Group Photo in Mixed Light

I volunteered to take a photo of my grandson’s “under 10 years” soccer team after their game, but I’m kicking myself for not taking more time to find the best location for the shoot well before the game ended.  After I finished  photographing the game, I quickly searched for a place where the sun would not be shining in the kids’ faces, the photo would not be back-lit or the sun creating lens flare, and where the likelihood of photo bombing would be minimized.

I selected a location where there was shade and then proceeded to set up my equipment.  I used a Nikon D7100 camera with a Nikon f/3.5-6.3 18-300 zoom lens (same equipment that I used to photograph the game), and 2 off camera Nikon speed lights on stands.  The stands were set at about 35 degrees each side of the camera and about 8 feet back from the front row of players; the flash to the right of the camera was set higher in order to target the faces of the taller coaches in the back row. The camera flash was set to “command” mode and the off camera flashes were set to “remote” mode; all 3 flashes were set to the “TTL” mode because I knew that there wouldn’t be enough time to take practice shots in “manual” mode and adjust the flash power manually for optimal lighting.

I opted not to use a tripod because I wanted to stand on a ladder to get a view that looked slightly down on the group in order to minimize the chances of a blocked face.  I shot in the camera raw mode with the camera set to a shutter speed of 1/125th of a second to minimize any blur due to camera shake. Aperture was set to f/8, and the ISO to “auto” (resulting in a very acceptable ISO in the 140-160 range).  White balance was also set to “auto” because my camera does a good job at this setting with only minimal post  processing white balance adjustment.

In the 15 minutes it took to set up for the shoot and assemble the kids, the late afternoon sun shifted enough to put the front of the group in sun and the remainder of the group in full or partial shade. Now I was getting nervous about the potential adverse effects of the mixed lighting, so even though the 8-10 year old kids were getting fidgety, I took the time to do one test shot. The histogram of the test shot looked good, so I pressed on with the shoot.

I think you’ll agree that the resultant shot was acceptable, thanks in part to a significant amount of post processing in Photoshop CS6 with adjustment layers and masks. The lesson learned is take the time to scout the area of the shoot to find the best location, and set up your equipment well before the scheduled time for the shoot if at all possible. Mixed lighting can be very effective for some applications, but it can increase the complexity of an outdoor group shot.

Comments and questions are welcomed.

Capture the Wonders Found in Travel and Life                                        d300dave@gmail.com

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About Dave Hood

Married to my wife of 54 years, Barbara. Two adopted grandsons, Jim age 20, and Billy, age 15. Retired from the Air Force Reserve after 26 years in 1993. Retired from Air Force civil service with 34 years of service in 2000. Worked an additional 7 years for General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems before finally leaving the workforce. Hobbies include working around the house, exercising our Labradoodle Shadow, travel, and photography. My photo equipment includes Nikon Z50 and Z6 cameras, several Nikon lenses, a Godox speedlight, Godox 200 and 600 watt studio lights, a Manfrotto tripod, a monopod, and assorted filters. I use Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop CC for post processing and ProShow Producer software for producing slide shows (mostly about travel) set to music.

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