Lowlight Group Photography w/o flash

[treeshadow]

Hi everyone,

I am a beginner in DSLR photography and I need some advice on shooting group photos (about 20 people) under dim light such as the soft light often available in restaurants/hotel lobbies.

I am currently using a Canon T1i and only have a Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens, no external flash unit (neither do I know how to use one, just yet). So far, I understand that I would need to set my aperture to 2.8 for low light shots w/o flash. But considering that I will be shooting large group photos, some people are bound to be out of focus due to the shallow DOF, is that correct? How would I then ensure that everyone is in focus, even with different distances from my camera?

Would an external flash help a lot in my situation (lens and setting)? If it would, I might consider renting a flash just for that night, but I would have no time in practicing with it beforehand =X

Please advise! Thank you!

[scootermcq]

You will really need light. If you shoot wide at 18mm, you will get a decent DOF even at 2.8, but the image will be soft from shooting wide open and noisy from the ISO levels.

I am attaching two images. First one is lit by a single on camera speedlight. The second is lit by two monolights. It goes a long way to show what additional light will do to a group photo.





In the second image, both 160 w/s strobes are firing at full power into umbrellas and the ISO is set to 400..... aperture is f4, so ya really need light.

[zona5101]

Scott is right on. If you had to shoot without additional light you will need a tripod and everybody will have to hold real still like in a Mathew Brady shot...