advice on 40 person group shot

[pittbug]

I need to do a 40ish person group shot located in a city hall. Rather than rely on ambient light, I want to try out some of my strobist gear and see how far I can stretch it.

I have 2 lumopro LP160s, with 43" reflector umbrellas, a Nikon SB28 and 48" circular reflector.

I was thinking of trying the LP160s each side with umbrellas to start with, then if I get too much fall off in the middle, I was thinking of augmenting it by using the SB28 behind the camera bouncing off the (silver) reflector. Hopefully I can set it up so that all three light sources are somewhat equidistant from the front of the group.

Do you think I would have enough power?

[scootermcq]

Yup.... I have shot groups that size with 2 160 w/s strobes. One on each side of the camera high as you can go to avoid glare on the glasses and on about a 45 degree angle down. Don't try to angle them from each side. Too much of a pain to try not to have shadows falling on peoples faces. This is not art, just a nice group photo, well lit. If you go high, the shadows are down behind them and the glasses don't catch too much glare.

[cleamon]

Originally Posted by pittbug

I need to do a 40ish person group shot located in a city hall. Rather than rely on ambient light, I want to try out some of my strobist gear and see how far I can stretch it.

I have 2 lumopro LP160s, with 43" reflector umbrellas, a Nikon SB28 and 48" circular reflector.

I was thinking of trying the LP160s each side with umbrellas to start with, then if I get too much fall off in the middle, I was thinking of augmenting it by using the SB28 behind the camera bouncing off the (silver) reflector. Hopefully I can set it up so that all three light sources are somewhat equidistant from the front of the group.

Do you think I would have enough power?

Can't speak to the lighting question, but (and assuming your using a dslr) I just learned a valuable lesson at my niece's wedding - which is, leave room on the sides of the frame for later cropping down to 8x10. Whole frame works out to 8x12, so you can see how much you're going to lose. Moral of my lesson - shoot wide and crop later.

[pittbug]

Thanks for the tips guys, I really appreciate it. The photo is going to be printed on a trading card, so I'll definitely shoot wide and will probably crop it. I saw an example of one of the trading cards last night and it's only 3 inches wide! So shadows and details probably aren't going to be an issue, since each face will be so small.

[Photologyst]

Take a bunch so that if one or two close their eyes, look elsewhere, yawn, look weird or whatever, you can PS process the better expression.

Good luck!

[SusanH1970]

One more tip that works well for large groups - as you get ready to shoot, tell them all to close their eyes, and at the count of three, to open them and look at the camera. Not so much of a chance of getting closed eyes and everyone will be ready at the same time.