Taking photos of groups of children - some tips and observations

Recently I had an assignment to take photos of the several school classes. The final 'product' were the standard group photos of school classes:

Although it looks simple, there are some aspects and potential challenges that require at least some attention.

The location and lighting

Choosing the right spot for a shoot is not trivial, especially when the only available location is a school playground: a lot of open space with the school building as the background. Not very exiting, I'd say. Additional problem was the full sun at this day which would guarantee harsh shadows on the faces of the children. Luckily, at the border of the playground there were some trees that gave enough shadow to cover the whole group. Shadow coming from the tree provided decent light for the shoot: diffused on one side, but bright enough to be able to shoot with the 1/100s, f/7.1 and ISO 200.

Last but not least, the trees served as a nice background for the photo. My setup looked as shown in the picture below:

The bench in the shadow was the main 'stage', while the camera was about 10-15 meters away, put on a tripod (right in the picture) The lens used was 200 mm lens, set to about 135 mm. This focal length was good enough to compress the foreground with the background a bit.

The background was not perfect though. There were still some distracting elements there (like the fence and the bright part of the building's roof. 

This was the moment of a trade off: lighting wise it was the best spot I could get, so I was pretty sure that the most important objects on the photo (children's faces) would be properly lit. The distraction I could eliminate, at least partially by careful composition and doing some post processing.

 The last aspect to take care about was the color of light. Since the shadow was given by the trees, they could cause some color casting. To prepare for it I took several pictures of the color checker placed on the spot. I use X-Rite color checker for this purpose. X-Rite software integrates well with Lightroom  and makes creation of the color profiles quite easy.

The limited time

This is almost always the case at school: tight rhythm of the day: 45 minutes lesson, 10 minutes break, next lesson. So is the time of the photoshoot. Per group I had roughly 5 minutes time: to set up the group, to take 1-2 test photos, do some reshuffling of children, cherry up some of them, calm down most of them, take the final picture. 

Interesting observation is that teachers are not of much help in such situation: they are part of the group waiting for the directions. So it is important to have a plan and be ready to play the role of a 'director' of the shoot. 

Direction and communication with the group

First of all I have pictured in my head the end result. To play safe I applied the simple principles to make the process simple: most people read visual information from left to right and from top to bottom. Another basic principle was to ensure that all the faces are good visible and not covered by other children or other obstacles. Having all this in mind the direction was straightforward: I created 2 rows, ordered taller children to step on the bench, less tall ones to stay on the ground. Then (if required) I reshuffled them to ensure that the rows visually form more or less straight line. 

Again, it is the tradeoff, balancing the certainty of the final shot, the (limited) artistic values of the photo and limited time. 

Each time I was explaining the process at the very beginning: I have noticed that this way I can have children's attention for at least couple of minutes.

To enhance communication I decided to use the trigger cable for releasing the shutter. So I was able to stay next to my camera and have direct contact with the group. It worked well, especially when I had to give some extra directions. For example, it is pointless to say to the group: "and now move 0,5 meter to the left". Instead I was making a step aside asking them to do the same. It worked well.

For the final shot I explained that I will be counting till 5 before taking the shot and was showing the number with my hand. In fact I was taking the actual shot at "3" or "4". This simple trick ensured that they all watched at me (or rather my hand) and I could catch their eyes on the picture.

Watch out the equipment

This is very important, especially when one stays on the playground. The thing is that the children start run and don't watch at the obstacles. So it is absolutely necessary to stand by the tripod and mark your spot this way. Otherwise there is a risk that they tackle the gear. This happened to me some time ago when one of the children run against the light stand with attached flashlight and an umbrella. As a result thereof I had to buy a new umbrella.

Some technical challenges (and my solutions to them) experiences during photographing a wedding

It is time to catch up a bit with my notes on the photographic journey. In this post (being continuation of part 1 and part 2) I'll give some examples of the technical challenges I saw, together with my solution to them.

