How to avoid making mistakes when taking group photos

Next time you take a group photo, try to bring a tripod. If you don’t have a tripod, find a table or chair instead.

The people downstairs talk about turning on lights, but I think turning on lights is unrealistic. If you had a light with sufficient illumination, you wouldn't ask this question. In addition, if you take a group photo with an ordinary flash, the GN index cannot be reached at all.

First of all, F4 will definitely be weak. With 50 people taking 4 shots, there are more than 10 people in each row, and the row area is about 5 meters. With such a wide surface, the distance from the center of the crowd and both sides of the crowd to the focal plane will be quite different.

So, the aperture should be at least F8, and F13-16 is recommended.

In the past, during the film era, there were special equipment for taking group photos, called transfers. In today’s digital age, you can use post-processing.

Take 100 people as an example. Due to venue reasons, if there are 5 rows with 20 people in each row, a wide angle is required. However, wide angles are prone to distortion, so if possible, let the crowd stand in a fan shape, with you as the center, take a few more pictures from left to right, and then put them together into one picture when you come back (PS CS5 and above come with this function). When taking pictures, ask everyone not to move. If people cannot form a fan shape, and your lens is not wide enough, or the distortion is large, you can use the focal length of the header to take multiple pictures at equal distances in the direction of the crowd, and then put them together into one picture later; when taking the picture, leave the sky above and the ground below. Leave wealth to the left and right, and leave more to make it easier to fight later. . . 100 people, if there are 10 shots, 10 people in each row (it is impossible to stand like this in real life), you need a smaller aperture (the larger the F value, the better) to ensure a greater depth of field. According to your description, you should know photography. Therefore, I suggest you learn more about the role of the lens focus window and the concept of "hyperfocal distance", so that you can have a better grasp of the aperture when shooting in the future.

Also, you should boldly try to increase the sensitivity! Even on a cloudy day, as long as it is not a low-light environment, increasing the sensitivity appropriately will not cause too much noise, and the impact on the image quality is limited. For ordinary cameras, ISO800 is no problem. ISO1600 like 5D2 and D700 is no problem. Top-end cameras can go higher.