Promotional shot for bands...

Ok, I need help I will be shooting the promotional shots for my husband's band this weekend, and I'm stressing. I have a Canon Rebel Xti and I'm not that familiar with manual mode. I can end up shooting to get the subject in focus and the background blurred, etc. It's just going to be some group photos, nothing perfect. I'm used to photographing landscape and architecture so the people thing is scaring me! I don't want to let anyone down and need some advice as far as any websites with different poses, etc. I don't have an external flash so the shoot is going to be outside (think alley, front of tunnel) and I know I can do some editing in Corel Paint Shop, but I guess I need that little "push" or information that can help me!


Anything at all would be appreciated!

Hi Kygirl79,
I don't know to much about posed shots, but my 2p worth would be fill up you memorey card and take as many photos as poss, and i wouldn't bother about using 'M' unless your trying to create something spacific, i'd start on AV mode about f9ish and adjust you exp comp as per your histogram.
Hope this helps.

Thank you..I will practice that

why adjust EC when you can get it right without it using M?
How the subject affects the exposure & why manual keeps me worry free: Post #47

First set the f-stop & shutter speed you need. Then adjust the ISO. Need an exposure crutch?

kygirl79 wrote in post #5428135
Ok, I need help I will be shooting the promotional shots for my husband's band this weekend, and I'm stressing. I have a Canon Rebel Xti and I'm not that familiar with manual mode. I can end up shooting to get the subject in focus and the background blurred, etc. It's just going to be some group photos, nothing perfect. I'm used to photographing landscape and architecture so the people thing is scaring me! I don't want to let anyone down and need some advice as far as any websites with different poses, etc. I don't have an external flash so the shoot is going to be outside (think alley, front of tunnel) and I know I can do some editing in Corel Paint Shop, but I guess I need that little "push" or information that can help me!


Anything at all would be appreciated!

the one thing that it took me a long time to realize when shooting in M mode was to shoot at the appropriate shutter in relation to the focal lenth. in other words with a focal lenth of 100mm you dont want to be shooting at 1/50. its too slow and thus camera shake will probably be evident. im not sure if this is something that you're aware of so excuse me for being redundant. but just make sure your shutter speed is where it should be based on your focal lenth so the photos are as sharp as they're supposed to be.

anything else im of no use

Great advice... So, I'm shooting a Concert band next Monday night - like 50 musicians. I will certainly need to be somewhat far away to capure all of them.

What SS / Aperture would you use? 100 @ f/11 I don't think a SS of 60 will get things sharp enough.

So given my glass choices, would I use my Canon 28-135mm IS 3.5/5.6, or my Sigma 18-50mm / f2.8 and just get in close to the group ?? In my mind the f/2.8 will allow more light and faster SS resulting in sharper images .... Lighting is clearly going to be an issue for me given that it's indoors in a theatre setting. So I'm hoping for an ISO less than 1000 !!

Any advice would be appreciated.

cody
dont be scared of raising the iso. whatever it takes to get the proper exposure.
im relatively new so i cant offer further advice. but i learned long ago (very good advice from here) that its better to take a great properly exposed photo with noise than to take a badly exposed photo that has no noise. when you think about it for awhile it will make so much sense.

now when i shoot i just do whatever it takes to get the exposure. even if it means iso 1600. the 30d does a pretty good job handling noise at 1600. its not the best but its good

Do you mean all of them as in a group shot? You don't need f/11. With a given lens, the farther away you are, the more DOF you have. f/5.6 should be OK.
So, f2.8 and just get in close to the group would not be my choice, except if I wanted to focus on one person & isolate them from the others. 135mm IS @ 5.6 would be a better choice for that.

Depth of field explanation

Thanks again Frank ... yes, "ALL of them" ... the entire group. I'll use my 135mm IS lens.