Expert: Don Wood - 9/20/2007

Question
I have a family portrait to shoot on Sunday ( 11 peaople), I ave been shooting protratis and weddings for 1 year now,and have been mainly happy with my work and groupings etc. This shoot is going to be outside, but to achieve a even f;attering light to get a good clarity of everyone in the picture, would you any flash light.. I have 2 speedlites and stands with an on body transmitter..or am I making this too complicated and with good grouping I should use the natural light in my larger wedding group shots I have but I am looking for a more defined result??

Answer
I had a large family shoot , 50th wedding anniversary with all the kids and their families in a churchyard. 15 children of Mom and Dad. We started out by shooting the nuclear family, Mom and Dad and their children. Then we added all the families to get everybody in a picture. I used a slow shutter speed so that I could get the largest depth of field possible. After this picture, we kept Mom and Dad seated, and had each child and their family grouped around Grandpa and Grandma. Did this for each family. Afterward I took orders so that when I sent the film off I could specify the best of each three negatives to be printed. I think I used almost 6 20 exposure rolls of film. I was using a medium format RB 67 so that enlargement to 8x10 wasn't a problem. I used the natural light as primary, the flash on my camera merely was a signal that I had taken a picture. Needless to say I alphabetized each different shot and told the group to remember which shot their family was in. I also collected the money due at the time. I've found that it's easy in a group setting to be a big spender but privately it's sometimes difficult to collect. The problem of the lighting was solved by putting the group in a shadow cast by the church, sun was in front of camera. Be careful of where you put the group that there is not a mottled patch of sunlight falling on the group. Turned out to be that I had to take grandchildren of the couple with their families. 4 generations involved.
Thanks for asking, this is how I solved the problem. It turned out to be very lucrative.