Asked to do class photos, help needed

DrPips

DrPips

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Dom
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Hi All,

I'm a secondary school teacher, and we recently had someone come in to take the professional shot of the whole year group of Year 11s as they leave soon. Unfortunately there was supposed to be time to do individual forms as well, but we ran out of time.

I've been asked to take photos of groups, like forms etc as people know I'm into photography, but my experience is almost exclusively landscape, so I have no idea what I need to do. I have offered to do it though!!

I have a Canon 30D and a few lenses (15-85, 10-22) but no separate flash, or reflector or anything like that.

Can people please give me advice on what kind of settings I'll need to use, any advice on actually taking the shots and also, any equipment I may need to borrow, or if I could get away with using my own gear.

Many Thanks,

Dom
 
Arrange in three tiers, front sitting, next standing, third standing on chairs. Somewhere with a plain background or perhaps a brick wall preferably natural light from one side. Shoot away, probably best on multiple shots to cover closed eyes.

Herding them will be the biggest challenge, knowing most year 11's :D
 
What's the weather like your way? I remember having class portraits taken outside, with the entrance to the school (with it's name in the stonework) behind us.
 
Do them in small groups with a plain white background then group them together later in PS.
 
Go outside, preferably on a day that is a little bit cloudy to act as a giant softbox. Do you have some steps on the site that you could use to pose the groups informally? The camera stuff is the easy part, sorting the kids, setting up the photo and finding a clean background are the bigger challenges.

Mike
 
To avoid depth of field problems it might be worth getting up high so that you look down on the children - This will keep all their heads roughly the same distance from the camera. 3 rows of kids with them all looking up at you seems to work (for me at least !) - it holds their attention slightly more than if stood in front of them, and also may give more even lighting - either from the school hall ceiling lights or outside. A borrowed flash bounced off the ceiling would be very useful if you can get hold of one.
Be sure to get everyone's face in focus, and try to not go too wide with your focal length or you'll end up with distorted people at the edges.

Work fast or you will loose their interest, and as said before, take plenty of pictures - I would ask them all to look down until you shout to avoid sore necks - this will also minimize the chances of closed eyes as they will want to see what you are doing and thus will keep eyes on you.
Good luck !
 
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Thanks for the tips. What aperture should I use, and should I use aperture priority? If so, what shutter speed should I be aiming for so I can change the iso accordingly. I don't normally take pictures of things that move, so it doesn't matter!!

Dom
 
That's not so easy to answer as it depends on so many factors.
I would aim for f8 or higher to be sure of getting all faces in focus and assuming you use the 15-85mm lens then hope for a shutter speed of at least 125th. Camera shake will ruin any pictures and 125th ought to be plenty fast enough. Using a flash would also be a cure for freezing movement from you or your subjects. I would set the camera to manual, but that might just be me and my habits. Also, the figures I am saying are just a guess - 1/60th may be ok for shutter speed but I wouldn't trust it. F5.6 might also be ok, but again, I wouldn't be happy about having everyone in focus.
Don't be afraid of upping the ISO a bit. Its been a while since I had a 30d but I think I used to use 400 or even 800 without too much noise, but knowing how the pictures are going to be used will affect that to some extent - if you want to print off some huge enlargements then try to keep the ISO down to a reasonable level.
However, all of this is dependent on the light available, how close you are to your subjects, how directly above them you are and what sort of focal length you use.
Can you get access to the location in advance to do a few test shots - it may help calm any nerves and give you the chance to iron out any problems.
 
As you'd be using a fairly wide angle, you'd have a decent depth of field to start with, so wouldn't need more than f8 - f11.

Stick the camera on a tripod, and have the kids "hold a pose" as they smile, and you could get away with anything down to 1/4 of a second. Kids being fidgetty though, I'd aim for around 1/30.

Have you got a remote release? If so, rattle 3 shots off as fast as your camera will allow. This will give you the option of swapping a head or two for the ones that will inevitably blink, with minimum movement between shots.
 
I got a couple of kids to volunteer to let me do some test shots. I was struggling to get the shutter speed fast enough. Would it help if I had a white background instead of black? Also, I only have my camera's onboard flash, so don't think that would help much, but I'm taking the photos in the school theater which has a good lighting rig. If I got them to turn a couple of those on? I think they could colour the lights a little to stop them washing everything out.

Dom
 
I do a bit of schools work, given the kit you have - i.e no flash or lighting of any kind my honest advice is to get someone else in.
I have no doubt about your ability to get the guys into groups that look good and I'm confident you can focus etc, but this is specialized stuff you are talking about. There will be plenty of independent school photographers in your area who could do this for you and give you professional results for the guys to cherish.

Still want to do it yourself? Borrow a good flash and get the guys outside, use chairs and gym benches to achieve a tiered effect and put the shortest kids at front, tallest at back etc.

Ok, in the theatre, get rid of as much ambient light as possible, use the overhead lights to spot them, get someone to set up some lights with coloured gels back lighting them and a white light on the subjects from in front/to the side, get the white lights turned up a bit, that will give you the shutter speed. use a black background - you should be able to get rock style photos. Here you needn't bother being too formal, use chairs as props etc and let the kids choose poses to bring out some character...

What a great opportunity to play, I am sooo jealous right now!
 
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