8th Grade Grad Party: Setup/Composition Advice

[fon2no]

I'm writing in hope of some advice. I've taken on a project to take photos of 8th grade graduates at their end of year party. The theme is Hollywood/Stardom. Students will come into a room and have either an individual or group pic taken (i.e. Prom pics).

Looking for advice on the most efficient way to do this. The expectation is to take the photo on site, print them on color inkjets, insert into frame, & handout at the end of party.

I'm a total newbie. I prefer to shoot without flash, esp. since I haven't mastered the best use of it. I own a Canon 40D with 50mm f/1.8, 17-50mm f/2.8, & 70-200 f/3.5-6.3 lenses (hardly ever used). I was planning to rent the 85mm f/1.2 lens & maybe the 24-70 f/2.8 lens for the event.

I don't want these to be too cheesy, I'm considering props (chaise, glasses, boas, etc.), unsure of backdrop whether plain black or something. Should I setup some lighting?

I'm hoping you can shed some light on my venture to make these pictures great given the limits.

Many thanks for any advice!!

Sincerely,
Cynthia

[Swisstony10]

Hi Cynthia! Welcome to DPS..

I'd advise against making your life super-complicated with a vast array of lenses. If you're doing pretty standard set portraits in a stable and controlled environment (as you described), then I'd say you're best keeping things simple, and go with either the 50mm you already have, or the 85mm you're thinking of renting. When I have the stable and controllable conditions and room to move around to compose shots, I always prefer to stick with primes. Also, you already have the range of 17mm-200mm covered (admittedly with a slight gap between 50 and 70), so why shell out extra cash on another lens that overlaps the coverage you already have?

I'd definitely go with a plain background - probably a white paper roll, and I love your idea of getting hold of a chaise-longue, you might want to consider some kind of simple leafy plant on a pedestal, just to keep the set from looking a little too stark (a simple chaise-longue in front of a plain white background would perhaps look a bit too much like a chaise-longue stuck in front of a white background, if you know what I mean).

If you're a "newbie", and not used to this kind of work, then the key thing is to keep your life simple, certainly in terms of kit - otherwise you'll spend most of your time deciding whether you're using the right lens, or changing lenses constantly, instead of taking pictures. I can't really comment on the lights - I'd use studio flash, but that's because it's how I'm used to controlling my environment. If you're going to shoot with available light, then check out the room first to see if it'll be bright enough - if there's a chance you'll be shooting small groups of people, then you're less likely to be able to shoot with the lens wide open, you'll be needing to stop down to maybe f8, which could either mean a higher ISO than will give nice results, or shutter speeds too slow to do the job, in which case you'll be needing to get some extra light in there.

And if you're shooting and printing on the night, you'll have zero time for any post processing, so you'll be best off setting a custom white balance in the camera before you start, so everything comes out the right colour. Not sure how that works on the 40D, but I'm guessing it's similar to the rest of the Canon range - take a properly exposed picture of a white or (preferably) 18%-grey card (readily available from most good camera kit suppliers) and then use the camera's setup menus to select that as its custom white balance.

Most importantly of all - enjoy it!

Russ.