1. Low light, moody scene

That was one of my primary concerns. It's because the couple planned a very important moment during the ceremony that started with... complete darkness. Guests were standing in a room, handling small candles in their hands (not enlighten yet). The couple walked in a room with a candle and gave a light to each quest. So gradually the whole room become enlighten by a 'travelling candle light'. It was beautiful, very symbolic and powerful ceremony. And challenging to capture it right. To make it right I have taken some precautions:

- I ensured a right spot for shooting: by putting a small stair-ladder in the corner of the room I placed myself beyond the heads of other guests. So I ensured the clarity of view

- I ensured the full control about the exposure. Therefore I used a light meter in incident mode, before the ceremony started. I simply took a candle, put a light meter in the distance of 50-60 centimeters from it, directed the incident meter in the direction of the candle. Took a measure. This 50-60 centimeters was my estimation of the distance between a candle held by the couple in front of them and their faces. Measured exposure was the one I was intended to use. Then I put my camera in the manual mode with the settings given by the light meter. I liked the effect:

2.  Fast changing scenes

This is just given. While the ceremony in church is predictable, things at the reception might be surprising every now and then. And I had to be prepared. To deal with it I was walking with two cameras. One equipped with 24-70 mm lens, another with 70-200mm lens. Just to be able to cover as much as possible with the optical range. The disadvantage of such approach is weight to carry but at the end it paid off.

3. Unattractive light

Something to always take into account. I have used an extra light source, being speedlight flash which I placed on a monopod who was carried by my assistant. To trigger it I have used the radio triggers from PocketWizard (FlexTT-5 system for Nikon). I must say it worked very well. I practically didn't miss any shot. And I have much more flexibility in comparison to the iTTL system of Nikon.

4. Getting the right content for a photo album

This last one is on a boundary between technical and 'human-related' one. When taking the assignment I had the end product in mind, being a photo album (which was meant as a wedding gift for the couple). So I had to produce a content that fits well into such album. The thing was that the couple was not so keen on taking much of the extra effort to organise a separate session. To solve it I took an 'easy going' approach (betting that it would work): I suggested (without specifying a time frame) just a small walk during the ceremony to a location nearby the wedding venue. Luckily they didn't know that there was a nice, long pier going into the sea. So they got curious about the location and I had a few nice shots.

On using light meter

After quite some consideration and reading a lot of stories on the Internet I have decided to give it a try and bought a light meter (Sekonic D758DR). Did I have a direct need to have one? To be honest — no. But I learn photography and I know that I need to understand better how the light works to enhance my pictures. And the accurate light measuring device can help me with the learning process. Another motivation was the observation that I have to adapt the exposure of quite a lot of photos in the post processing. This is quite tedious, especially when the photos are taken in big series (like a shool event, a wedding, etc.).
Using the light meter efficiently takes some practice. Luckily there are tons of materials which help to start. After some small (mostly technical) issues were solved the light meter became a very useful tool.
Here is where I use it most till now:

• Examine the dynamic range of the scene while shooting landscapes. It is a real time saver, since often it turns out that using the bracketing and exposure blending in post processing is simply not necessary. Without the light meter I used to take 2-3 photos in bracketing mode ("just to be sure"). 
• Making portraits. Here the light meter rocks. Really. Period.
• Learning the light. Another important aspect for me. With the light meter in hand I can quickly validate my ideas about the light intensity and learn to estimate them better.
• Find out the influence of the light modifiers on the exposure. With the light meter I have measured how the light modifiers that I use (for example my big diffuser) limit (absorb) the light, which in turn speeds up my decisions how to expose the scene when such modifier is used.

First tangible results of using the meter are also becoming visible. I have noticed that I indeed spend less time in Lightroom adapting the exposures of my photos. Which gives me time for other activities.

