Group Photos

Today, I'll take you to the exciting world of group photography. OK, it's not the reason people become photographers but it is gratifying planning out the location and lighting to get a good shot of a group of people while taking as little of their time as possible.


For Lawyers Weekly, we had to get a shot of the Lawyers of the Year and the In House Leaders before the award show got under way at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel. I put my two Nikon SB-800s on the upper flight of the stairs on either side of the group. It was tight quarters and a bit tricky but it worked.


I visited Akiban Technologies here in the South End. We worked in a conference room. Once again, tight spot but I fit them all in. Those school group portrait skills are paying off. Aside from the main lights, I put those two Nikon SB-800s behind the group and racked them out (tightened the focus of the light coming out of them) to help the group pop out a bit more.

For both images, I did some Photoshop work to swap out blinks and put in smiles on the couple people not quite right in each shot. This is something I used to think was very tricky to do; but after my wife showed me how simple it really is (layers, masking, and painting in the face you want), I'm on board.