Group portraits

[Jonathan K]

Hi all,

A few days ago I got an "assignment" from a chamber orchestra, who needs pictures for their website and flyers... Since I have done this kind of work only once, and have been totally unhappy with the results (they lacked about everything, from dynamic, style, composition etc) I was wondering if anybody here on the forum has done this more often and could provide me with a few links and/or tips about how to proceed...

The chamber orchestra has about 20 musicians, and it needs a certain kind of "old-fashioned", opulent style, which is in accordance with the music they play (mostly late romantic and early 20th century entertainment music)... I was thinking about the staircase of the local theatre which is mainly in red velvet, mirrors and golden decoration, but that might be to flat or to static... I also found a restaurant with a setup of roman statues and a fragment of Michelangelos "Creation of Adam"... which is a bit weird, but... the ceilings look great.

So does anybody have suggestions for me?

Thanks a lot in advance,

Cheers, Jonathan

[David Kilpatrick]

Study the work of William S. McIntosh, of Virginia Beach, USA. Bill is a friend of mine, and one of the oldest working photographers in the US. He specialises in photographing the members and entire crew of symphony orchestras and consorts of many different sizes.

http://www.mcintoshportraits.com/

He has several excellent books - rather dated in some ways, but the pix and the advice can teach you a great deal. Just look at his site intro sequence, and you will see he is able to arrange a huge family group with all the heads and body angles and eye-line angles in the right places. This is where the art lies. You will see how the faces in his shots form triangles and people are organised to create a shape without regular line-ups, where everything looks right.

I have used one of his big set-piece shots just like the setting you describe. I can not find it now, or I would post a small copy. Basically, Bill uses multiple off camera flash to make these pix work. He sets it up so the players are all side-lit from a main light off to one side, but also add back-rim lighting and some front fill. He normally uses three flash heads. He is extremely careful about the positioning and pose of the players, and works with the camera pre-focused and composed on a tripod. He does not look through the camera when taking the photo, he looks very carefully at the subjects from the camera position, directly.

Here's a good price on a book which includes his orchestra work:

http://swpp.biz/store/index.php?main_pa ... ucts_id=52

David

[Jonathan K]

Hello David,

great piece of advice! Thanks a lot. I just ordered the book...
The pictures he takes have some warmth which is kind of inexplainable... I suppose I will have to practise a few afternoons with a setup of dolls or teddy bears
The pictures I saw until now (I just had a quick browse) are mostly (as you said) classical portraits and they are composed in that way... 90% work according to golden ratio etc, so the compositions are mostly static and calm ones... The lighting is phenomenal.
I will certainly try and learn to do portraits into that direction.

But I still have that idea about "action" pictures... The orchestra is very young and dynamic, and they should look like that... So I am trying to find poses that are less "calm" or "serene", maybe a bit rougher...

Well, anyway, as soon as I have something I will post them for comments.

Thanks again, I really appreciate your help.

Jonathan