Photography is a line of work that often deals with the crowd. Whether you are an amateur, casual, or professional photographer, people will eventually call you to capture more than one person at a time.
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Festive seasons and holidays are fast approaching, and you are most likely to be hired or asked to photograph large groups. There would be a lot of family reunions and events involving more than ten individuals.
Street, wildlife, school, and wedding photographers are familiar with capturing a large group of animals or people. Unlike the former set, the product or family and kids photographers are used to photograph less than five persons or objects at a time.
However, over the past few years, as a photographer, for one reason or the other, I have been asked and hired to capture an increasing number of large people, especially at weddings and carnivals. I have also photographed a gigantic group of school children and family members in various locations.
Portrait photography aims at capturing the personality, character, and emotions. It can either be candid or artistic. Portrait photography requires more than just the ability to understand your camera settings, lighting, and composition.
You must also possess the ability to connect with your subjects and capture their unique qualities. So, it is a difficult but rewarding genre of photography.
Click Below to read a comprehensive guide to learning and mastering the art of portrait photography.
Therefore, I’d like to share some of my lessons in this article, including my errors and how I avoided them. You will also learn the best camera settings and expert tips to photograph a large group successfully.
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Quick Expert And Best Camera Setting To Photograph A Large Group
For Outdoor Shooting During The Day
- ISO – 100 to 200
- Aperture – f/16
- Shutter speed – 1/100th to 1/125th of a second
- Focus mode – Manual
- File Format – Raw
- White balance – Daylight
For Indoor/Outdoor Shooting At Night
- ISO – 200 to 400
- Aperture – f/11 – f/16
- Shutter speed – 30 to 60 seconds
- Focus mode – manual
- White balance – Auto
Note: These quick settings are dependent on your environment and lighting conditions. However, the options are a good starting point for any location.
Note: Although these tools are essential, some can be substituted. Instead of a flashlight, you can use natural light when shooting during the day. Aside from this, other equipment can not be substituted.
Expert Tips For Large Group Photography
1. Choose A Good Location
Sometimes, your clients might not give you the luxury or opportunity to select the most suitable locations or backgrounds for the shootouts. However, if you are given the luxury of choosing a fitting outdoor location, ensure to pick natural environments like parks, beaches, and gardens.
Things To Lookout For In A Location
- Open Spaces
There should be enough space to accommodate all the people you want to photograph. And also, enough space to set up your lighting and other equipment like the tripod.
- Clean Backgrounds
The backgrounds should be clean, sharp, and clear for the pictures.
- Simplicity
Austere locations with natural elements like trees and flowers add unique feelings to a large group picture.
Aside from natural environments such as parks, gardens, and beaches, you can also use old churches or farm buildings.
Quick Tip: Large group photos are taken for the sake of memories. You can add more depth and creativity to the pictures by asking your clients their favorite childhood playgrounds or locations.
In an indoor shooting situation, look out for well-lighted corners in the space allocated to you by the clients. These images below illustrate the importance of natural, open spaces and no-frills locations for large group photographs.
These images below also reveal the beauty of using a well-lighted room or corner for indoor large group photographs.
2. Have Adequate Light Sources
Light is vital in any form of photography, be it portrait or landscape, single or group shots. So, if you can decide the shooting time, opt for early morning or evening when the sunlight light is soft and warm.
However, if the shooting session is during the midday when the sunlight is high and harsh, avoid shadows by shooting in open spaces like under a large tree or building.
In an indoor situation, you are in control of the lighting conditions. Ensure you set up your godox softbox or lighting equipment in an actual location.
Generally, ensure the light falls evenly on every individual in the group. This will prevent glares, sun patches, or reflections on the images.
Bonus Tip: You can add chasm to the outdoor photos by allowing sun flare or lens flare effects in the images. Learn more about What is sun flare photography? How to capture best shots? or How to get lens flare effect? And how to avoid it?
3. Use A Sturdy Tripod
A tripod helps you avoid more than camera shakes and blurry images when photographing a large group. It also allows taking quick shots from different angles while maintaining your position and postures.
4. Use A graduated Surface
Photographers often face the challenge of balancing the heights of their subjects in large or group photographs. Some individuals will be taller or shorter than others. As a photographer, you are responsible for producing a balanced picture by revealing every face in the printed photos.
One of the easiest ways to remedy the issue of individual heights in your photographs is by using a graduated surface. You can use a tree branch, a playing slide, or chairs and sofas.
5. Use An Excellent Focal Length
The focal length of your lens will affect the size of your group. You can use this to your advantage by zooming in on the people who look best, or if you want to fit more people in the picture, zoom out.
