mcmm Loc: Kansas

You have all been very helpful and I have some great suggestions to try. I have a lot to learn and I know I am in the right place to do just that. Thanks again!!!!

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

Aren't we all guilty of that one? :)

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

I would put the lens on manual focus and focus on a face at the correct distance to have the first row on the near edge of the focus area and the far edge will take care of itself.

Example: at f11 your field of focus is X ft, you are 4 feet from the first child focus on a face in the row that is 1/2x + 4 feet from you. Everything from the first row out to X+4ft should be in acceptable focus.

bobmcculloch Loc: NYC, NY

I'd try The Canon 40mm, f2.8, bit faster than the 18-35, sharp near wide open too, getting to be my favorite travel light lens, Bob.

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

Echo the earlier comment about getting up on the stage so you have a downward angle. It is much easier to get everyone’s face in the shot and you can use the 24-70 lens on a tripod.

jimni2001 Loc: Sierra Vista, Arizona, USA

It sounds like you need to study some on depth of field. You need to understand the focal point for getting everything in focus. There are some apps that may help you. Depth of Field Calculator is the one I use on my Android it is called something else on the iPhone and I am not sure what that is. It is simple and fairly quick to use. Just my two cents worth.

mcmm Loc: Kansas

Thank you all for your help and patience. I have a lot to learn and you are all such knowledgeable people. I hope one day to be able to take as awesome photographs as you do. And maybe be able to help some Newbie along the journey!

TimS Loc: GA

Please do not use f/16 with an 18mm lens! You might not be able to crank up the ISO high enough to get a useable image. Meaning, indoors, the light is already very bad and low. Using f/16, you'd have to have a shutter speed of at least 1/100sec to keep the moving kids from blurring. That would require ISO setting of 3200-6400 perhaps. I have that same camera and although it's not my main camera now, my recollection is that ISO above 1600 on a T3i is not useable (to my taste). Even though the camera can go to something like 12,800, the resulting image would be very poor quality. I'd use my iphone before a T3i in that instance.

So what do you do? Look up hyperfocal distance. At 18mm, you can shoot at minimum aperture of that lens (f/3.5) and still have a ton of stuff in focus. How do you do it? Simple, set your lens to 18mm, aperture priority at lowest possible aperture (3.5). Set ISO to auto. Focus on something about 15 feet from you. Then put your lens on manual focus and start shooting. Everything between about 7.5' from your camera and the edge of the room will be in focus. Just make sure that there aren't any kids closer than 7.5-8 feet from you and you'll do just fine.

If you change the focal length then all of this changes. As you start zooming in, the distance you need to focus on to get everything sharp changes drastically. At 55mm, you'd be at f/5.6 and would need to focus in something about 90' away and only those kids between 45' from you and the far end of the room will be in focus. So if you do change your focal length, you'll need to refocus on something 15' away and continue like before.

Don't attempt to use the flash on the camera.
The kids close to you will be bright but the kids behind them will QUICKLY fall into darkness. Not a good image. Practice and good luck!

BuckeyeBilly Loc: St. Petersburg, FL

mcmm,
I don't know if you've read your manual about DOF so here is the link for it:

http://gdlp01.c-wss.com/gds/0/0300004720/02/eosrt3i-eos600d-im2-c-en.pdf

Check out pages 93-98. Also, look at pages 56-70 for shooting creatively.

ole sarg Loc: south florida

Take the advice below. What you have is really enough for what you are shooting.

Also, go to:

www.camerasim.com and work the program. You won't walk out an expert but you will be ahead of the game.

Morrisdh Loc: Pisgah Alabama

I also do a lot of photos for school and started with the
T3I and Kit lens. Due to the size of the class rooms and
the need for close ups of kids working I went with the
24-105L . It is a very sharp lens. I also have the 70-200 2.8 L and use it in the Gym's and ball fields and places
like that. Also the 24-105 is great for portraits. mdh

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

You've got the right idea. Stopping down increases your DOF (depth of field) When you stop down, you decrease light so your shutter must remain open for a longer duration to get the proper exposure. It's either that, or you can increase your ISO. Each time you double your ISO, you are increasing the exposure by one stop. On a T3i, you may not want to use over 400 ISO is you can help it unless you are using flash. If using flash, and all your subjects are covered by the flash, you can probably use up to 1600 ISO. But with no flash, I wouldn't use over 400 ISO or you'll wind up with noise in your pictures.

So if I were you I'd check out this web site on DOF so you can determine what f/stop to use before you begin. Then put your ISO at 400 and then see what you shutter speed winds up being. Put your camera on a tripod and carefully set your exposure settings and focus and use the camera timer feature or a remote. Increase your ISO if your shutter speed isn't above 1/60 or faster.

http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

Also, your 24-70mm f/2.8 lens is an excellent piece of glass. Just back up until you get everybody in the frame . . . and take more than just one picture. Take as many as you can while the students are behaving.

gessman Loc: Colorado

You asked about a lens that you can buy that means you are ready to spend some money. Without knowing how much you're prepared to spend and considering the task you want to achieve and the lens you have, maybe not by this Friday but I would buy a full frame camera like a good used or refurb 6D or 5D2, maybe from CanonUSA.com, B&HPhoto.com, Adorama.com or KEH.com or your favorite camera store, perhaps with a teacher/student discount if you qualify and it's offered.

You have a 24-70 2.8, great lens, which is 24mm on a full frame while on the t3i the 18-55 gives you the view of a 28+mm and the 24-70 gives you 38+mm. You can shove the iso on up as much as 3 to 5 stops and get considerably less noise than with the t3i, especially using a denoise program. You can also shoot Raw, underexpose to gain more adjustable light control and denoise in post processing and batch process all the images in Canon's provided software. You can adjust for exposure and noise as well as other normal post processing, color, contrast, sharpen, etc., with Digital Photo Professional (DPP) that's provided with your camera purchase. It is also downloadable from CanonUSA.com or you can just use whatever software you now use for processing Raw files if it permits you to do all you need to do with adjusting exposure, general processing, and noise control.

Then, using the other suggestions about dof and shooting about 1/3rd to 1/2 of the way into your group, you have the best chance of getting what you want if you then rehearse in your setting. You have way more natural restrictions on you than I would want to ensure that I would get consistently good shots with your current equipment, the size of the group, and the limiting light. If you aren't prepared to spend that much money, please excuse my intrusion into the conversation, listen to what the others here have said, and go for it maybe even using burst mode and the "spray and pray" method hoping you'll get at least one good one. Also, please feel free to mix any and all suggestions that will help you achieve your goal such as underexposing to get more light control and using Canon's processing software to batch process all the shots you get in processing for exposure control for a little light gain. Experiment and rehearse."

garceh Loc: florida

Linda. Would you mind including me also. I am also very interested. Thanks in advance.

mcmm Loc: Kansas

You said you started with the T3i. What camera body are you using now?