First Business Shoot

So, I've photographed large groups before, and I've photographed them against backdrops, but never a professional office shot, and in so tight of space.

I wish the three main were a little better centered, but was trying to get as many people in front of the backdrop I had set up as possible. Ended up not mattering, because I needed to cut them out and paste them onto another backdrop anyway. One of the most difficult assignments I've taken.

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Tough one.
The people in the front look like giants and there is a lot of light falloff from left to right.

The sign in counter was right next to us, so I couldn't place the light as far away as I would have liked, in addition the ceiling was right above the head of the tallest member of the photo, with the umbrella's they were level to the middle rows heads. Definitely not ideal.

The owner did want her and the other two in the front row to be more prominent, so them being a little bigger isn't awful, but it would have looked better if I could have gotten farther back and evened them out a little.

As I started editing the photos I realized that I should have just had them line up in twos and threes in front of the background and than composited them together for a straight line up. Would have worked well for any ads they're doing and would have been easier to edit in the long run.

I wonder if they'd let me come back and reshoot...

I should first say that I find posing groups extraordinarily difficult. My biggest problems with this photo are 1) the front few folks kind of lurch forward, vs. the orientation of the folks in the back 2) the photo seems off balance pulled to the right.

It does look like everyones been cut out of another picture and plopped into this one. The arrangement seems all wrong and I keep focusing on a huge hole in the back row. I'm also drawn to the different angles of the people in the front row, the knocking knees and the hands are driving me nuts. Why does everyone pose with their hands like that. The back of the hand is the worst thing you can photograph. The woman on the far right of the photo has her thumb or a button sticking out where the sleeve meets the pants, getting rid of that wouldn't be a bad thing either. Groups can be a pain but as a professional you need to be able to handle them no matter what the circumstances are.

Personally (and I'm not a pro), I'd be unhappy with this and ask for a reshoot. If this is the best you have, I don't think it's good enough. I would maybe go and study similar shoots by other people to think about better positioning/lighting, and possibly get another venue to shoot in, if the small room size was an issue. (You could blame the small space on the turn out of the photo, so it doesn't solely reflect poorly on your photography skills.)

Well I offered to reshoot the photo, but in the end we just enlarged one of the guys in the back so it looks like there was less of a hole and switched the main women in white with a more flattering pose.

And, over the holidays I'm pulling my extensive family together to practice a bit more.

ChuckingFluff, you mentioned it being unflattering for the hands especially, but I can't think of a better way to position them in a photo like this, could you give me any advice on that? Thanks.