<wedding>Advice on group shots?

[Rodreguez]

Ok, so it's my first proper big church wedding tomorrrow in Biarrtiz, France. I'm pretty confident, but if there's one area I'm worried about, it's the group shots. Anyone have any advice? Would love to see some galleries with good and bad examples and notes if anyone knows of any.

I heard it's good to try and get up high and shoot from above....

Thanks.

[tim]

Shoot from above, on a balcony or at least up a ladder. You can use whatever you can find to climb on, but I always take a ladder and usually end up using it. Steps are good, you can arrange the group on them. Shoot big groups (ie 100+ people) at F8, use whatever ISO you need to. Put their backs to the sun else they'll squint, and use a good lens so it doesn't flare. If you use a wide lens don't put people at the very edge of the frame as they'll be distorted. Take at least three shots of each group.

That's enough to remember for your first time :)

[adblink]

backs to the sun? really? wouldn't that give them all dark, shadow filled faces?

[tim]

Nope, expose for their faces. You can do it the other way, you'd get less blown highlights on hair/heads, but you might get people squinting. You have to see how conditions are in each place, keep all the factors in mind, and make the best call you can at the time.

[nismosr]

Shoot from above, on a balcony or at least up a ladder. You can use whatever you can find to climb on, but I always take a ladder and usually end up using it. Steps are good, you can arrange the group on them. Shoot big groups (ie 100+ people) at F8, use whatever ISO you need to. Put their backs to the sun else they'll squint, and use a good lens so it doesn't flare. If you use a wide lens don't put people at the very edge of the frame as they'll be distorted. Take at least three shots of each group.

That's enough to remember for your first time :)


What about AF points ? center ?

[tim]

What about AF points ? center ?

I only use the center focus point, generally I focus on the bride and groom or sometimes the 2nd row of people.

[nismosr]

I only use the center focus point, generally I focus on the bride and groom or sometimes the 2nd row of people.

Groups of 10 or more people shoot at F8 or higher ?and center AF points right to get a sharp image of everybody in the picture ?

[tim]

Yep. F8 is fine for any size group, i've found. In theory you should aim 1/3 of the way into the group to get maximum depth of field, but I prefer the BIG to be sharp and at F8 it doesn't make much difference anyway.