Studio64:

I don't know anyone that would be available to help... unless there is someone on here that is lurking from the Sioux Falls South Dakota area that wants to help.. please PM me.

find someone from the local yearbook that is into photography and ask them for help moving lights and crap. buy them some pizza, give them an 8x10.

Dave

A few things to think about:

1. You may want to go down a few days early (at the same time you plan to shoot) to do a “practice shoot”

2. Schedule your shoot with bad weather in mind, have a window of a few days and schedule your shoot on the first in the block, should it be raining you have the additional dates available to fall back on

3. If you are only shooting in small groups, you can use the others to help you move things around, just let them know beforehand so they won’t be surprised and if they have any objections you will know before hand

4. Bring plenty of sandbags to hold down your light stands, it surprising how little breeze it takes to move an open umbrella sitting on a six foot pole

5. If you have small strobes (speedlights) you may want to do a practice shoot with them, they are faster and easier to move around, if you are doing individuals or small groups two speedlights might well do the trick

Scott

SEccleston:

Regarding photographing people either individually or in small groups, if you lock your camera on the tripod (and not move it) the background (building) will remain stable and allow you to “layer” the shots without having to “cut and paste” people onto a new or different back ground.

You can put a person (or couple people) in one spot, light them and take the shot, then setup the next person in another spot on the sidewalk, take the shot, and repeat until everyone has been shot.

 

With your background being a brick building, it seems like this would be a little tricky pasting the people in as one photo.  If it were a solid color wall or solid background this would work really easily.  Just my 2 cents.

But that’s just it, you’re not pasting people into an image, you are layering one (complete) photo over another. Similar as you would in HDR.

That’s why you are locking the camera down on a tripod, the only thing that will change from image to image are the people being moved in (and out), so there is no need to “cut” them from one and paste them into another.

When you lay the second image on top of the first, the bricks from the second image will be on top of the person in the first image, there are several ways to deal with this, and the simplest is using the eraser tool to remove the overlaying bricks.

Here is an HDR tutorial, though you may not be looking for the HDR “look” it is a good tutorial for learning how to Stack and Align the Photos.

http://www.stuckincustoms.com/hdr-tutorial/  

Scott
www.WeeklyPhotoTips.com

South Dakota, huh? That explains everything

I looked all over the strobist site to find an example (maybe I saw it on another site), but a very cool shot I've seen was done at twighligh, with all of the lights on inside the building, and a strobe lighting the group about 30ft in front of the build (but I'm starting to think that they did this because the building was pretty bland, not like the one you have).

If you have the OneLight DVD, look where he lights the girl in the alley, by the building. If you don't have it, look for the teaser on youtube. Theres a sweet shot of a girl in a scarf (I think) where the building is underexposed. It's pretty sweet. Of course, lighting a dozen people just complicates things.

Do you know what they're wearing? Suits? Casual stuff?

The only idea I can think of for posing is to arrange them around one of thier yard signs. Maybe a couple down font. Sunglasses might be cool.

Try to find out what the "feel" of the ad is going to be (and any text). That might help you get the feel of the photo.

jadesdan:

South Dakota, huh? That explains everything

now now.. no picking on the dakotas...

thanks for the advice Dan. I checked with the company spokesperson and they have no particular theme.. they will use the group shot on their website and brochures.. I have a couple of ideas in mind which I told her about.. she said I'm stressing about this more then they are..  ha ha.. of course they aren't.. I think everyone who isn't a photographer thinks it's sooo easy..  anyways.. I went onto youtube and couldn't find what you suggested.. BUT.. I have been looking at stock photography websites (totally great resource for posing ideas on most anything!!)  and I'm coming up some ideas on posing the individuals.    I'll post what I wind up with..  which will be in about a week and a half.

thanks again!!!!!

 Can't wait to see it and we've all learned some valuable tips on this post.