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Afternoon all
I've got a fairly regular corporate gig now that involves doing group shots of around 20 or so people for a Business school. As thread title, these are always 'on location' ie not in a studio or anything like that. I don't particularly enjoy doing group 'line up' shots like this as such, but it pays some bills.
I normally take them outside whenever possible which has worked out ok in the past, but when the weather is bad (like today was) we had no option but to do them inside at the venue. And there wasn't anywhere decent to fit 20 people without it being horribly cluttered in the background, awful light etc etc.
I think the thing I struggle most with is trying to arrange the group in a decent line up, in often poor surroundings with very limited time (I had 5 minutes tops today for example). People also seem to lose their brains a bit when they get en mass.
I guess what I'm asking (will get there in the end ) is what top tips you have for arranging a group of this size indoors when the environment is a bit lacking and you only have 5 minutes or so, and how do you make the most of a bad room/ venue? How do you make them stand/ sit. We didn't even have any chairs today, so I had to do 2 rows, the front row crouched like an 80's footy team shot.
It all looks a bit messy though to be honest, and I'm not happy. Gear wise I was using the D3 with SB-800 on, bouncing off the ceiling (which was at least white, but very low). For indoors the lighting set up is obviously key, and I'm about to emabark on the strobist journey and get another couple of SB 600's for some off camera lighting fun, so that may be the way forward.
**EDIT - thought I'd add some pics to help illustrate ***
1. This is one I'm pleased with. Outdoors, great backdrop, with a pretty good formation of people
2. This is the one from yesterday. Indoors, bad light, fairly cluttered cramped location
I've got a fairly regular corporate gig now that involves doing group shots of around 20 or so people for a Business school. As thread title, these are always 'on location' ie not in a studio or anything like that. I don't particularly enjoy doing group 'line up' shots like this as such, but it pays some bills.
I normally take them outside whenever possible which has worked out ok in the past, but when the weather is bad (like today was) we had no option but to do them inside at the venue. And there wasn't anywhere decent to fit 20 people without it being horribly cluttered in the background, awful light etc etc.
I think the thing I struggle most with is trying to arrange the group in a decent line up, in often poor surroundings with very limited time (I had 5 minutes tops today for example). People also seem to lose their brains a bit when they get en mass.
I guess what I'm asking (will get there in the end ) is what top tips you have for arranging a group of this size indoors when the environment is a bit lacking and you only have 5 minutes or so, and how do you make the most of a bad room/ venue? How do you make them stand/ sit. We didn't even have any chairs today, so I had to do 2 rows, the front row crouched like an 80's footy team shot.
It all looks a bit messy though to be honest, and I'm not happy. Gear wise I was using the D3 with SB-800 on, bouncing off the ceiling (which was at least white, but very low). For indoors the lighting set up is obviously key, and I'm about to emabark on the strobist journey and get another couple of SB 600's for some off camera lighting fun, so that may be the way forward.
**EDIT - thought I'd add some pics to help illustrate ***
1. This is one I'm pleased with. Outdoors, great backdrop, with a pretty good formation of people
2. This is the one from yesterday. Indoors, bad light, fairly cluttered cramped location
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