youth team photos

[seaspray]

I was just approached to take some 5-6 year old individual and team photos. I'm shooting with a 20d and my bracket and new 580ex should be arriving tomarrow. I have a little time to play with it but no since in reiventing the wheel if I don't have too. I have the 17-85 is usm lense which came with the camera and also a 50 f1.4 usm. My question is which lens and what f setting would give the sharpest image? Also along with the flash i've ordered a diffuser. Thanks

[KevC]

50mm f/1.4
Shoot at f/5.6 or narrower. Lenses are beautifully sharp stopped down 3 stops from wide open.
With your flash you might as well do f/8 or f/11 @ 1/125. But then again, that's what I've heard you're supposed to do with a flash. I don't personally have one.

[seaspray]

Thanks. That will give a me starting point. I've have a week before the photos are to be taken so I'll play with it this week.

[WestFalcon]

Seaspray, I do these frequently. Your 17-85 will work fine. You didn't say inside or out did you? If you are outside, line them up from tallest to shortest first. Lets say there are 12. Count from the shortest back to the 5th and 6th person. they are in the middle in the front row on two knees. The 3rd and 4th person from the short end are on each side of the first two. the two shortest are at the ends of the first row. The two tallest are standing behind the two center people etc....Coaches may stand behind row 2 since the kids are short at this age. I usually try to put the group in a shaded area...never in bright sun unless you have to. I shoot manual at F8 and 60th -125th of a second at asa 200-400. Check your histogram and adjust F stops or ASA till u get a good histogram. Never shoot below f5.6...too shallow of depth of field. Now do individuals. U can use a similar f stop and shutter speed. Keep um in the shade with simple backgrounds. Once you get it down, they are pretty easy.

[pdrow]

Have you thought of how you are printing them? Several of the labs have a way to process them in batches, They provide a simple software that you set up with templates and then you can do custom cropping or they will crop. They also package them with the group photo. They also provide a way to make the ever poular trading cards. I did this with a banquet I shop (we skipped the trading cards) and it was very simple. It was also much cheaper than processing them regualrly. It also saved a lot of time over cropping and resaving, etc in photoshop.
Pam