when i shoot a large group at a wedding or any other function I ask everyone to close their eyes and open on the count of 3. Then shoot a few frames continuous. I do this about twice to ensure i get the shot, works everytime.
What I do with every photo I take ,I take a picture right before their ready and snap another one on que so that no one is blinking and no one is tensed up at ready,their more relaxed right before go.
How do you something very similar? Admittedly, I say smile, which is terrible, but I say everybody eyes open and smile works every time for me as well.
Enjoyed this some good sensible tips. One thing to bear in mind if you are using additional flash, factor in that unless it’s a high-speed sync set up you won’t be able to shoot beyond 1/200th of a second which on a bright sunny day could be an issue unless you stop right down on a very low ISO.
I am a professional amateur photographer. Which means that I have been a photographer for 50 years, but I am just not a professional one, which I really want to be. Watching the videos I'm looking a lot. Thank you for sharing your talents. I hope to implement them into my work as well.
So what lens do you recommend for larger groups ?? You mentioned one that would be a tighter shot and you don’t really recommend that one…. So what would you recommend? :)
I'll be puttin these into practice tomorrow at a cemetery. Yes I said a cemetery. I looked this up & can't find anyone doin this. I'm nervous bout not gettin everyone in focus.
For instance,when shooting on(3), snap the picture @ maybe 2 and a half then then another on (3) people people tend to tense up when they 3 or say cheese.( like a red light on at a studio station)
I used to shoot lots of dance photos back in the film days. The key is that lighting directors set lights for people to see the dancers, so that's the setting to work on. It's similar to shooting a basketball game from under the basket where the pro photogs sit, we set for the players skin tone and avoid the shadowed ceiling or tiers of shadowed seats/fans in the background. This situation is where manual aperture/ISO/shutter will save your day. If possible, ask the lighting tech to allow you to take a reading onstage before the performance and take that reading on a dancer's skin so there is no concussion with a dark costume reading. If the lighting tech cannot allow this, then set your in-camera meter to the "spot" setting and get that reading first during the performance and keep your ISO and aperture and shutter on manual for the best dancer skin exposure, you can fix the background stage set in post. Remember to keep your shutter speed pretty fast, probably 1/500 or faster, you are photographing dancers and they move! Then balance the ISO and aperture to your liking, but remember that dancers are usually in groups so a smaller aperture will have a greater depth of field to keep a group in focus. One last thought, I use a back-button focus set on servo and a single point of focus to capture the dancer I want in focus while they move. This is much more effective than a broad autofocus setting while dancers are moving. Just make sure to have extra batteries because servo autofocus curbs through batteries in most cameras. Lastly, this same thinking can apply to basketball where to he lighting on the court is consistent, but for football, soccer, or baseball I set the ISO to auto to handle changing outdoor lighting or sun/shade location shifts on runners. Hope these thoughts help and have fun.
How you deal with people who distracting subjects taking pictures in the back, it’s very frustrating. My subjects always looking different directions because of that
F-stop is your aperture opening. F2.8 is wide open to let in as much light as possible, but has very shallow depth of field. Most often used when a single object person is the subject. The wide open f stop isolates the subject and blurs the background. f5.6 is a good medium opening for most general photos that call for a less isolated subject. f8 and 11 let in LESS light but are good for a more uniform focus with a deeper field of focus. For shooting in bright sun try the "sunny 16" (F16) Depending on your subject it may or may not be just what is needed. I could go on and on, but if you're serious about learning the craft, you will do well to study Aperture. One side note; While no good lens is cheap, lenses with wider apertures (larger than f5.6) are not cheap. All the best to you!
I would suggest that instead of asking people to give you their settings for a given shot you might try learning how to use the exposure triangle and then you will become a better photographer without the need for other people to "hold your hand". I could very easily tell you right here and now how to obtain the images shown in this video its very simple, but if you carried on asking others for their settings you will never learn to work it out for yourself. Ok, you need to understand how to use your camera on manual mode. This ensures that you are in control of every aspect of the exposure, forget AV or any other mode where the camera is making a desicion you need manual mode! I suggest as a place to start you look up Sean Tucker he has an excellent video covering manual mode. Then i suggest you look up Dave Morrow a landscape photographer many of the techniques he shares are highly useable in every aspect of photography. I am a wedding photographer and Dave taught me loads through his free you tube videos. Good luck, its hard starting out and manual can be scary to those that dont understand it. Once you start using it and you understand how an exposure is built you will not need to ever ask for anyones settings again, this will make you a better photographer and you will gain more confidence in your own abilities.
4 is usually pretty good for small group portraits, 5ish people, espec if they're all aligned (one row). If its two - three rows (8+ people) you'd go even higher (f/8) to get more depth
QUESTION!? If I want to use auto-focus and not manual.....how do I get a group of 4 people all in focus that are at different depths? Both of the square and rectangle zone focus boxes on my Canon M50 aren't big enough to focus on everyone and there is only one box for face tracking and so it doesn't track on all the faces. Also with the face tracking I might want to get people in focus that are in the group that are looking away from the camera and it won't track their eyes. Is there any auto focus setting on the Canon M50 where it will get all of the subjects in focus? Besides the 3 auto-focus boxes and besides manual focus what else can I try! Or am I stuck with manual focus each time? For an example I will be shooting 4 people at a round table having a business meeting and I need to take some candid photos of them talking and having their meeting. Is there an auto-focus setting that I could use for this as they will be moving a little? Or how would you go about it? Thank you for any help that anyone may have.
Shoot at f/5.6 or higher. Make sure the room has a lot of light. Try your best to shoot at moments when the subjects are closer to each other. I used 1-point on the M50 to select the subject that is closest to the middle of the focal plane, then adjust my aperture until everyone is in focus. I wouldn't go below 1/160 to avoid motion blur which is much worse than a slightly out of focus eye.
The key is to focus on the person that is in the middle from closest to furthest away. Not right to left. That doesn't affect anything. As others have said also shoot at a higher f stop.
You should be focusing on the person in the middle and closest to you, focus falls 1/3 forward but 2/3 backwards, so if you focus closer to you, more will be in focus behind that point versus infront of it
