuff for a living for 20+ years. By all means USE A TRIPOD. And I hope you have an auxiliary flash to use. The one on the camera will absolutely NOT do the job. Use a slow enough shutter speed to balance the flash with the ambient light in the gym. Otherwise, you'll get kids on a black background.

[patrick_viebey___orlando__]

I'd strongly suggest you go there and experiment a bit at about the time (so you can see ambient light) they want to do the pictures.

 

Borrow a subject to practice. Use your histograms, and watch your depth of field (so everyone ends up in focus). That means you want a fairly high fstop (but that also has to balance against how much light and shutter speed you can get away with). Don't use a telephoto (DOF).

 

Indoors or out? Either way, make sure you have enough light. And, if outdoors, you want a way to diffuse the light (under trees) if it's mid-day and/or use enough flash to overcome the ambient lighting. Best if it's outdoors is late afternoon light...

 

 

A tripod is the only way to go. For a bunch of reasons...

 

At least that's my thoughts. I'm sure there are folks here who have done this thousands of times, but my number one thing is to go there with confidence - and that means having testing it in advance to predict the outcome. Managing your lighting is the thing to watch, IMHO.

 

Hope this helps.

 

pat

[roberta_pratt]

I have the new lenes AF-S VR Nikkor 70-200mm 1.28, should I not use this one for sure?

[hughes]

Roberta

 

more important than the equipmentis owning the situation,you have take control of everybody be in charge. A tripod if it makes you feel better but a good flash is more important,don't even think about that 70-200 lens a kit lens will be fine. A nice tight composition and all faces looking at the camera is more important than pin point sharpness. Above all act like you done it a hundred times be casual.

 

good luck

 

Steve

[chris_leck]

I shoot team shots without a tripod, but with a couple of studio strobes (you might be able to substitute speedlights -- I think they may work well but haven't tried it). I find a tripod much too slow and limiting for this sort of dynamic work. I respect that others think and work differently.

 

The strobes are placed at or near the shooting position and toed-out somewhat to to make the light even and to minimize cross-shadows. They alo are somewhat high on the stands, maybe 6' or more.

 

Your 70-200mm sounds way too long. A mid-range sounds more applicable, as you may need 50mm or less.

[mjt]

hi Roberta<br><br>

i'd like to touch on one thing other's haven't (yet) and that is placement of the players and coaches. the best way to figure this out is to go to the school and check the trophy case - i'll bet there will be about a dozen photos in the trophy case of the various team sport group shots.<br><br>

examine how the team players are placed ... usually there are three rows, with a decreasing number (by 1 less) players moving to the front row, tallest to shortest, front row on their knees. as a rule, you'll put the tallest in the center, then shorter players and either side, and the shortest in the front.<br><br>

so if you have 12 players on the team, you'll put 5 in the back row, 4 in the middle, and 3 in the front. some folks like to have the coaches flank the middle row, some have them flank the back row - much depends how many coaches there are. you might ask if towel and water boys are to be included in the photo.<br><br>

personally, i prefer a tripod, since i use a remote to fire the camera, this way you can pay attention to everyone and to instruct them what to do, i.e., looking towards the camera, etc. i find that the group is more "at ease" when i'm away from the camera.<br><br>

i'll use two flashes ... one at about 5-6' up, shooting through an umbrella, on the left side about 5-6' in front of the team. i'll have a second on the right, up over everyone's head and to their side, lighting down through a diffuser to put some light on top of their heads.<br><br>

good luck! regards, michael

[douglas_greenberg]

Hello,

For a team shot using a DSLR, I think about a 24mm. lens is ideal, the equivalent of 35mm. or so with film. You can use up to a 50mm., but the longer the lens you use the farther away you'll need to be, and this might test the limits of your flash's power. If you use a wide-angle like a 24mm. be sure to position the lens as vertically as possible. You should allow some extra room around the edges of the frame when you shoot the photos, as this will minimize any possible distortion or field curvature problems. You can crop out the unneeded space in post-processing.

 

I will add that you should try to get the flash up off the camera to minimize red-eye, although you can probably get rid of red eyes in post-processing. And you should definitely take a succession of photos, as you want to have the best possible chance of avoiding team members displaying closed eyes in the photo.

 

I also heartily agree with recommendations that even as you use flash, you slow down the shutter speed enough to allow exposure from some ambient lighting. This will look much more natural.