Ep 129 Size does matter: How to use lighting, focal length and perspective to optimise your group portraits

13 April 2017

When you’re shooting more than one person, you can come across a raft of problematic issues. Sometimes, various people in the group can look disproportionate depending on where they are placed. And if you’re shooting people of varying sizes, some can look huge while others look like pinheads.

In this episode, Gina and Valerie discuss what you need to know to ensure all your group shots are winners. You’ll discover tips and techniques on forced perspective, lighting, shooting angles, focal length and much more.

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Show notes

Shoutouts

Michael Goh says:
It’s always great seeing things in print – was just listening to the optimising for print episode. I recently printed a series of images on aluminum for an exhibition. It’s interesting to consider the medium of prints. Astrophotography images like having a high gloss surface (like metal) – it brings out the contrast of the stars.

Above: A young girl holding up Michael Goh’s print

Photo feedback

Size does matter: How to use lighting, focal length and perspective to optimise your group portraits

Focal length

Wide angle lens distorts the shape of the human body
In a group shot people closer to the lens will appear larger than people further away from the lens
Long lens compresses the background and makes items that are further away appear closer to the camera
In a group shot if you have people further away from the camera using a long lens can give a more balanced look to your image.
If you are using a wide angle lens to shoot a group shot, try and avoid being too close to your subjects because this will make the people at the front of the group look much larger than the people at the back of the shot
Knowing this means we can use this information to balance out portraits where people are different sizes.

Shooting Angle

Shooting from a low camera angle will make people appear taller
Combining a low camera angle with a long lens can create the illusion that someone is taller

Lighting

Flat lighting can make an object look two dimensional and larger than it really is because it doesn’t have any shape
Lighting can be used to make people appear leaner
Short lighting is a technique used to make wider faces look narrower
Short lighting is when the model is posed so the main light ( or brightest part of the face) is turned away from the camera.
Broad lighting is when the model is posed so the main light ( or brightest part of the face) is closest to the camera.
A narrow face can look broader with broad lighting
If you are pairing a larger model with a smaller model you could use broad and short lighting to balance the shot

Perspective

Forced perspective is a technique which employs optical illusion to make an object appear farther away, closer, larger or smaller than it actually is. It manipulates human visual perception through the use of scaled objects and the correlation between them and the vantage point of the spectator or camera.

88 Brilliant Examples of Forced Perspective Photography

Anything closer to the camera will appear larger
Positioning smaller/shorter people closer to the lens and larger people further back will balance out the sizes of models.

Optical illusions

Bringing the smaller person closer to the camera and moving larger person back slightly
Can balance out a group shot
Overlapping the larger people in the frame with smaller people can give the illusion that they are smaller