Taking Group Photos With Your 50mm Lens (5 Keys To Nailing The Shot) 

Good advice! I do the same with groups. Always good to mix up the posing to give a few options.

Thanks! More coming soon, I promise. Working on new videos now.

Thanks for watching. Not many realize the focal plane is curved.

Awesome! Thanks for watching Hanna. Come back and let us know how the shoot went.

That comment made my day, thanks!

Glad I could help! The 50mm is very versatile.

Thanks for the kind words!

Thanks Scott! Yes, that is a great lens but for group shots I would be careful about using it at f/1.4

Glad to hear!

Thanks Dennis! I hope your shoot went well. Feel free to reply below and let me know how it went.

Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching.

Thanks! Glad I could help. Feel free to let me know what other aspects of photography you'd be interested to see covered in future videos.

Thanks for watching, Beth! I appreciate the comment. And I checked out your channel...you have a beautiful voice! I hope your channel grows and more people get to hear it!

This is true. I definitely recommend checking your shot (especially focus) as often as the subject will allow. Zoom in to 100% because that small screen doesn't show focus that well.

Thanks! I don't know if I would say perfect but I won't argue with you.

Thanks for watching, be sure to subscribe...more coming soon!

Glad it was helpful!

Glad it was helpful!

Glad it was helpful!

Glad it was helpful!

Welcome aboard!

Thanks for watching!

Glad it helped!

Glad it helped

Thanks! Working on some more content like this, make sure you're subscribed...

Good luck!

I watched a few videos where people do use 70-200 lenses but they do say they aren't the ideal lenses for group portraits. You certainly can do it though.

Thanks Gabriel!

Much appreciated! Mets fans always welcome here.

Most welcome! Thanks for watching. More to come so don't forget to subscribe.

You're welcome!

Glad the video helped!

Yep! Just don't overdo it. It's usually a very subtle arc that may not even be noticeable in the photo.

This is only important for a quite big group.

@@AlergicToSnow The bigger the group the more important, but you do see the effects with maybe 5 or 6 people shoulder to shoulder. It is slight, but can help you get sharp faces if you need a wide aperture.

I have literally never heard this before now. So either this is crap or everyone else failed to mention it. Same for the part about more being in focus behind the focal plane than in front. First time ever hearing this and I have watched hundreds of videos from professionals.

@@ghvxgaming I can't speak to which videos you've watched but just google "is the focal plane curved." It is a slight curve but I can assure you it is curved. It varies from lens to lens (macros, for example, have extra elements in it to flatten the focal plane). It becomes an bigger issue when shooting larger groups with shorter focal lengths. As for the the focal point, ust check any accurate depth of field calculator (I prefer PhotoPills). You'll see that for any given combination of aperture, distance to subject, and focal length...there will be more depth of field past the focal point than in front of the focal point. That's why it is common for many landcape photographers to use the quick method of focusing 1/3 of the way into the scene (I am sure many RU-vid videos have recommended that shorthand method to maximize DoF). Glad to hear you heard it here first though. 👍

Thanks Matt, I appreciate all the thumbs up!

It's a great lens to have as your only one. I started my portrait business with a 50mm f/1.8 and a crop sensor camera.

I prefer to use a little fill flash whenever possible. It helps to fill the shadows and control the ambient light a little. However, with bigger groups, it can be hard to get the lighting even without multiple flashes. So when I can, I'll shoot it with and without and use the better one. As long as the group is cooperative, more shots is always better because it will give you more options to choose from.

I don't have much experience with the Sony autofocus system, but I am pretty sure their "eye autofocus" allows you to switch which person's eyes you are focusing on. If that is the case then I think the eye autofocus is the way to go on almost any portrait photo. Just make sure you pick a person in the front row for a two row group of the middle row when there are more than two rows.

I use off-camera flash in the majority of my portrait shots. For larger groups it tends to be more fill than a key light, though...like you said.

2 or 2.8

@@petsnaturetv1690 thanks 🙏

If for one one row with many people (such as 10+ ) where left end to right end cover 80% of the image, then F4.0 seems still too wide.

Yep, just be careful as the curve is very slight. But can be important as the groups get larger.

That sounds similar to how I would focus for a landscape shot where the camera is on a tripod and the scene isn't moving. It gets more tricky with people who could move.

That would certainly work. If you were about 25 feet away shooing a 50mm on a full frame camera at f/8 you’d get an in focus area of 76 feet! So even if you opened up the aperture more than f/8 more you should still have plenty of focus depth to work with.

@@PhotographyGoals I can’t wrap my head around the distance away factor. It’s all to mathematical for me! I don’t get it😜

Almost always manual. I think it’s actually easier to shoot manual and gives you more control.

GOOD ANSWER! :)

@@hurleygreen927 I always teach beginners to start with manual. Priority modes cause more confusion than help. It's a topic I am thinking of making a video about.

@@PhotographyGoals Good call! As a photojournalist here in Chicago, I shoot mostly manual but also shoot Aperture Priority with outdoor portraits! :)

He was probably standing quite far back, which would increase DOF to several feet

Exactly correct!

In that case, I was shooting with a 50mm lens and standing 20-30 feet away, which gave me a depth of field somewhere between 6-12 feet, which is plenty for this shot. If you get closer, then you are dealing with a shallower depth of field. If you want to experiment with different depths of field, check out the Photo Pills app, it is very helpful with that.

This F2.0 is a nice photo at large. The key is all people standing in one line on focal plane. However, as the group span is so wide, if zoom in to check individual face, the faces on both sides might be not sharp enough ~ just may guess.

Most instruction tries to simplify it to make it easier to understand (but that leaves out some nuance)

With that many people and rows, don’t worry about getting a blurry background. Use f/8 or f/10 to make sure you have enough depth of focus. If you’re unsure, try the depth of field calculator in the Photo Pills App to calculate it.

Almost never manual focus when shooting people. For most of the shots in this video, I used single point focus and moved it to where I needed it. With a lot of the current mirrorless cameras, I am loving the eye autofocus. I just move it to the eyes of the people in the front row and as long as your aperture is not too wide, it works great.

It depends on how they are positioned in the frame. That lens is has a maximum aperture of f/2.8, right? If you're closer to the 55mm end, I would stop down to f3.2 or f/4 for a group.

Yes it does. However, on a crop sensor camera, the field of view would be similar to that of a 75mm lens.

I think this is to make beautiful blurry background