Photographing friends

[misstoriemma]

Hey everyone
I am planning a photo shoot of all my friends as its like the end of school and they all want a big photo shoot doing. I need some hints and tips on what shots to do, what settings to use etc.
I am only a young photographer so dont quite know everything there is to know about the area.
And how do you keep people occupied in between shoots?? I think its going to be rather difficult keeping 12 friends occupied while I do single shots of everyone and get the shot right.
I would be grateful for any hints and tips! Thanks!

[windrider86]

Well, are you planning on photographing them indoors or outdoors? What time of day do you plan on doing your shoot? Have you given them ideas for clothing (as in to all wear something that compliments each other?) There are a lot of variables here and impossible to give you a good answer.

My best suggestion is go to the place you are planning on doing the shoot the day before. Go at the same time you are planning your shoot and do some practice shots beforehand.

As far as keeping all the others occupied, I'm pretty much guessing they will do that job for you

[misstoriemma]

Im planning on shooting them outdoors.
Im going to get them to wear floral tops for one shoot, White tops for another and probably like jeans on there bottom half.
I will get them not to wear much make up so the shots look natural.
It will probably take place most of the day.

Any tips?? Thanks xx

[windrider86]

I'd say nix on the floral tops. Keep it simple.With busy tops it makes the photo too busy and can look sloppy. It shouldn't take all day to photograph 12 people. Try and do it either early in the morning or late afternoon when the sun is going down.
The lighting will be softer then. If you must do it mid day, try and use the shade to keep the harsh light from blowing everything out and use a fill flash to keep the faces from being too dark

[BigFuzzy]

Not to toot my own horn, but that's pretty much what I did on my 50mm project. I invited friends over and they also brought some people I didn't know.
I have a huuge terrace on my place (100m squared) so I had lots of space to work with.
The thing I did was lay out some snacks and drinks so that they could entertain themselves while I was busy with a subject. They'd all sit around chatting and eating (or playing my Wii) while waiting.

Luckily we're all adults so I provided some alcohol which always helps people relax a bit.

I think, since you're new, you may want to consider something similar to my project. The reason I say this is that it was very very simple in terms of settings.
I used my 50mm 1.8 lens on my canon which is a 100$ lens. I set it on 1.8 for the entirety of the shoot which allowed me to focus on placing the subjects (in relation to the light), composition, and interaction.

Simply chat with them throughout the shoot so that they're relaxed. yeah, you'll get some funny/ugly shots of them as they are talking, but they'll also be relaxed and you may get some nice expressions.

What also always helps me, every once in a while, when you know you have a good shot, show it to them so they feel comfy that you're not making them look ugly.. but don't go too far showing them all the shots, you'll lose the flow/rhythm.

Plus, in situations like my shoot above, I was using natural light and occasionally I used a reflector, which with friends there is easy as they can hold it for you.

Good luck, and post some results!

[BigFuzzy]

I agree with windrider.. simple=better in my opinion.

Also, check out michellemoore.com, she's awesome at senior portraits in natural light...

[misstoriemma]

Thank you! So helpful.
Yeah I will no doubt be posting some results or at least put them on my flickr and send you the link to that!
Amazing tips. And we are doing it on the 14th August so you may have to wait for the results!
Thanks again! xx