Group photo.....without a group?

[zetec]

Is it possible?

My boss will soon be leaving, for a leaving present I would love to get him a photo of all the staff together (around 20 people) and have it mounted with a personal message from each of us. However, to get this photo in one sitting will be impossible.

With technology today, would it be possible for me to take photo's of 2, 3 or 4 people together and have them merged into a single group photo?

If this is possible then please let me know, if you can do it then please please let me know, there will be a few beers in it

[Gemm]

I think you should probably do a collage of several different pictures, rather than trying to put everyone in a single image. Yes, it is possible but it would depend on the level of your Photoshop & picture taking skills.

[rxtx]

It would be very difficult even with good PS experience unless you can guarantee the same lighting. I'd go with what Gemm says unless you could get everyone together one day. Nice idea though.

[Fubles]

just an idea but if you pre-set the back drop, i.e. set up 20 chairs in your standard group pose, then took your pictures a group at a time, i.e. first group sitting far left, then next chairs over and so on until everyone is done, then use some kind of photo stitching panorama like tool?

surely if done in an office environment the lighting would be fairly uniform throughout.

[LongQ]

Fubles said:

just an idea but if you pre-set the back drop, i.e. set up 20 chairs in your standard group pose, then took your pictures a group at a time, i.e. first group sitting far left, then next chairs over and so on until everyone is done, then use some kind of photo stitching panorama like tool?

surely if done in an office environment the lighting would be fairly uniform throughout.

Somewhere on Drew Gardner's blog you can find one or two examples of exactly this sort of approach.

Here is one of them.

http://drewgardner.com/blog/uks-leading-ladies-of-...


There was another I recall where he did a Board of directors shot using the houses of parliament (iirc) as the backdrop and then overlaid the individual shots of the various directors based on a standardised lighting set up and positioning them within an overall image concept for the individual shots.

All the shots were then overlaid on the backdrop image and blended into a final result.

The link above is a similar approach.

Whether it makes an sense for your project I have no idea - but it might offer some guidance - if only the sort that sees you do things a different way!

ETA: Here's a lonk to the image I was thinking of above. Not sure where you will find the BTS blog (if you are interested) but it should be on the site somewhere.

http://www.drew.it/People/Group-Portraiture/2/

Edited by LongQ on Saturday 26th April 23:01

[The Moose]

LongQ said:

Somewhere on Drew Gardner's blog you can find one or two examples of exactly this sort of approach.

Here is one of them.

http://drewgardner.com/blog/uks-leading-ladies-of-...


There was another I recall where he did a Board of directors shot using the houses of parliament (iirc) as the backdrop and then overlaid the individual shots of the various directors based on a standardised lighting set up and positioning them within an overall image concept for the individual shots.

All the shots were then overlaid on the backdrop image and blended into a final result.

The link above is a similar approach.

Whether it makes an sense for your project I have no idea - but it might offer some guidance - if only the sort that sees you do things a different way!

ETA: Here's a lonk to the image I was thinking of above. Not sure where you will find the BTS blog (if you are interested) but it should be on the site somewhere.

http://www.drew.it/People/Group-Portraiture/2/

Edited by LongQ on Saturday 26th April 23:01

See, to me, neither of those images look quite right. I can't say why, but they just don't.

[LongQ]

The Moose said:

LongQ said:

Somewhere on Drew Gardner's blog you can find one or two examples of exactly this sort of approach.

Here is one of them.

http://drewgardner.com/blog/uks-leading-ladies-of-...


There was another I recall where he did a Board of directors shot using the houses of parliament (iirc) as the backdrop and then overlaid the individual shots of the various directors based on a standardised lighting set up and positioning them within an overall image concept for the individual shots.

All the shots were then overlaid on the backdrop image and blended into a final result.

The link above is a similar approach.

Whether it makes an sense for your project I have no idea - but it might offer some guidance - if only the sort that sees you do things a different way!

ETA: Here's a lonk to the image I was thinking of above. Not sure where you will find the BTS blog (if you are interested) but it should be on the site somewhere.

http://www.drew.it/People/Group-Portraiture/2/

Edited by LongQ on Saturday 26th April 23:01

See, to me, neither of those images look quite right. I can't say why, but they just don't.

I wouldn't disagree BUT for their individual purposes they work well - especially given the constraints and lack of options.

Would a collage (or similar) be 'more right'?