Group photo of 1000+ people

[slgreen10]

I will be shooting a photograph of upwards of 1000 people outside and am looking for any composition advise or any other advise that might be helpful.

[BigFuzzy]

#1 thing.. lots and lots of light that hits everyone.

What flashes do you have? Notice I say 'flashes' because I think you'll need lots of fill light.
Heard of strobist? Lots of info on his site about lighting assignments like this.. will try to follow up if I can www.strobist.com

Don't put them in a situation where there is lots of harsh light hitting them.. you'll have pretty much everyone with shaded eyes and harsh shadows on their faces.

Do it as early or late as possible to take advantage of the light.

Shoot from a higher position so that you're looking down a bit on everyone which means they're looking up at you and you're more likely to see all their faces.


Pray to the gods of photography.

Good luck!

[slgreen10]

Hi BigFuzzy:
Thanks for your reply.

I only have a promaster 7500EDF flash (I'm sure I need to give you more info about my flash; what do you need?). I will be shooting around 4:30-5pm(Eastern time) and will be shooting from up high

I have not heard of the strobist site but will definately check it out.

Thanks again for the info.

[candleman]

you will need .....a hellovalot.. of flashes dont bother even thinking about it


if i were you, i'd get as high as you can above them, get them to look up, and then the prettymuch any lighting will be OK (old wedding photographers trick)

.......................................good luck

[slgreen10]

Hi everyone: Thanks for all of your comments. We did the shoot and as it turned out, we only had about 150-200 people but it turned out great. We were able to shoot from above the crowd and had lots of natural light.