Shooting Large Groups of People

Kirk is a Professional Wedding Photographer in Windsor Ontario   Note: If you would be so kind as to give us a G+ and a Face Book Like if you like this post -Or FB & G+ are here.-Thanks for dropping by.

Introductions:

In almost every wedding the time has come to shoot a large group of people.  You start to arrange them in rows  according to height and who's who.  It is a large group so you step back and shoot them with using say your 24 mm wide angle lens.  You move back far enough to get everyone in the picture.  You take 3 group shots in case someone has their eyes closed.  You check the lighting and choose an F Stop of between 5.6 and 7 to ensure everyone is in focus.  In group of 3 rows, you focus on the person in the 2nd row.  You have your key and fill lights setup to make sure the lighting is just right.

The next day you look at your work.  Everything looks great, lighting, positioning, etc. Then you see that Aunt Martha on the right end and Uncle Tom on the left end don't look exactly right.  They both seems to have gained a few  pounds over night.  What just happened?

You just learnt a new photography term: Volume Anamorphosis This is a type of distortion that occurs when you shoot object close to you with a wide angle lens.  I am sure the guy in the store selling you your wide angle lens told you that it would take great pictures and it will.  Wide Angle lens are best for Landscape Photography.

Here are two examples in portrait photography.

Volume Anamorphosis with a wide angle lens

After correction for Volume Anamorphosis

What you don't realize is that THIS happens all the time when you shot objects with a wide angle lens up close.

The above examples are a bit extreme but NOT totally wrong.

Masters Tip: 

1.0 To prevent Volume Anamorphosis eliminate the cause.  Shot large groups with a 50 mm  lens to prevent this type of distortion.

2.0 Post processing correction with lens correcting software.  We recommend DXO Pro.

Rather than saying to you customers, that's what came out of the camera, we post process over 20 items before giving the images to our customers.  Most photographers however, don't correct their images for VA.  I hope that this will be changing in the future.

We trust that you enjoyed this article.  Thank you for your G+ and FB Like.  Have a great day taking quality pictures.