petego4it Loc: NY

At Christmas, we'll do an infrequent family portrait of 17 persons of all ages grouped on one (long) side of a dining table covering roughly 10-11 feet width, shot midway from ~5 foot across the table from the nearest person. Plan is 7 be seated and others arrayed behind. It is to be shot with a Nikon Fx and very good Nikon 20mm prime lens at f11 or f16. Trials show using an interim distance focus, that focus results may be acceptable. We will use supplemental lighting. Q nonetheless, is there likely to be too great distortion especially of persons at the group ends (those persons cannot be placed to curve toward the camera), and therefore whether a more normal lens (with the camera in this case less desirably placed higher and further back) give a better result?

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

YES !

petego4it Loc: NY

thanks and understand. Anyone have demo pics of similar?

BebuLamar

For portrait I would avoid anything wider than 35mm for FF camera. Not to say you can't make interesting images of people with wide angle lenses but the images are not what you see with your naked eyes.

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

Ideally, If I were doing this, I think I would use my Sony A77II (crop frame - only cause I do not have FF) and do a sweep panorama with a 28-30mm lens in the vertical orientation using a continuous light source. Sony does this very well !

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petego4it Loc: NY

understand. would an 80 mm, if we can get far enough back, distort unduly the other way...? 80 mm works well with individual shots. (80 and 20 primes are what I happen to have....)

petego4it Loc: NY

cannot readily sweep pano as I'm supposed to be in the shot and no auto...

BebuLamar

No! Using the 80mm which is a longer lens and you have to get far back and the fact that getting far back will give you a more flattening perspective but you wouldn't need that much. The wide angle distortion is different though. It's called distortion because your eyes isn't wide angle and it can never see from real life the image captured with a wide angle lens. It's not really a distortion per se.

petego4it Loc: NY

ok. my alternative is a 24-70 zoom set to about 35mm FX. Problems? thanks for the input. altho I'm a long term photog it is not often i need to shoot groups like this...

joseph premanandan

i would use 50mm focal length with spot metering and if you are going to arrange people in two rows, then you need to focus on the eyes of the person standing behind in the middle and preferable use a tripod & use a self timer if you want to be in the picture, use a flash if you need to with 1/8 or1/11 aperture with shutter speed between 1/60 to 1/125.most of the times this should work.

ngrea Loc: Sandy Spring, Maryland

If you have someone else you can trust, set up on a tripod and do a panorama with you at one side and your helper at the other. One takes first picture, then gets in place to pose for next photo. The other poses in first photo then takes second (and third if needed). Just make sure family can be still for long enough.
When I was in school we had a large group photo taken with a camera that moved slowly and one guy ran around behind the photographer to be in the picture twice (he was at both ends of the group)

CatMarley Loc: North Carolina

I think a 50 mm should do the job better than a 20. It is called the "normal" lens for a reason. You may want to test the scene using bounce flash, even placing some reflective surfaces strategically prior to the occasion. Then you will not waste a lot of time or tire your models when the time comes.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

To avoid the distortion (which will be considerable with a 20mm on full frame... the folks at the extreme right and left of the frame will be anamorphically "stretched" and look really odd)...

1. Get further back to take the shot with a less wide lens.

2. Take several shots from the closer distance using a less wide lens, panoramically, then assemble the images into one later in post processing.

Here's an extreme example (more than 20 images shot quickly & handheld... later assembled into one):



For the above, I didn't move, but just swung around taking the sequential shots quickly. To keep the subjects the same relative size, move parallel with the line-up while taking the shots. Overlap shots by 1/3 to 1/2 for best results later assembling them.

And ask everyone to hold very still for all the shots!

Below is a three-shot panorama done with a wide angle lens. It was also done handheld and swinging around to take the series of images, rather than moving parallel (that wasn't an option because I was standing on top of a picnic table). A horse and rider were walking by as I took the shots and actually appeared twice in the final composite image! (I cloned out one instance of them.)



The "bushes" in the two lower corners of the above image are actually a hedge that runs in a straight line across in front of my standing position.

aellman Loc: Boston MA

I would not use a lens that wide for a project like this. Aside from likely
distortion, everything behind the group will be perfectly sharp and perfectly distracting.

Michael1079 Loc: Indiana

From what I've read, and experienced, using a wide angle lens for a group photo will cause distortion - especially to those on the outer edge of the frame. I have a very nice 24mm, which is a great landscape lens, but not so much for portrait.
Ideally, when shooting groups, I try to use something closer to 50mm. I recently did a photo shoot of 13 gymnasts, with six in the front row and seven in the back. With the 50mm lens, I had to be back 8' to 10'. In the area you're describing, this may not be possible, so my advice here may pretty much suck.
With that said, I think your own experience will tell you if it will yield acceptable results or not. One thing to be sure of, to keep focus on the several rows, the aperture will need to be closed down a bit to get an acceptable depth of field. I would guess at least f8, but others on this site with more experience would be able to tell you better. You would want to focus, if possible, on the eyes of the person front and center, and this should keep the group behind in focus.