Gymnasium Lighting for a Group of 200 People!

[ksp]

<p>Hello,<br>

Tonight I am shooting a gymnastics club 'team' photo consisting of 200 athletes, coaches and managers, etc. I will be using a Canon 5D, 2 Elinchrom 500 EL strobes & 2 Elinchrom 600 RX strobes, all with umbrellas.<br>

I have never shot a group this large let alone in a gymnasium and am looking for any tips you can provide me with. I'm planning to shoot somewhere between f/8 and f/11 with even lighting from the umbrellas spread the length of the group at a 45 degree angle down on to them. Hoping to be able to fit them into 3 or 4 rows.</p>

<p>Question 1: Posing - given the size of the group what is the best way to pose them? Tallest to shortest in each row starting from the middle or do I need to spend the time to do this with such a large group? I'm figuring I will, as this photo will be displayed in the lobby of the Gymnastics Club (30" x 22").</p>

<p>Question 2: Lighting - Should I be shooting through the umbrellas? Should they be somewhat 'feathered' or directly on the subjects? How far away would you recommend they be? Do I need to first measure the light in the gym to ensure I 'over-power' it to avoid mixed lighting? Will f/8-f/11 be enough depth of field considering how wide I will need to shoot this group?<br>

Any help would be appreciated...especially if there is anything I may have missed? I'm giving myself 30-45 minutes to 'set-up' the shot.<br>

Regards,<br>

Ken</p>

[acedigital]

<p>Joe McNally (famous magazine photog and author) describes a similar large group shot (The Hot Shoe Diaries - a very cool book btw), he used Nikon strobes, but set them up high and pointed them slightly OVER the top of the group so as not to wash out the front people and yet get the light to the back of the group.<br>

With the power you have, you could bounce them off the ceiling giving you a softer more even light and not have to deal with the umbrellas at all, maybe one light in front for fill.<br>

Go a day in advance with a few friends and TEST it out if you can..</p>

 

[danny_wong2]

<p><a href="http://www.photo.net/wedding-photography-forum/00B5iJ">http://www.photo.net/wedding-photography-forum/00B5iJ</a><br>

<a href="http://www.photo.net/wedding-photography-forum/00BHYp">http://www.photo.net/wedding-photography-forum/00BHYp</a><br>

Old post of mine, the physics of light has not changed</p>

[bob_osullivan]

<p>If it's in a gymnasium I'd either have them sit in the bleachers and you shoot them from the court. Or have them line up on the court and you sit up high in the bleachers and shoot down on them. It makes sense to line them up from short to tall going back. How many rows and how wide depends on what lens you'll use, it's angle of view, and vignetting and sharpness falloff.</p>

<p>I think you'd need F8 for DOF so you'll need lot's of power to cover the great dsitance. Crank your lights up full, use the largest bournce umbrellas you can get. Use tall stands with counterweights. Point them down 45 degrees. And set the umbrellas evenly across the front row. Don't put them too close so the drop off to the rear will be de-emphasized. Don't worry about cross shadodws. I use multiple umbrellad lights all the time. The light is soft enough, provided you set the output evenly, you won't get ugly shadows.</p>

<p>Meter this after it's set up and adjust ISO to get F8 or F11. You'll have to use a pretty wide angle lens so even it you had to go F5.6 you might be ok with DOF.</p>

[ksp]

<p>Hey everyone! Thanks for the tips! I think I did okay with the lighting however for anyone planning a shoot like this in the future, I would suggest you give yourself LOTS of time to pose the group! I made the mistake of not ensuring the space was 'prepped' prior to the shoot so in a nutshell, this was all done as I was setting up lights and the gymnastics club was still 'going on' around me while I was getting ready. Because of this I only had about 20 minutes to set up my lights (despite telling them I needed 30-45 minutes!). Needless to say I fell behind from our 7:30pm start time, so I was unable to properly coordinate the set-up of people...BIG MISTAKE! I had to leave it to my contact at the club who "did it last year"...BIG MISTAKE! Note to self, always be in control of your own shoots! First off, he did a quick head count and told me there was only going to be 130 kids so we did the math and figured that we would set up about 21-22 people per row x 6 rows. Great. Only thing is that there ended up being over 200 kids when all was said and done. Therefore, move the lighting back, readjust exposure, keep all the young kids from moving around and getting 'antsy', bring in the next group, and 50 minutes later you're ready to shoot! Needless to say there were a few restless parents and I don't blame them!</p>

<p>Next time, I insist on 45-60 minutes of set-up time. I also get the 'actual' number of people beforehand! I also recommend having someone organizing each row off to the side so they're ready when I call them over. For example, bring in the first 25 tallest people - assuming 25 people per row - and organize them from tallest in the middle to shortest on each side. Next, bring in the 2nd tallest group and do the same thing - and so on, and so on...once all the rows are in place you can fine tune how you want people to stand - i.e. one shoulder in, straight on, etc.<br>

Live and learn but I think I managed okay (with the exception of forgetting my tripod clip that attaches to my camera - ouch!) I just had my camera in for cleaning so the clip was sitting on my desk at home! I had to hand-hold the shot and therefore could not lower my shutter speed enough to bring in some of the background light. Oh well...good 'ol Photoshop will have to help me out a bit there! Final exposure was f/16 @, 100/sec, ISO 400, at about 25mm (50' away or so). Not ideal, but it worked!</p>

<p>Thanks to everyone for their help! Bob, you were probably closest to what I actually went through (too bad I didn't read your post until today though!!) but I can definitely use info from the others in the future as well. Hope this post is beneficial to someone else out there!<br>

Cheers!<br>

Ken</p>