Photo2Q3.3: Group Portrait Practice

I've never been the type of photographer to take group photos. Since I've stuck with using a f/1.8 50mm for a large majority of my photographic career, I didn't feel the need to expand beyond that. When practicing in class, I was working independently and to be honest, it was interesting, but skewed. I worked with all of these people in some way or know them somehow, so it was pretty easy to "talk" to all of them. We all have a shared passion for photography, so we all understood what was going on. Much of this wouldn't necessarily translate to real-world group photography. Still, it was great to have control over a situation and ask people to pose a certain way or to move here or there. It felt as if I was truly modeling people, just on a smaller scale.

 

Due to unforeseen circumstances, these are the only BTS photos we have. Perhaps the greatest difficulty was getting the proper lighting that would fit all individuals in the photo. It's a lot easier when you're photographing 1-3 people, but once that group grows, the light has to hit each face in just the right way. Having harsh shadows definitely doesn't help (this is where flash comes in to fill in those shadows, but I still dislike the harsh look of built-in flash). However, finding the location was relatively easy as we have a lot of beautiful spots on campus.

Thus, when planning for the actual group portraits for the senior homerooms, I think it'd be advantageous to A) Find locations that have beautiful settings but are balanced with lighting that's easy to work with, and to B) Not be afraid to command people and directly talk to them to get their positioning right in the photo.