First group shot with more than 6 people (C/C please)

I was asked last week to take some company group shots by my boss. We had the shoot yesterday and needless to say I was a bit terrified because I had never taken "organized" group shots. Fortunately, the area is in a courtyard and there is 2nd story walkway that surrounds it. I laid flat on the 2nd story walkway a Canon 430EX and a Yonguo 565 on either side of the courtyard.

I had to take the picture with my Sigma 10-22 which is why there is a little distortion in the corners. There was a large tree directly behind the tripod and I steps down on either side of that. I also didn't organize people because I have no experience doing that. Everyone simply found a place.

The one pain was that I had the 430Ex set to auto-shutoff so if I didn't test the flashes often enough, I had to run up the stairs and wake it up.

1/160
F5.0
ISO 200
Both flashes were on full power.

I think they turned out fairly good, but I know there is always room for improvement.

Not sure if you cropped that (I'm guessing no), but you may want to try some lens correction in hopes you can keep all subjects. Next time, make sure you shoot a little further out for compensation in post. Good first try.

amonline wrote in post #13486476
Not sure if you cropped that (I'm guessing no), but you may want to try some lens correction in hopes you can keep all subjects. Next time, make sure you shoot a little further out for compensation in post. Good first try.

I did crop it. There was a small amount of open space on both ends. I was not able to move back any further.

Are you saying if I had zoomed out more, then cropped, I could avoid some of the distortion? I used Photoshop CS5's barrel distortion adjustment.

NoahKrueger wrote in post #13486491
I did crop it. There was a small amount of open space on both ends. I was not able to move back any further.

Are you saying if I had zoomed out more, then cropped, I could avoid some of the distortion? I used Photoshop CS5's barrel distortion adjustment.

Yes, that's a possibility. Sometimes, I will shoot with that in mind.

amonline wrote in post #13486610
Yes, that's a possibility. Sometimes, I will shoot with that in mind.

Thanks, I'll remember that for next time. What I probably should have done is moved back to the side of the tree and used my 28-75 2.8. For some reason I didn't think it would look as nice with everyone looking to one side.

Not a bad shot, but there is a lot of barrel distortion and softness on the edges. I think I might have been temped to shoot it at a longer focal length in 2 or 3 sections and combine in post, some stronger strobes to get you up in the f11 range would have helped but we work with what we have.

At least you got the ladies in the middle away from the distortion The men probably don't mind looking more broad. Good first attempt. It's hard without lining it out ahead of time.

the yellow in the background distracts me and edges have distortion.

rheylandsimon wrote in post #13489509
the yellow in the background distracts me and edges have distortion.

Ha, I didn't even notice that at first. Grr, now it's distracting to me.

Pretty good shot. The exposure is good and nobody is blinking.

But, to me the distortion on the edges is one of the first things that grabs my attention.