Large composite group photo

[dancook]

I'm being asked about taking a photo of 300 students, due to covid they have to maintain they bubbles - so groups of 30-40 students can be within close vicinity of each other.

They have a school hall with tiered seating, not 300 chairs - but there's space in the aisles and perhaps at the front. It should be easiest for managing positioning of students so when it comes to photoshop everyone can be seen.

Shooting outside could be a problem if the light changes, and if we start doing mass cut outs of random groups of students then it might be difficult to line them up afterwards... so I think the hall could be the best bet.

Anyone done something similar, that they can offer any suggestions?

thanks

edit. I realise that they won't need to sit down in the chairs, if they all stand up in front we can fit a lot more in.

 

[Deleted member 34016]

I photographed 210 Royal Marines at our local camp a year or 2 back( pass out parade) - taken on their parade square early morning - so the light wasn't too harsh

so outside may well be an option for you?

I shot 3 images of 3 groups of 70 and stiched them together in Photoshop - they were sat at the front and standing on the 2nd row - easy enough I found,so long as there is negative space at each end of the individual groups and I got paid too

Good luck buddy

Les

 

[dancook]

Anything outside they won’t have seating to just extend side by side. It’s also going to be a casual photo as opposed to something so formal.

So outside the only option is to shoot from second floor buildings/balcony

Then the problem is how to composite 7+ groups together. If I shot groups at a time near me, then they will all be looking up eye line at camera, if I move them to the back later I assume their eye line won’t be right.

If I shot all of them at once a photoshopped the groups closer to fill in the 2m gaps then that’s a lot of cutting out and resizing for perspective.

If I shoot them in the hall, they will be standing in their final place for the shot, correctly looking at camera and naturally sized for perspective and will just need blending in photoshop.

I could buy a drone and shoot from above and keep 2m gaps in.. or whether it would be easier to photoshop if IQ was enough

 

[gman]

Anything outside they won’t have seating to just extend side by side. It’s also going to be a casual photo as opposed to something so formal.

So outside the only option is to shoot from second floor buildings/balcony

Then the problem is how to stitch 7+ groups together. If I shot groups at a time near me, then they will all be looking up eye line at camera, if I move them to the back later I assume their eye line won’t be right.

If I shot all of them at once a photoshopped the groups closer to fill in the 2m gaps then that’s a lot of cutting out and resizing for perspective.

If I shoot them in the hall, they will be standing in their final place for the shot, correctly looking at camera and naturally sized for perspective and will just need blending in photoshop.

I could buy a drone and shoot from above and keep 2m gaps in.. or whether it would be easier to photoshop if IQ was enough

Could the fps speed of the A1 be an advantage here and allow you to sweep and then do a stitch using Lightroom's auto stitching and therefore retaining RAW capability for editing? I'm thinking that the sheer speed of the A1 would give you plenty of images to choose from within the stitch to ensure there's no movement, blinking etc?

 

[dancook]

Could the fps speed of the A1 be an advantage here and allow you to sweep and then do a stitch using Lightroom's auto stitching and therefore retaining RAW capability for editing? I'm thinking that the sheer speed of the A1 would give you plenty of images to choose from within the stitch to ensure there's no movement, blinking etc?

Stitch was the wrong word, i mean composite - i won't necessarily need to create a panoramic.

I'm going over to the school shortly, to scope out some areas and i will take photos to better illustrate my points

 

[gman]

Stitch was the wrong word, i mean composite - i won't necessarily need to create a panoramic.