6. You Will Need Help
You may need more than one person to help with framing and posing for each person in the photo. This will ensure that everyone looks at the camera and has a good expression on their face.
7. Use A Longer Lens To Create Emotion And Depth
If you want to get a more interesting pose, you can use a longer lens to create more tension or emotion in your photos.
The best camera lens for large group photos is 50mm. This lens is perfect for capturing faces in a group. The lens can allow zooming out to encompass everyone without getting too close to anyone.
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Start Capturing A Large Group Like A Professional Photographer
Having learned the best quick camera settings and expert tips for large group photography, here is a step-by-step guide on how you can start shooting like a professional photographer.
1. Plan The Shooting
It is essential to plan your shooting ahead of time. Pre-study your shooting location, time, and the equipment most suitable for the nature of photography your clients want. It is also paramount to consider the size and nature of the event.
What sort of events are you going to cover? Is it family reunions and gatherings? Or birthdays? or weddings? or burials? or carnivals? What is the size of the group?
Proper planning and preparations are the first steps to capturing good group pictures. So, ensure to plan and understand the nature of the events. You wouldn’t want to appear moody at a wedding event or merrily at a burial occasion.
2. Communicate With Your Client
You have to understand what your client wants in the photographs. Some people only take large or family pictures for the purpose of framing. In contrast, others might want to add the images to their albums for future reference.
Clear communications with your clients will help you know how to optimize your camera settings and the right background to choose for the shooting.
3. Rightly Optimize Your Camera Settings And Other Equipment
After clear communication and understanding with your clients, set up your tripod and lighting gadgets, mount and adjust your camera settings, and prepare to capture the moment beyond imagination.
Bonus Tip: Do not forget to set up your lighting gadgets in an even position to prevent sun patches and glares on the photographs. And do not forget to start with the quick camera settings mentioned earlier.
4. Capture Images From Different Angles With Different Aperture
You are at liberty to capture images from different angles, experimenting with your aperture, focal length, and white balance.
Quick Tip: Do not forget to do some test shots!
5. Edit The Images
Ensure the pictures go through post-processing software like Photoshop or Lightroom before delivering them to your client. This will allow you to balance the colors and add some effects (fake lens flare) to the pictures.
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How To Photograph A large Group At A Concert?
Capturing a large group at a concert can be difficult. You have to optimize your camera ISO, shutter speed, and aperture to outsmart the artificial lighting conditions and fast movements of people.
Most concert locations are usually dark. So, you have to use a higher ISO, fast shutter speed, and lower aperture for the shooting. You will also need prime or fixed focal lengths to get enough light into your camera. Here is how you can capture a large group picture at any concert.
- Look for an elevated ground – this will give up an advantage in capturing the crowd from afar.
- Set up your camera on a tripod or use the self-timer function.
- To avoid blurry photos, use an aperture setting of F/8 or higher and ensure that you have plenty of light in the venue.
- Use a wide-angle lens and take as many photos as possible from different angles to capture all the people in your group in one picture.
- Make sure that you are close to your subjects to fill up more of the frame and avoid having them too far away so that they don’t look like tiny dots on your camera’s sensor.
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What Are The Best Camera Settings I can Use For Concert Photography?
Best and Quick Camera Settings To Photograph Large Groups At A concert
- Set your ISO between 1600 to 3200 or higher.
- Use a low aperture like f/1.8.
- Set your shutter speed between 1/100th to 1/200th of a second or faster.
- Use continuous autofocus mode.
- Shoot in burst mode if you are new to concert photography.
- Turn on the auto white balance feature.
People Also Ask
What Are The Best Lens For Large Family Portrait Photos?
If you are to photograph a big family, a 35-85mm lens will give you the wide angle you need to cover every individual in the frame. However, the most suitable camera lens for large family portraits with a couple of subjects is the 85mm lens. This gives you the chance to capture sharp images without zooming or standing too close.
Posing Large Groups For Portraits?
5 Ways You Can Arrange A Large Group For Portrait Pictures
- Have them line up.
- Put the tallest ones at the back.
- Put the kids at the front.
- Use the head-to-toe shot method. This means having your subjects face the camera from left to right, pointing their feet in the same direction as their heads and toes.
- Overlap the subjects.
Bonus Tip: If you have a lot of people in the group, it may be difficult for everyone to fit into one frame without cutting off someone’s head or making someone’s feet look tiny at the bottom of the frame. In this case, try taking two pictures – one with all of your subjects on one side of the frame and another with all of them on the other side to be on the same page.
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