Setting up camera for family photo

[ginger71]

Help! I have a Canon 7D and I'm taking a outdoor photo of a family of 6 tomorrow. I have so many questions:
How do I set my focus points for a group photo?
What lens to use?
Do you use a reflector for such a large group?
Av, Tv or Manual? What do you commonly use?
What do you normally set your ISO at in shade?
I'm quite familiar with the camera, but I always have questions. I hope someone can help. Thank you!

[zona5101]

Originally Posted by ginger71

Help! I have a Canon 7D and I'm taking a outdoor photo of a family of 6 tomorrow. I have so many questions:
How do I set my focus points for a group photo?

Depends on how they are positioned...but if relatively on the same plane, focus on the center person's eyes and let your depth of field ensure the balance are in focus.

What lens to use?

What do you have? One that lets you get everyone in the shot.

Do you use a reflector for such a large group?

Probably not. The standard 50" or 60" ones typically have a smallish beam.

Av, Tv or Manual? What do you commonly use?

probably manual to maintain your depth of field & shutter and not have any changes in surrounding light influence your exposure. Go up to one person in the group and meter off of the face/skin. Note the fstop and shutter. Add an additional stop of exposure. Determine if the fstop will give you adequate depth of field. If not adjust fstop and corresponding shutter speed. If the shutter is too low with that fstop then increase ISO until you get a shutter speed you can hand hold. Set those settings in your camera in manual. Now when you move back to your shooting position the ambient light won't change your settings.

What do you normally set your ISO at in shade?

You will determine this by knowing what shutter & aperture you want

[ginger71]

Originally Posted by zona5101

Depends on how they are positioned...but if relatively on the same plane, focus on the center person's eyes and let your depth of field ensure the balance are in focus.


What do you have? One that lets you get everyone in the shot.


Probably not. The standard 50" or 60" ones typically have a smallish beam.


probably manual to maintain your depth of field & shutter and not have any changes in surrounding light influence your exposure. Go up to one person in the group and meter off of the face/skin. Note the fstop and shutter. Add an additional stop of exposure. Determine if the fstop will give you adequate depth of field. If not adjust fstop and corresponding shutter speed. If the shutter is too low with that fstop then increase ISO until you get a shutter speed you can hand hold. Set those settings in your camera in manual. Now when you move back to your shooting position the ambient light won't change your settings.


You will determine this by knowing what shutter & aperture you want

Thank you for all of your information. Bear with me, but I don't know how to "meter off". Can I do this with my built-in meter in the camera or are you talking about a separate light meter? (I don't have a separate light meter). If I can do this with my camera, how do I do this? I feel dumb asking, but I guess I'm at the right site to do so. Thank you so much!

[zona5101]

no problem, some place along the road I had to ask the same question...

"meter off", "take a meter reading"...with your camera. (you could use a separate meter but I assumed you didn't have one).

basically you go up to the subject, fill all or most of the frame with the face...push your shutter 1/2 down and note what the camera is telling you for aperture and shutter speed.
If you're in program mode, the camera is going to tell you both. If you are in Av mode then you know the aperture (because you set it) and your camera is telling you the shutter. Tv mode reverses that. Still need to know both numbers because the light that was falling on the face close up during the meter reading will be different than the light striking the camera when you get into shooting position.

Basically what we are doing is trying to isolate the light that is falling on the face from all the other light. We want to get the exposure right for the most important part of the image, the people's faces.

I also wrote to add a stop of light...this is because the camera meter sees the world as medium gray. It calculates exposure as if everything was gray and of course it is not...so we add a stop of light to make the skin tones brighter than gray.

In situations where you can't get up close to meter you can compensate by using your exposure compensation dial or manually adjusting your exposure based on your view of the surrounding light versus the light you believe is falling on the face. Examples a person standing in a field of snow or a person spotlighted on stage. In both cases you can understand the light on their faces is probably different than the remaining light in the scene so we have to override what the meter is telling us. [We have to be smarter than our cameras ]

You can also use spot metering if your camera has that feature, it chooses a narrower selection of the frame in which to calculate the exposure. This would be an alternative to filling the frame with the face technique.

[Mulski]

^^^ Superb! Thank you, I've learnt something really useful today. Great explanation in 'plain English'

Cheers

[autofocus]

Bruce has already answered your questions quite well above. To add a few more suggestions to what he's already said. What you want to consider is the best location for the shot relative to the light, and also the arrangement setup of the group. All standing in a line rarely looks good. How you arrange them will be up to you as to what works best for this particular group.

How do I set my focus points for a group photo?

I would use a single focus point that falls on the face/eyes of the center person nearest the camera. Camera should be set to One Shot setting

What lens to use?

too many variables to answer this question intelligently, however, your 18-55, if you have it, would probably be a good option

Do you use a reflector for such a large group?

rarely, a little too large a group to get well balanced light with a reflector. Do you have a speedlight?

Av, Tv or Manual? What do you commonly use?

Manual, and depending on how they are grouped I would suggest nothing wider than f/5.6 to maximize your DOF focus.

What do you normally set your ISO at in shade?

really depends on the light conditions as noted by Bruce above. The lower the better if your light conditions allow

[ginger71]

Originally Posted by autofocus

Bruce has already answered your questions quite well above. To add a few more suggestions to what he's already said. What you want to consider is the best location for the shot relative to the light, and also the arrangement setup of the group. All standing in a line rarely looks good. How you arrange them will be up to you as to what works best for this particular group.
I would use a single focus point that falls on the face/eyes of the center person nearest the camera. Camera should be set to One Shot setting

too many variables to answer this question intelligently, however, your 18-55, if you have it, would probably be a good option
rarely, a little too large a group to get well balanced light with a reflector. Do you have a speedlight?
Manual, and depending on how they are grouped I would suggest nothing wider than f/5.6 to maximize your DOF focus.
really depends on the light conditions as noted by Bruce above. The lower the better if your light conditions allow

Thank you! Your information is very appreciated.