shooting a graduation ceremony. need some tips

Hi All

I'm shooting a graduation ceremony tomorrow and I will.mainly focus around pictures of friends and family after the ceremony.

Likely to be in a park with loads of ambient light. Let's hope it doesn't rain. I would like to achieve the following with the kit that I have, by the way i now have a 55-200 canon lens.

I will like to take group photos and would want to have everyone in focus and sharp
There will be some.portraits so I will use the 1.8 50 mm lens.
How can I shoot a group of people and still have a shallow DOF and subjects in focus.
In sunlight, do I still need the flash.
When shooting manual, -what kind of setting should I see aiming for either using the 17-50 F 2.8 ?


Looking forward to hearing from you

In my experience with outdoor people shooting, f/5.6 is a good "general use" aperture. With good light you can keep a low ISO and a reasonably fast shutter speed. If the subjects are shadowed, use a flash for "fill", and you then have plenty of latitude for your shutter speed!

Thanks for the reply.
If using a 50-200 , and zoom is used will I not get a sha low dof ?

platforminc wrote in post #17062373
Thanks for the reply.
If using a 50-200 , and zoom is used will I not get a sha low dof ?

You could, but if you zoomed in to 200mm you would have to be REALLY FAR away from your group to get them all in the frame.

Usually with groups you're better option than trying to control DOF is to find a suitable spot with a non distracting background (or at least a nice background) and shoot at f/8. The more you stop your lens down (a bigger f number, i.e, f/8, f/11, etc.), the more likely that everyone in the group will be in focus. You may get away with f/5.6 but your focal length and distance from the group will play a factor in your depth of field and in whether everyone in the group is in focus. This is of course assuming a large group of people.

Oh, and yes you may still need a flash in direct sunlight to fill in the shadows that will be caused by the hard light. If you can get them in to the shade you'll be better off, and you probably won't need a flash. This will also help you use a larger aperature, like f/4, and get a shallower depth of field that you're after.