Want better posed group photos, pick better locations

Bulloch Hall Plantation located in Historic Roswell, GA

Location, Location, Location

Just like real estate, your photos will look better when you choose your location. This is the time of year for holiday parties, school dances and even weddings. While going into your yard and finding a clean background is a great idea, picking a location in your town that stands out may be a better idea.

Here you can see all the parents watching as I am taking the group photos and couple photos. If you look closely you will see my one Alienbees B1600 with the original vagabond battery by Paul Buff. It is to the far right in back [yellow head].

Another tip is to use a tripod. There are a couple of good reasons to do this. First your photos are sharper when the camera is rock steady still. Second if one person in a group photo blinks and then another person in another photo, you can always cut and paste one person into the other photo using PhotoShop.  This way everyone will look good in one photo.

Fill Flash

The subjects are all back lighted by the sun in all these photos. Unless you use a flash you will have a hard time holding the background and their faces to get a good exposure.  I metered the scene which was ISO 100, ƒ/8 and 1/50.  I then set the flash to ƒ/5.6 or one stop under whatever I would have metered for the over all scene.

Here I composed a wider shot to show Bulloch Hall where the grandparents of President Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States, and great grandmother of Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady from 1934-1945 lived.

I like the closer composition over the wider shot.  But I did both in case couples preferred one over the other.

Any time my family is with me and I have gone to this much trouble for photos, I always get a photo of them.