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I have to shoot a 400 person group picture, inside a drill hall with bad lighting, with a couple of 8 rows bleachers. I plan on shooting on a Nikon D6 with a AF-S 50 mm f/1.4 lens at f/10, around 1/100, on a tripod with 3 Profoto S1 strobes with white 72" umbrellas bouncing towards the crowd. One umbrella will be centered next to the camera and one on each side at equal middle side distance. My ISO will be flexible up until 3200 if needed.

I also plan on putting my focus on 3rd bleachers row.

Any thougths, suggestions, better ideas?

Josué Plante
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  • With 50 people across you need a field of width 75 feet or so. That means you are 30 meters or 100 feet away from them. Do you have that much room? You can use a wider aperture and have everything in focus. I have no experience with lights but it sounds hopeless to light that much area. If you can put one bleacher above and behind the other you need half the width and can be only 50 feet away. – Ross Millikan Nov 11 '22 at 05:27
  • Yes, it's a large gymnasium, so I have plenty of room in front of the bleachers. – Josué Plante Nov 11 '22 at 13:24
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    What if instead of the bleachers, I would place the people on the floor and climb into a skyjack to get a higher vantage point? – Josué Plante Nov 11 '22 at 13:29
  • That is a possibility. You might get them into a 50 foot square. You would need to be 35 feet in the air. Like the double stack bleachers the farthest ones will be very small in the image. – Ross Millikan Nov 11 '22 at 14:52
  • I wa thinking... what if I combine 3 bleachers in a arc with some people on the floor in front of them... – Josué Plante Nov 12 '22 at 15:23
  • You will still have a width of 75 feet or maybe a little less. I figure each person takes 1.5 feet on average-maybe a little more. If you put them on an arc you might get away with taking a panorama shot which would allow you to get closer. – Ross Millikan Nov 12 '22 at 17:02
  • Focus on the the second row. Depth of field is not all equally in focus. The focus point is the sharpest, and then things begin to blur gradually in both directions, but more quickly toward the front than back at those distances. If the front row is noticeably less sharp than the third row, it will be much more obvious than letting the back row be a little blurrier when you're focused up front. Our eyes expect the closest people to be in focus. They don't notice as much if people further back are less in focus. – Michael C Nov 13 '22 at 18:34
  • I talked to the boss and he told me he wants a straight line with 4 rows of poeple in the bleachers, 2 standing and 1 row sitting. I did a RECCE yesterday with my light meter. I have f/10, 1/125 and ISO 8000 with the ambient light available. I will definitely need to use my 3 strobe. I have tall tripods and 72" silver umbrellas. Any suggestions on how to place them? One in the center and 2 on each side, high with a slight angle towards the ground? At what distance? – Josué Plante Nov 15 '22 at 14:22

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