I'm going over to the school shortly, to scope out some areas and i will take photos to better illustrate my points

Ah ok. Would a stitch not work? I had to do one for a protest recently with people moving about, but thanks to the A9's speed I could select the best photos for the stitch. Your A1 wouldn't even sweat it! lol

 

[dancook]

Ah ok. Would a stitch not work? I had to do one for a protest recently with people moving about, but thanks to the A9's speed I could select the best photos for the stitch. Your A1 wouldn't even sweat it! lol

A stitch of the scene would work if I could not fit 300 people in a 24mm view

300-person group shot - backstory - PentaxForums.com

At FOSSASIA 2016 within Science Center Singapore's campus this past Saturday, I caught 300-plus people standing around outside. By scoping out the

www.pentaxforums.com

But if these 300 people were in groups of 7-10 that could not stand with 2 metres of each other.. then I've got a problem. How to produce a group image without the 2m gaps.

zebra-technologies-summit-incheon-korea-13 - Seoul Photographer

www.welkinlight.com

anything like these shots which lack structure, will be a nightmare to composite groups of people together.. it'll be like a jigsaw puzzle with all the wrong pieces.

So perhaps I draw out a grid on the ground and have each group stand in their grid one at a time, so I know they won't overlap others, and we have straight edges to each group.


Someone suggested photographing each group close to me, so I get all the face detail - but then if I move that group to the back of the composite, will the face/eye line be correct anymore?


I don't have outdoor seating to do this

Large Group Photography | JP Photographic, Sussex School Photographers – The School Photography Photos Specialists

» Large Group Photography | Leading Sussex School Photographers

jpphotographic.co.uk

But the indoor hall has tiered seating that would work - and I'd just do one row at a time and blend them all

 

[dancook]

I went to the school this morning, so I could present an example of the indoor shot

Each year group would stand in a row, take the shot, leave - next year group takes next row up etc.. and blend together

300 would fit nicely in this space

example by Daniel Cook, on Flickr

Decided that if we do it outside we won't try to photograph 300 at once, with 2 metre gaps between year groups - but break it down and have 3 x 100 people photos, and/or 8x 30-40 people photos

 

[dancook]

I can fit the above frame in a single image and crop from 50MP, it'll be about 1/125th f2.8 ISO 2500 with the lights on.

I wonder that I could use the multishot to get a 200MP image. (no it takes a second or two to take 16 images, by which point kids may have moved)

The shot above was taken at 28mm on 24-70 2.8 GM, if I take the shot with my Leica Q2 47MP - I can use f1.7 - and focus on each row individually. and have a long exposure for the empty chairs. I think the Q2 prime will be sharper than the GM zoom

 

[AMcUK]

In the last year of my kid's primary school the photographer switched from the classic massive group shot to the "contemporary" set up below printed on a long roll.

Home - Vancols Photographers - Vancols

www.van-cols.co.uk

tbh I wasn't a fan - you got a lot of school uniform and the faces were a lot smaller in the print inch for inch but if you struggle it might be worth having as a backup?

A problem I can see with your idea is if you might get a short kid in a higher row than a tall kid. You won't necessarily know until you're back at the computer and then I'm not sure what you could do which wouldn't look very odd.
I guess you could shoot alternate positions for each group to give yourself a get out but you'd be adding a lot to your workload.

 

[dancook]

In the last year of my kid's primary school the photographer switched from the classic massive group shot to the "contemporary" set up below printed on a long roll.

Home - Vancols Photographers - Vancols

www.van-cols.co.uk

tbh I wasn't a fan - you got a lot of school uniform and the faces were a lot smaller in the print inch for inch but if you struggle it might be worth having as a backup?

A problem I can see with your idea is if you might get a short kid in a higher row than a tall kid. You won't necessarily know until you're back at the computer and then I'm not sure what you could do which wouldn't look very odd.
I guess you could shoot alternate positions for each group to give yourself a get out but you'd be adding a lot to your workload.

eek don't like white background stuff most of the time, not keen.

the youngest kids will be at the front, going backwards in years - that will help with this. But also for each year group we could put tall people on the ends, so we won't mix tall with short - thanks for the thought.

 

[AMcUK]

No I was disappointed with the white background. It was OK for the class shots but not as good as the whole class ones from the year before. The whole school one is just weird and has only been out of it's tube a couple of times.

My suggestion would be if you get any obviously short or tall kids you get them to shuffle around in the groups and take more than one so you have options in post. If the kids are at the point where the girls are outgrowing the boys you may get some oddness in the year groups.
Sounds like a challenging assignment!

