daddybear Loc: Brunswick, NY

my granddaughter is having her Sweet Sixteen party in a couple of weeks. I said no about doing the photography at the event. However, yesterday she came over so Gram could hem her dress. Once I saw her in the dress I could no longer say no. So question is, does anyone have any experience setting up for such an occasion ? I have the backdrops with frame along with umbrellas, reflectors, lights and stands. Just need some guidance on set up. I have not shot in a large room before. Photo is her but supposedly I will be taking photo of her and 50 + teenyboppers.


thank you,

DeanR

(Download)

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

Hey Dean,

I shoot lots of family photos and in big rooms. However I do not attempt large group photos. I don't think you need anything other than a quality lens, say 24 - 70, f/2.8 and a good speed light and perhaps an omni bounce to soften the light. It certainly works for me. Here are a few from my grandaughter's Bat Mitzvah. http://markweissimages.shutterfly.com/pictures/1784 Best viewed by activating slide show - top left. Hope this helps (somewhat). I shoot Canon 5D MIII with Canon 24 - 70mm f/2.8 II.
Mainly, have fun. She probably does not have "Pro expectations.
Good luck,
Mark

dat2ra Loc: Sacramento

A few tips: 1) Avoid facing your subject face-on to the camera. It will flatter her out and nothing will be flattering. Shoot at some angle and of course, you can have her turn her head towards you, but again, avoid a straight-on head's up pose. 2) Position her farther from the background (say 5') so her shadow doesn't show so much. 3) Start with lighting at 45-45, meaning 45 degrees to your model (as in half way between her face and the background, and 45 degrees from vertical. You can modify as needed from there. If you use two lights, make one the main and set the fill at 1/2 power.....again, for a start.
4) Are you going to shoot all 50 kids at once? That's going to be an outside shot and a wide lens. Select a high overcast day to avoid burnt highlights, and position the group relative to the sun as you did the main light (45/45). Tell the group to close their eyes and open on 3; you then count of 1...2...3. That way, most will have their eyes open for the shot. For a group of 50, light control will be difficult. As Mark said, a Speedlight (or more likely 2) will help; a reflector for a big group will be less effective. Inside, I'd try to shoot in small groups, and stitch together if you have to have one shot for all.
Roland

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

I assume you're using hot shoe mounted flash? Then angle the flash head up, take a standard white business envelope and rubber band to the flash head to act like a reflector. Something to prevent that harsh shadow from appearing in the image.

And, don't use the term teenyboppers.

Rongnongno Loc: FL

You might want to descend from your high horse here. Teenybopper definition. Now 'Jail bait' would have been something else.

The only reservation is that it addresses girl that are in their early teens (11~15) but 16 is not that far off the mark.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Oh My God!
50+ of them!!
May the force be with you. I will pray for you. You may look back on Nam as being safe, peaceful and calm. I know in 34 years of Jr & Sr High teaching I felt that way a few times. Being drafted as Assistant Troop Leader of my wife's Girl Scout Troop and Cookie Dad was nothing compared to what you have to face.

Use your background, umbrellas, lights, bounce the flash, use a good diffuser or whatever it takes. Have lots of batteries and memory cards. Go for overkill on how many shots you take and vary the settings, it is digital after all and pixels are not in short supply as far as I know.
Grab a book on portraits and event shooting, pick an arrangement, set it up somewhere a few days early and do some practice shots so you can tweak the arrangement of light, reflectors and umbrellas etc. I googled "how to shoot a prom" and got only God knows how many returns. Prom shooting should be close enough.
Then relax, try to have fun and remember you are making your Granddaughter happy. Not to mention her Grandmother.

Could you maybe segway this into getting some new gear? "So I can do a better job."

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

If you are doing candids, then use bounce flash. Attaching a card, even a big one like a Better Bounce Card is not going to soften the light unless you are within a foot of the subject. Better to bounce the flash to the wall and or ceiling behind you. What makes shadows and lighting soft is the size of the light source - the bigger the more diffuse and the softer will be the shadows.