First photography DIY project of 2014 accomplished

Recently I have started the DIY project, which should end in the big (1x2m), sturdy  frame with detachable light diffuser or reflector, depending on the used fabric. The project is finished, and the result looks quite nice:

Front side

Back side

To check the quality I took several shoots using different materials: a shoot-through umbrella, a diffuser and the combination of two. All shots have been taken with the light source placed 1 meter from my face. I have used one SB-900 speed light flash, working in iTTL mode. I have compensated the light strength of the iTTL by -2 stops. The photos are not super sharp, because I had to operate the setup alone, using the remote trigger. So the lens focus was locked and I tried to keep the same distance from the camera during consecutive shots:

Shoot-through umbrella

Diffusser

Shoot-through umbrella + diffuser

First photo is the least successful in my opinion (let's not discuss quality of the model :-)). Note the blemishes on the chick and relatively high contrast around the ears. Second picture, taken with the screen only improves the blemishes.

The combination (putting the speed light behind the umbrella and the screen) produces the results which are to me most pleasant with respect to the softness of light. The idea of combining both light modifiers comes from Joe McNally (one of his online courses). Just to give an idea of the setup:

The diffuser gives a slightly warm color cast comparing to the umbrella, but it is not a big problem.

I have ended up with the budget for the whole project of about 70 EUR. Not bad, I'd say, considering the final effect.

Make your own Easter greeting card

Easter is coming and it is a good habit to send the greetings to the friends or relatives on a greeting card. Since couple of years I make such cards by myself, which is a lot of fun and gives the cards uniqueness and personal touch.
Last year I described some techniques useful for this kind of photography. In this post I am going to describe the whole process of making such card, from the basic concept, to the publication.

Easter theme

All starts by selecting the basic theme. The symbolic of Eastern is focused on the symbols of new life: eggs, chickens, green and yellow colors, hare. So it is almost unavoidable to have at least some of them on the card. In my first attempt I have chosen for eggs and chickens. 

The composition

I like postcards that have a 3D-look. So I wanted to compose a picture that would give strong impression of depth. To achieve that I set up the scene in three planes: foreground, with the eggs, middle part with the chickens, and the background with the hanging eggs:

The perceived depth of field can be manipulated by different aperture settings.

The light

The above picture was taken in the ambient light, coming from the window located right to the scene. I wanted to give the chickens some warm punch as key light. To do so, I have used two speedlights with the CTO filter placed left and right to the chickens:

To avoid light spilling both strobes were equipped with a snoot to focus the light beam. Both strobes were controlled from the camera build-in flash via the iTTL system of Nikon. First attempt:

The chickens are warmly lit, but the rest of the scene is dark. Too dark. Time to put the fill light. Fill light was been created by third flash and a golden reflector bouncing the light from the flash on the scene. After applying fill light the scene looked like that:

That is better. The scene still have a warm look and all elements on the foreground are properly lit. Last step is to improve the light in the background. To do so another flash was used, equipped with the yellow filter. I have experimented with several positions of the background flash:

Manipulating the background light was easy, I just held the flash light in my hand during shooting in the different places of the scene.
Finally I have chosen the middle image for further processing.

Post processing

For post processing I have used combination of Lightroom, Nik software suite and Photoshop.

In Lightroom I have applied lens profile and camera corrections.

In Nik software I have pre-sharpened the image (with RAW sharpener), applied the golden reflector filter, blur vignette (in Efex Pro), added some local brightness to the eggs in the background (with Viveza)

In Photoshop I have removed some distracting spots. There is the final picture:

Some technicalities

Reuse the setup

The whole 'production' took me about 3 hours. Since a lot of effort has been put in the light setup once the chickens were ready I decided to create another card, with a hare in the main role:

As one can see, the scene is very similar to those with chickens, yet different. Taking this picture took me just couple of minutes thanks to reuse of the existing setup.

Try different gels

When I was done with my basic setup I have tried to light the scene with flashes without gels:

It hasn't been chosen eventually but it is always worth experimenting with different settings and sometimes it can result in a new, inspiring scene.

