group photo of 50 people

[krystlleo]

Our entire family of 50 is getting together for my granmother's 90th birthday next month. She has 4 children, 12 grandchildren and many great grand kids. We are having an out door bbq at the family farm and her wish is for a family portrait with all 50 people.

I am looking for links or photos of group shots with this many people to get some composition ideas.

From all the reading of done on this site I know our best option is to take the photo from up high and group in smaller family groups.

Would love to see some shots of what others have done!

Thank you in advance for the help.

[wulf]

Smaller group shots are a good plan, as is finding some way to get up high. Don't forget to also work out settings that give sufficient depth of field to get everyone in and take several versions of each group so that you can pick the ones where everyone looks their best.

The typical arrangement for the large group would be to put grandmother in the middle, perhaps surrounded by her immediate children and their spouses and with further generations spreading out. Another idea might be to have grandmother at the front of a line or arc, with the generations stretching away (perhaps into blurring into the distance, with a wide aperture / narrow depth of field).

Also, remember lots of candid shots as you move among the groups. Again, the important principle in deciding what to keep is picking photos where everyone looks their best, which is probably going to mean lots of shots.

Wulf