Outdoor Portrait Shot with 2 Subjects

I am new to DSLR photography having recently upgraded from a G10 to a T4i. I will be taking some portrait shots outdoors for my son's prom and his date. It will be in the afternoon when we shoot. I have some areas of our back yard which are covered and the rest in direct sunlight. I would like to ask for sugestions about getting the best results. I have Neil van Niekerk's book about On-Camera Flash and was planning to use on camera direct flash (430exII) for fill. I do not have any other lighting equipment or modifiers. I will be shooting with the T4i and have the following lenses to choose: 18-135 STM, 40mm STM pancake, 55-250 IS II.

I ususally shoot single subjects with the center AF point on the closer eye. When you have multiple subjects, what do you focus on? I was planning to shoot with a wider aperture to isolate the subject from background, but I want to make sure that I have enough depth of field to get both subjects in sharp focus.

I am comfortable shooting in Manual mode and will adjust the flash down with FEC to provide the correct amount of fill.

I welcome any suggestions, tips, or techniques that can help improve the look of these portraits.

Thank you in advance for your help.

unless you can get the flash of the camera, get a reflector or large piece of white foam board and use that instead of the flash. turn the subjects away from the sun so they dont squint and use the reflector to bounce the light back on their faces.

shoot raw and dodge and burn to get the results you want.

Like Michael says, it's best to get the flash off camera, even if it is with just an ETTL cord. But if you don't have that, then you're limited to direct flash. and when lighting is direct and flat, the images look 2D. When the light increases in intensity across a subject, it makes it look more 3D (i.e. real). So I would not suggest direct flash unless you have no other choice.

The areas that are covered should work well, as long as the light from the sun isn't being tinted by the material, and it isn't something like a tree where the sunlight will come through in patches on the subjects.

I think the 40mm should do the trick for these. Full body shots should work at f/2.8, while head/shoulders can be stopped down a little.

Thank you Mike_311 and Frugivore for your suggestions. My T4i is capable of wireless off camera flash. Would you suggest using that dialed way down instead of the reflectors? Also, what would you recommend for the AF Point selection and where to focus? Should I use automatic AF selection or try and select a point directly on the eye of one of the subjects? Maybe with the proper apperture giving enough depth of field it will not be an issue.

djrosen wrote in post #15937928
Thank you Mike_311 and Frugivore for your suggestions. My T4i is capable of wireless off camera flash. Would you suggest using that dialed way down instead of the reflectors? Also, what would you recommend for the AF Point selection and where to focus? Should I use automatic AF selection or try and select a point directly on the eye of one of the subjects? Maybe with the proper apperture giving enough depth of field it will not be an issue.

Just getting the flash off camera does nothing to reduce the need to modify the bare flash. So the answer would be to do both. Get the flash off the camera and bounce it off a white poster board or something similar to make the light source bigger and softer. Select the focus point yourself, always always always do this. In the case of people select the focus point on the eyes. Try to keep both subjects on the same plane so that you dont have depth of field issues, but also use sufficient apertures to make sure you have some latitude in case one subject is slightly in front of the other.

my concern would be the sync speed using the wireless flash. in sunlight and wide apertures you are going to need all the shutter speed you can get and if the camera limits you to 1/200 it may not be enough. you could fare better in the shade, but you may need to close down the lens.

i wouldn't shoot a couple at a wide aperture anyway unless you were intentionally going for shallow DOF. stop down to at least f4 or 5.6.

AF point is your choice, choose the one that hopes you compose the best, i wouldn't focus and recompose at wider apertures.

Thank you for your suggestions. I will experiment a bit before hand to see what works best.

Keep your credit card and/or cash in your pocket until you get the pics you want. Teenagers, especially family, don't seem to have a lot of tolerance for big setups with softboxes, reflectors, etc. Make sure you're ready, get the shot, hand over the cash and wish them a good time

Isn't that the truth! My son already has the CC for the big night tomorrow, and I stopped at the ATM on the way home from work just in case. I have set up the camera and tripod, and charged up the batteries. I will take several practice shots tomorrow before the prime event. I was planning to use the 40mm STM pancake lens instead of the 18-135 STM. I need to work out the location and distance from camera to subject with this lens.