 

[dancook]

No I was disappointed with the white background. It was OK for the class shots but not as good as the whole class ones from the year before. The whole school one is just weird and has only been out of it's tube a couple of times.

My suggestion would be if you get any obviously short or tall kids you get them to shuffle around in the groups and take more than one so you have options in post. If the kids are at the point where the girls are outgrowing the boys you may get some oddness in the year groups.
Sounds like a challenging assignment!

This is for a girls only school and it's just for junior years from reception, year 1? if we get more than a couple of tall girls in a year group I'll keep it in mind. The above image perspective shows the outer edges will overlap least.

 

[Mr Perceptive]

I can fit the above frame in a single image and crop from 50MP, it'll be about 1/125th f2.8 ISO 2500 with the lights on.

I wonder that I could use the multishot to get a 200MP image. (no it takes a second or two to take 16 images, by which point kids may have moved)

The shot above was taken at 28mm on 24-70 2.8 GM, if I take the shot with my Leica Q2 47MP - I can use f1.7 - and focus on each row individually. and have a long exposure for the empty chairs. I think the Q2 prime will be sharper than the GM zoom

Do both, two tripods, two cameras easy

 

[gman]

I can fit the above frame in a single image and crop from 50MP, it'll be about 1/125th f2.8 ISO 2500 with the lights on.

I wonder that I could use the multishot to get a 200MP image. (no it takes a second or two to take 16 images, by which point kids may have moved)

The shot above was taken at 28mm on 24-70 2.8 GM, if I take the shot with my Leica Q2 47MP - I can use f1.7 - and focus on each row individually. and have a long exposure for the empty chairs. I think the Q2 prime will be sharper than the GM zoom

I'm wondering, seeing as you say it's a girls school will it not be a huge challenge to deal with hair when it comes to putting the shots together, or will you be far enough away for it not to be a problem?

That hall doesn't look particular nice, but I suppose it is what it is. Is there nowhere outside which has a large amount of outdoor steps or an outside bandstand which you use? Something like this which is not far from me:

 

[dancook]

Do both, two tripods, two cameras easy

I own one tripod don't tempt me to buy another... because I've been looking at the peak design carbon fibre one

 

[dancook]

I'm wondering, seeing as you say it's a girls school will it not be a huge challenge to deal with hair when it comes to putting the shots together, or will you be far enough away for it not to be a problem?

That hall doesn't look particular nice, but I suppose it is what it is. Is there nowhere outside which has a large amount of outdoor steps or an outside bandstand which you use? Something like this which is not far from me:

Nowhere outside at all with stepped seating, the only option would be to shoot from above - and that brings many other problems with how to composite them with no structural aid.

I will photoshop the top pipes out, and the kids will fill most of the image after that.

Teachers will sit along the front edge, with the head of the school standing in the middle.

Oh and I suspect hair will be ok, you can quote me on those famous last words

 

[Mr Perceptive]

I own one tripod don't tempt me to buy another... because I've been looking at the peak design carbon fibre one

You don't need anything that posh (not that it stops you ), a simple sturdy old school aluminium Manfrotto 055 will do the job, and be very much up to the task if you have to do this sort of thing outdoors on a potentially windy day.

 

[gman]

Nowhere outside at all with stepped seating, the only option would be to shoot from above - and that brings many other problems with how to composite them with no structural aid.

I will photoshop the top pipes out, and the kids will fill most of the image after that.

Teachers will sit along the front edge, with the head of the school standing in the middle.

Oh and I suspect hair will be ok, you can quote me on those famous last words

Well, best of luck! Sounds like a huge undertaking of editing!!!

 

[dancook]

Well, best of luck! Sounds like a huge undertaking of editing!!!

Cheers, it'll be fun

Just did the calc for Sony A1 28mm 2.8 vs Leica Q2 @ 28mm 1.7

I can get ISO 800 with the Q2, which is a nice noise saving over ISO 3200 on the A1

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