Group Photo for 400 people

[tomphotofx]

Hi Folks

I've been asked to shot a group photo outside a building during daylight hours of 400 people. The end result must be one large print approx 2metres x 1metre plus 400 12 x 8 prints. Never done this before got a 10mm - 20mm lens tripod etc and step ladder plus E3, thought about a panoramic stitching maybe between 5 and 9 shots together merging them in Photoshop CS5 shooting Raw then resize using OnOne Resize 7 to upscale to the 2m x 1m print approx 1GB in size.
Any advice would be appreciated.

Regards
Tom

[RogerMac]

Re: Group Photo for 400 people

Only advice I have is start practising ASAP - you can do the practise without the crowd.

Roger

[theMusicMan]

Re: Group Photo for 400 people

I once did a shot of an entire rugby club, with all teams of all ages in the shot. It took some organising, and the management of the club did most of that, all under my direction. I think we had around 300 people in the shot - managed to get them in easily with the Oly 11-22mm - though I was standing on ground a fair bit higher than everyone.

[StephenL]

Re: Group Photo for 400 people

Just be aware of the difficulties of stitching when using wide-angle lenses. Because of the distortion it's difficult to get straight edges.

[tomphotofx]

Re: Group Photo for 400 people

Hi Folks

Thanks Roger, I'm going to try some practice shots over the weekend hopefully got access to a flat bed truck so should be able to shoot from an elevated position.

Thanks John, when you did your shot of the Rugby club did you have some sitting and standing and also how many rows deep did you go? All advice is greatly appreciated.

Regards

Tom

[sapper]

Re: Group Photo for 400 people

Hi Folks

I've been asked to shot a group photo outside a building during daylight hours of 400 people. The end result must be one large print approx 2metres x 1metre plus 400 12 x 8 prints. Never done this before got a 10mm - 20mm lens tripod etc and step ladder plus E3, thought about a panoramic stitching maybe between 5 and 9 shots together merging them in Photoshop CS5 shooting Raw then resize using OnOne Resize 7 to upscale to the 2m x 1m print approx 1GB in size.
Any advice would be appreciated.

Regards
Tom

Beg or borrow a 6x7 medium format camera and a stepladder.
I am not sure I would be confident enough to shoot such a large group on an oly sensor.

[snaarman]

Re: Group Photo for 400 people

Beware: People near the edge of wide angle lenses end up looking very fat (!) You might be better using a longer lens from further away, or three shots stitched together. Hmm. This sounds like a real challenge

[mcwill]

Re: Group Photo for 400 people

Just a thought, but would stitching work that well on a crowd where there will be a certain amount of fidgeting/movement in the people at the edge of the respective frames?

[Bikie John]

Re: Group Photo for 400 people

You're a brave man Tom! A request like that would give me nightmares.

With that many bodies, you will need several rows. I've found when doing group shots that people want to spread out very long and thin - trying to get 15 rugby players into three lines rather than two is almost impossible! They also try and stand too far apart, particularly at the edges (where the shy ones gravitate towards). With several rows you will either need to point down at them, or get some sort of stepped arrangement for them to stand on.

When I was at big school there were about 600 of us. Every three years we had the whole school photo, which was a major exercise. We sat/stood in a big semicircle in the playground, about 5 or 6 deep on benches and chairs if memory serves. The photog used a specialised camera which was at the centre of the semicircle and swivelled, it must have done it on a single neg as I never saw any joins. There was usually at least one joker who was in both ends of the shot as he could run round faster than the camera. This is serous stuff needing very specialised kit, so probably best not undertaken lightly. Could be worth contacting any school photographers (or schools) in your area to find out how they do it.

And at risk of pointing out the obvious - remember that the apsect ratio of a 2 by 1 metre pano and a 12 by 8 print are different. You will have to shoot for the big one but include a bt of fore-and-aft for the smaller prints.

Good luck, all available digits crossed for you here. Please let us know how you do it and how it goes.

Cheers ... John

[Guest]

Re: Group Photo for 400 people

Just to add to comments on people's movements when stitching - they will never be still enough! I've used Panorama Factory and kept the resulting PSD image in layers and then removed some of the ghosting in PS. Next time I'll use something to focus their attention on better because when people don't think they are in the shot they move - and they're often the ones on the edges of two shots and the most difficult to deal with. As someone else has said, avoid the wide angle lenses if stitching as the distortion will be worse.
I've also rather stupidly tried to take stitched shots from too wide an angle with the result that the people on the sides are heavily distorted. I had a wall behind me and couldn't move back any more and it was too difficult to move the crowd - so I hoped for the best (and lost).

I really try to get high above and look down as this allows for a much deeper group, reduces people hiding and makes for a single shot - balconies, galleries etc work well and stepladder at a push - consider clamping a tripod head onto the bar of the stepladder if it's stable and high enough (get some extra people to help stabilise). You do need to keep your end-size in mind throughout though - mark your edges with cones or rope or something in advance - but be sure to remove at the last minute or spend ages...
Unfortunately, it's hard to practise effectively enough unless you have a decent group of people to help you and can work out how much space you'll need. Of course, the weather can either work for you or not!
At the end of the day, I've been pleasantly surprised at how good the printed image looks - and people viewing the photo are much less critical of the photo quality than the photographer and much more intent on who's there and their expressions.

Good luck!
Doug

[Daveart]

Re: Group Photo for 400 people

Hi if you are thinking of stitching images together I would use three E3's side by side pre focused and put into manual and using three shutter release cables and take the shot at the same time, this should enable stitching with min or no movement issues for stitching together after woulds.

ps same focal length lens on all three obviously.

Dave

[sapper]

Re: Group Photo for 400 people

You could use a shift lens, I have heard that it is a good way for panos.
I have one if you wish to borrow it, 35mm OM fit.

[tomphotofx]

Re: Group Photo for 400 people

Thanks for the offer of the lens will get back to you on that.

Did a few practice panos in the garden a few weeks back this was the best of the bunch from a 9 image stitch up

[Naughty Nigel]

Re: Group Photo for 400 people

I remember having whole school photographs taken (around 650 of us plus staff), where a special panoramic camera would be used. I think the film must have been loaded onto a drum, and the lens rotated around it. The whole photograph took about three or four seconds if I recall. Does anyone still use these cameras I wonder?

Failing that, I would second the advice of borrowing a medium format film camera. Sticthing together wide angle images from a DSLR is likely to result in too much distortion, and as others have said, movement of people between shots will cause blurring.

NN

[sapper]

Re: Group Photo for 400 people

I remember having whole school photographs taken (around 650 of us plus staff), where a special panoramic camera would be used. I think the film must have been loaded onto a drum, and the lens rotated around it. The whole photograph took about three or four seconds if I recall. Does anyone still use these cameras I wonder?

Failing that, I would second the advice of borrowing a medium format film camera. Sticthing together wide angle images from a DSLR is likely to result in too much distortion, and as others have said, movement of people between shots will cause blurring.

NN

I used to do large groups in a previous life and would swear by the quality of 6x7 negs.
I have done a large shool group, indoors, using the E3 but not really happy with the results, wouldn't do it again.
I was caught on the hop, went to cover a visit and asked to photograph the whole school with visitors in the school hall.
Around 150 folk if I remember correctly.