If you are doing formal portraits, then umbrellas are ok, as long as you have the lights close to the subjects. Stop by http://strobist.blogspot.com/ which has tons of advice for lighting with speedlights and modifiers.

Also look at http://neilvn.com/tangents/flash-photography-techniques/ for his wisdom on using flash.

Lastly take a look at work by Fuzzy Duenkel, who I consider one of the best lighting specialists in the business. http://www.duenkel.com/families/index.html

Don't waste time or money on little bounce cards, Gary Fong diffusers, flash brackets that hold the flash near the camera, etc etc etc. Do make sure you have a camera that can shoot at ISO 800 or higher and still produce a clean image with a nice sharp lens, and you should be fine.

tshift Loc: Overland Park, KS.

Nice shots Mark. Did you use some type of flash?? Thanks

Tom

CO

Definitely try to use the largest umbrella that you have. The larger the light source, the softer the light will be. The flash you used for the photo produced a hard shadow on the wall behind her.

A shoot-through umbrella has a lot of light spill and can reduce shadows on the wall. Not only does the light go through the umbrella, but much is reflected back into the room. The reflected light can open up the shadow areas some.

It you're using a speedlight, use the wide angle panel that pulls out of the flash head. Many speedlights have a wide angle panel that pulls out of the flash head and drops in front of the flash's lens. That can help to spread the light out to better fill the umbrella with light.

Speedlights are a little underpowered for that. If you have a studio strobe, use that.

tcthome Loc: NJ

Could go over to the set ahead of time withyou all this advice to take some test shots with your lighting equipment.

LFingar Loc: Claverack, NY

What makes you think any of them will stand still long enough for a posed shot! Besides, your granddaughter can see those types of shots in her yearbook. Unless such shots have been requested I would figure on just wandering around taking candid shots of all the weird things that teenagers can do. With 50 of them you should have endless subject matter!

BTW: Be prepared to explain to your granddaughter's friends how it is that you plan to take pictures with something that you can't send text messages with! Pay no attention if, at some point, you hear the phrase: "Crazy old man"!

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

Thanks.
Yes. Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

If you decide to do any group shots you might consider this:
Some people will blink when the flash goes off. If it's a manual flash, it could be no problem, but normal TTL flash produces a preflash to set exposure so that means that person will have closed their eyes by the time the main flash fires.

I have found that raising the ISO (consistent with good IQ) can solve this problem. At high ISO, the flash doesn't have to use much charge, so you don't have to wait for it to recharge before the next shot. Consequently you can get several shots at the fastest frame rate your camera will do. The people who blink at the flash will usually recover after a couple shots so you are more likely to get a shot with everyone's eyes open.

A very small percentage of people will blink later in the sequence. I don't encounter this often, but when you get both an early blinker and a late blinker in the shots you can resort to Photoshop. Just take the best shot, take an unblinking eye from an earlier or later shot and paste it over a blinking eye (on the same person). In extreme cases you can paste someone else's eye over a blinking eye, but if it's a group of women with eye makeup, that might be more difficult.

I generally find 3-4 rapid shots are enough to get past the blink.

And I second the recommendation to bounce the flash from a ceiling or wall.

billnourse Loc: Bloomfield, NM

I just shot a Quinceanera for a friend. One thing to really watch for are shadows behind your subjects. I used a Canon 600-EX and Gary Fong deflector and still had some problem with shadows. I also have a bracket that rotates to keep the flash right over the lens when changing from portrait to landscape perspective and I still got a few shadows. Doesn't effect snapshots so much, but for the formal pictures I would suggest your strobes at 45 degree up and 45 degree to the side. For the formals take several. Someone is sure to blink, have a funny expression, or be scratching. The more shots you take, the better chance of getting something good.

The example you posted has a very harsh shadow and does not appear to be real sharp, so that's something to keep in mind.

I don't know what a "Sweet 16" shoot is like, but I shot over 500 images and edited 393 to give to the client. That included the getting ready shots, getting in the limo shots, formal shots and the ceremony at the church, and the party.

Good luck and have fun.

Bill

cthahn

This is something you should have learned ahead of time. No one can tell you how to take a picture. If you are a photographer, then you should know it.