My brothers company wants me to take a picture in a stadium of over 100 people in the stands in a certain section (might need a panaromic mode) in January. I have my 30D and I have the standard lense, the zoom 300mm lense and my 50mm non-zoom lense. I need advice on how to take this picture the best I can with your help. Like what settings, etc. I am getting paid and not sure how much to ask for either. Any advice on that too?

Please let me know from your experience what you recommend me do. Thanks!

 

It all depends.....how much is this job paying? It may warrant buying a wide angle. Make sure you use a good, sturdy tripod. If its not paying much, and you have the 50mm, you could do a pano by taking multiple shots and then stitching them together. What look are they shooting for in the pic, what is the goal of the photo?

 

The group photo is going to be of group home disabled people. It is going to be a gift to the CEO of the company for her wall. They are asking me how much and I am not sure what to tell them. And at this moment, I don't have the funds to by a wide angle lense yet. I am just starting out in this. They know I am new at this and don't expect to get the highest possible quality picture, but I want to do my best for them.

I have taken a test pana picture before and it came out pretty good. Just any recommendations on what lense I should use,settings, etc. I have a strong tripod, so that isn't a issue.

 

how is the lighting in this place? Indoor, outdoor? Can you go there before hand and practice?

 

They haven't decided what place yet, so I have no idea yet. I assume it's outdoors.

 

Tell them to let you know as soon as possible so you can check out the place and practice and see the lighting conditions to see if you need additional equipment. If you need extra lighting you can always rent some. But IMO it is a bit hard to give you advise since we don't know the conditions of the location.

 

Nevermind guys. I backed out on this deal. Due to the fact I don't probably have the equipment, so it's better for them to get a real photographer.

 

Shouldnt have backed out just yet. They know that your new to this, and it would have been good practice for you, even doing it for free.

I too was asked by my dance instructor to do a portait photo of all the instructors and office employees for there boss's as a x-mas gift. I never done one and only did a little reading on lighting. But in the end, they were all happy and loved the photo, even tho it could be alot better. They are mounting it on the wall out in the dance floor area for all to see. I get lots of complements on it.

Oh and the large 18x36 photo print was amazing too (printed at work)

 

Well, if I had a wide angle lense it would really help. I found out that it might be in a GYM at a school, so a wide angle lense in that tight of space would be needed.

 

true, but you could do a pano with the lens you have and stitch them to gether, for final photo. And plus, Gym is a nice size, you can have them line up in multiple lines, 2, 3 or more.

 

Well bump, I just got told they still want me to do this. And they know I am far from a pro. I don't have a damn wide-angle. So I can either rent one if I can find a place to do it. I found a place online, but not locally yet. Or buy a lense. Anyone recommend a lense for my Canon 30d?

 

if you need a rental lens look for your local pro photography shop. Also maybe look at photo district news classifieds, they sometimes have rental places.

If you do decide to do a panoramic, take multiple frames per rotation of the tripod, this would make it easier to blend multiple photos as people tend to move a little.

if you have photoshop cs3 the automerge feature will really help.

If you are shooting in a Gym, lighting will really help. 2 strobes into umbrellas would really help.... unless the gym has plenty of light this is the way to start.