Best Camera Settings For Large Group Photos

Its the larger groups of 10 20 or 250 people that will require some varieties of wide-angles.

Best camera settings for large group photos. Generally you want shorter people in. For most large group portraits each person in the group should only slightly overlap the person next to him or her covering no more than 20-30 of the persons body. As a rule of thumb especially for new photographers one of the most imperative focus tips is that your shutter speed should be double your focal length at least.

We shoot a lot of our family portraits with a Canon 70-200 f28 at 70mm with a shutter speed somewhere between 1200 and 1400. This gives you the ability to capture a larger group without the use of rows. Arrange people in a staggered formation.

For faster shutter speed the value should be raised. 100-3200 in entry-level cameras and 100-6400 in more advanced cameras. From 30 seconds to 14000 th of a second depending on the scene.

If its a more traditional complex or large group family shot some seated several rows or layers of people its probably best to start at an aperture of 40 If youre not sure what works for you with different lenses or different amount of people get some models to do a test shoot. Try not to make the group too deep ie keep the distance between the front line of people and the back line of people as small as. Set-up your two off-camera flashes modified with the Wescott shoot through umbrellas on light stands raised to about 5-6 feet to avoid campfire lighting and to get the best light spread.

In general I consider large to be a group of seven or more. For formal group photos put taller members toward the back center of the shot with shorter people along the edges. If its getting late or if the sun is behind your group use a flash.

Kate Trent echoes her advice saying I would do the group shot first then do individual family breakdowns afterwards. When posing your group the rule you learned from having been in way too many family and school portraits applies. F18-f56 in low light or for a narrower depth of field and f8-f16 for a wider DoF.