Hanging eggs

To hang the eggs I have used a combination of the flash light stand and a piece of other pipe mounted on the light stand:

Exploring the limits of my gear - Nikon strobes and the iTTL system

Couple of months ago during the portrait shooting session I have noticed quite annoying fact that I couldn't control the light strength of one of the speedlight flashes used for the lighting setup. In this particular case it was the rim light that was causing problems. I have set the strength of this flash to be +1.7 stops above the default strength determined by the iTTL system. Since this light was too strong, I have reduced it by 1 and then 2 stops, but without any result. The exposure corrections were neglected by the system. Due to the time pressure I didn't investigate it, just moved the light stand a bit further away and obtained the required exposure in this way. But the questions remained:

- why did the system bahave like that?
- how can such behaviour be circumvented?
- how do I know such limits in advance next time?

Due to the other activities I couldn't answer all those questions till this weekend.

I had suspected that the problem with this flash was related to the distance between the flash and the subject. I thought that when the distance is too big, iTTL fires as much light as it can and gives up the control possibilities. To prove it I have tested the system with a simple setup, sketched below:

When the subject is properly exposed by the flash it looks like shown below:

The test was straightforward. I selected a number of distances between the subject and the flash. For each distance I took the series of shots, with the relative exposure of the flash set to -3, -2, -1, 0, +1, +2, +3 stops. For each shot I observed if the flash exposure correction had effect. I did the observation based on the shot but also taking the histogram into account. To illustrate what I mean look at the two tables below, showing the situations where I had full control over the exposure and where I had the control over the exposure from -3 to +1 stop.

First the situation where I had full control over whole range of exposures (distance from the subject to flash was 0.9m):

Exposure	Histogram

It is clearly visible that the flash can produce enough light for the whole range of the exposure corrections.

Then the situation when the control is no more possible above +1 stop  (distance from the subject to flash was 2.9m):.

Exposure	Histogram

So indeed, my assumption was right: if the distance between the subject and the flash grows, the iTTL narrows the range of the relative exposures that can be used. For my measurements I have got the following results (for SB910, set at ISO 100, zoom 24mm):

Distance	0.9m	1.9m	2.9m	3.9m	4.9m	5.9m	6.9m	7.9m
Control	-3..+3	-3..+2	-3..+1	-3..0	-3..0	-3..-1	-3..-3	-3..-3

So the lesson learned is that one can manipulate the distance between flash and the subject as long as loosing of the relative exposure control is acceptable. Which answers my second question: to have the control back over whole range of exposures, one has to move flash closer to the subject.

How far? I found that iTTL can give quite accurate hint about the distance (provided you have SB-800, SB-900 or SB-910 flashes). Here is the procedure:

1. Connect the flash to your camera (either directly or by using the flash release cord)
2. Setup your flash to work in TTL or TTL BL mode, depending on your needs (or planned exposure)
3. Setup the zoom of the flash for the value you intend to use (either by the flash settings or by using the lens zoom, if applicable), required ISO to be used (this one needs to be set in the camera) and the aperture (again, either in the flash or in the camera).
4. Note that the distance scale of the flash shows the range of the distances where the flash will expose the subject properly.
5. Now change the relative exposure of the flash (example for SB-910):

6. Observe that the maximal distance changes with the relative exposure (here an example for the reading for relative exposure +1.3 stops:

The maximal distance together with the exposure correction can be interpreted as a maximal distance at which the exposure can be corrected from -3 up to the value set. In the presented picture, if the subject is at 2.4m from the flash, the exposure can be corrected between -3 and 1.3 stops. Setting it above 1.3 stop will not have effect on the exposure (the exposure will be the same as for +1.3 stop).

Note that it is not exact math, rather indication. I have noticed, for instance, that while iTTL indicates that I can control exposure up to -2 stops at the distance 7.7 meters, I was able in fact to do so at the distance less than 6.9 meters. But for the values -1 to +3 it matches my experimental results quite accurately.

So for the next time I have to remember:

- Check the distance between the subject ant the flash,

- For this distance validate the ranges of exposure correction that will make sense. 

- Don't waste time on trying to go above maximal exposure correction. It will not work.