Need help on a KFC shoot.

[sky_grayer]

<p>Hello everyone and hope all is well!<br /> I was wondering if you guys can help me on an upcoming shoot that I am having. This is my first major gig and I am nervous as heck.<br /> Anyways, I am shooting for a family event that is being sponsored by KFC. KFC requested me to shoot pictures of the family that consist of at least 50 members and 150 the most. They will be using the photos for their website, brochures and such. The event is being held outside and inside.<br /> My questions are, what kind of lighting should I shoot this with? Should I use natural lighting or a flash or even a studio kit lighting? Also what kind of lenses do you guys suggest for shooting this many people?<br /> I have a Canon 5D Mark II by the way. Is that good to shoot this?<br /> Any tips and suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thank-you so much!</p>

[marta3eciak]

<p>hi Que, <br>

Have you done anything like this before? Have you photographed events/birthdays/parties?<br>

If you have experience than i suggest use what works for you, but of course, consult with, whoever hired you and find out what they're looking for. You might need some additional equipment for indoor but that depends on what the client is looking for. <br>

It's difficult to say what you might need if you don't know what to expect. I recently photographed a 40th bday party and decided to purchase 80/20 Lumiqest but it sisn't arrive in time. I did ok without it but ish I had it. The more you do it, the more you will learn from your mistakes and you will figure out what you need. Sorry can't help you much, but go out and do a couple of mock shots to see what you might need.<br>

Good luck,<br>

marta </p>

[mariosforsos]

<p>Will you be shooting them all at the same time? In other words, will this be a group shot? If yes, then do you have the lens(es) for it? Have you thought of how you will pose them? Have you visited the location where the shoot will take place and checked it out? Have you thought about the time of the day the shoot is supposed to take place? Have you thought about bringing a ladder (to shoot from higher up that street level)?</p>

<p>If you're shooting at midday, you need additional lighting. The harsh daylight will hit them from above and create really difficult-to-handle shadows, blinky eyes and strained expressions. You would then need to compensate for those shadows by blasting them with light from the front - and let me tell you, the light would have to be strong enough to balance the noon sun.</p>

<p>If on the other hand you're shooting under cover or inside, then you still needs tons of light to make sure it reaches everywhere and lights people the same way. Inside shot would also almost certainly require a wide angle lens and much more careful people placement (to avoid distortions as much as possible).<br>

There are WAAAAY too many parameters involved in such a shot - that is IF you're talking about a group shot. Otherwise, things are much, much simpler. It's like shooting an event, like a wedding, but this time you get to pose the people at different specific poses. If that is the case, make sure they don't have food in their teeth or face, that all members of each group are appropriately in-focus (shooting indoors makes people go for wide-open, resulting in some blurry back-of-the-group photos) and, you guessed it, good, OFF-camera lighting. Maybe you could get an assistant to follow you around with a small softbox or umbrella from behind, a bit camera left and above you.</p>

[stevenbarall]

<p>Sounds like a job for on camera flash. Use a bounce card or diffuser of some sort. I use the Ultimate Light Box by Harbor Digital. You have to be careful that the flash and the ambient light are in good balance, especially if you are shooting indoors where backgrounds tend to go dark. Shoot in manual exposure, set your f stop and leave it there and adjust the shutter speed to balance the background light. Just look at the photos on the back of the camera to check. With that camera you can boost the ISO easily to 3200 and more is necessary for indoor shooting.<br>

For outdoors, you can just set the camera to program mode or aperture preferred AV and pick an aperture. If the shutter speed gets faster than 1/200 of a second, the flash won't work so if that happens just stop down the aperture of lower the ISO.<br>

Big groups take up a lot of space. Wide angle lens. Wider than a 24, more like an 18 to make things easy, especially indoors with a group larger than 100. Lighting a large group takes an effort. Studio lights need assistants. The on camera flash would work fine. The Canon 580 flash has a wide angle lens that is built into the flash head and slides out to cover the flash. Unless they're paying you more than a couple of grand, I would just use the on camera flash. There is always the wonder of Photoshop to help you along in the end.</p>

[matthew_tyler]

<p>In addition to all the great advice listed above, I would also ensure that you shoot in RAW. I saw this because there is more information in the event the photograph requires any editing or retouching, so you're not locked down to a color profile or white balance setting. I also like RAW because it's a little more lenient if you have to compensate for an exposure is a little off - without loosing so much information that the photo starts to look funny.</p>

[gerald_kraus]

<p>I seriously do not think that one on camera flash will do the job with 150 people. Be serious.</p>