Advice on taking Family Photos

[kelsbeth]

Here’s the scenario. I’m not a professional, don’t plan to be a professional, I’m just a beginner who enjoys taking photos for fun. I currently own a Canon Rebel xsi with the standard 18-55mm stock lens and a “nifty fifty” lens. A friend of mine on a budget wants me to take some shots of her new baby and of her entire family (2 parents, 4 kids). I am pretty comfortable taking pics of ONE person (or possibly two at a time), but have not taken very many group shots. For the baby, I plan on taking shots near a window, probably using my 50mm prime. For the family, I plan on taking the shots outdoors, and the forecast will most likely be overcast/cloudy. I plan on renting a lens and I have 2 questions:

1. What lens would you recommend for the group shots? (I plan to take pics of them posed together in a park, and possibly action shots of them walking together).

2. What f-stop should I be aiming for to get a sharp shot? F-8? (As I said, I’m used to taking shots of one person at a time and I like the bokeh effect in the background, so I usually do 2.8 or something like that, which obviously will not work in a group setting)

Thanks for any input!!

P.s. – Don’t worry, I’m not accepting money for this, just doing it for fun

[zona5101]

Hi -
why do you want to rent a lens? What do you want to do that the two lenses you have can't?

For the group shots you'll probably want to use your zoom so you can quickly take different framing (tight, wide). You can calculate the needed depth of field and select the appropriate fstop or go by a more seat of the pants setting and choose something like f8 or f11. Shooting in aperture priority the camera will pick your shutter speed. Depending on how overcast it is you may have to bump up your ISO to get a fast shutter speed to avoid any blur.

[kelsbeth]

Thanks for the tips! I had thought about renting a higher quality lens, but I suppose I will just go with mine. Is there a way to get the blurry background affect with so many subjects or is that not really an option?

[SGToliver]

Expensive glass is nice but not always necessary. I use my kit lens 75% of the time. if you want to rent anything get yourself a flash unit if you dont already have one.

[zona5101]

Originally Posted by kelsbeth

Thanks for the tips! I had thought about renting a higher quality lens, but I suppose I will just go with mine. Is there a way to get the blurry background affect with so many subjects or is that not really an option?

Sure it's possible. You need to do a little more work to get there. Understanding how depth of field related to focal length and aperture is the first part. Then choosing an f-stop that gives you the minimum depth of field to render your subjects sharp and leave the balance in soft focus. So for your task you'll need to make an assumption about how "thick" front to back your group will be...assume its 2.5 feet from the front of Juniors nose to the back of dads head. Say you have to set your lens at a focal length of 45mm and you stand 10 feet away to get everybody in the frame the way you want...Using a depth of field calculator you could shoot at f4.5 and have everyone in focus. (you would need to focus at the mid point of that 2.5 feet)
Anyway a lot of mumbo jumbo but have a look at this on line depth of field calculator and it will give you a feel from what I'm trying to say...
Online Depth of Field Calculator