Pictures of School Kids

[david_mcgillivray]

<p>Hi <br>

I would like to take school photos of kids (individual and class group) at end of year in their uniform. I have lights and backgrounds<br>

What lighting would you use for the individual shots, considering this shoot will be done at school (Butterfly and reflector). I understand most shots would be 1/2 -3/4 body. <br>

Any help would be most appreciated<br>

regards<br>

David</p>

 

[nathan_meador]

<p>The lighting would depend on what pose you wanted to go with. Unless you are doing it for the school and they have some guidelines, I'd think the pose would be your choice/preference. I assume you've already talked to the school and have permission to come to pictures? Is this for the kids' parents to buy and that is it, or is the school using them for something?</p>

[craig_shearman1]

<p>I've done this. I put the kids on a posing stool in front of a "people popper" light blue backdrop, with a posing table in front of them to rest their hands. Lighting was a Novatron 240WS strobe into an umbrella on each side, with one side of the kids' faces about one stop brighter than the other. Another monolight on the backdrop. But no hair light since that would need to be adjusted for each kid and is too easy to have shining onto their shoulders rather than their hair. I shot one or two frames of each and it was my choice which pose to give the parents. Parents could buy a choice of two packages for I think either $20 or $30. I don't recall what I put in each, maybe a 5x7, couple of 4x6 and some wallets in the cheaper one and added an 8x10 in the more expensive one if I recall correctly. Gave a percentage of the gross to the school.</p>

[hjoseph7]

I shot pre-school and elementary school pictures all the way to middle school. The shots the parents buy is usually the shots where the kid is blasted with light from all sides. There is no need to get into fancy lighting scenarios, since you are going to be pulling your hair out by the end of the day trying to set up the lights for each and every kid.

 

When it comes to assembly-line photography the simples set up is the best. I would use 2 lights nothing more, with umbrellas unless you want to go into Photoshop and remove the reflection of 3 or 4 sparks of lights in each of the kids eyes.

 

Yes, the lights do show up in the Iris of the eyes and can lead to unpleasant and unatural results if too many lights are used. You might want to tone down one of the lights by one f stop if you want to add a little depth and shadows, but that is not really necessary. A wide smile sparkling eyes and a good expression is much more important.

[wes_d1]

<p>You might want to add a hair light - we do about 120 schools a year and personally I think it looks better.<br>

Also - if you are using a dark background a background light sometimes at a nice hot spot when doing head and shoulders type of school pictures.</p>

[david_mcgillivray]

<p>Thank you all for your input<br>

regards<br>

David</p>