Lighting family groups outside poses certain challenges. Getting consistent lighting across the group, getting enough light, getting a good quality of light, doing it all effectively and easily so that you can concentrate on posing and eliciting good expressions. See photo 01

The approach that I prefer is to use available light and supplement it with strobe light. Available light usually does not have enough snap or contrast alone. Using flash also cleans up the color and gets rid of green in the shadows. No fixing later in photoshop. See photo 02

Steps to Lighting the Group
1. I look first for the direction of the sun. I want open shade with the sun behind the subjects so that no direct sun falls on their faces and if possible provides a back/hairlight to separate them from the background.

2. I position my subjects to take advantage of any overhanging tree branches, porches, etc in order to reduce the amount of light coming from directly overhead.

3. I try to shoot into an area where the background is a little darker than where the subjects are, or at least not brighter creating distracting hot spots. If there is distance behind the group that helps to throw the background out of focus diminishing distracting elements and also provides some dimension to the photograph. I try not to use vegetation like a studio backdrop with the subjects right up against it.

4. I use a handheld meter to get a meter reading for the scene. I use a fast 85mm lens for most group portraits and 5.6 usually gives me the depth of field I need for a nuclear family. I will adjust the ISO until I get a shutter speed fast enough so no one appears to move, a 60th or greater (usually there are children involved).

5. For additional lighting. I use a Q-flash with a pop up softbox from lastolite. This gives me enough power, consistent exposures, sets up quickly and fits into a small car and and can be hidden if I need to stop somewhere before or after the portrait. The softbox softens the shadows that appear if you use just the Q-flash alone. I place it off the side where most of the light is coming from – I’d say about 30 degrees from the camera position which is enough to get some direction to the light but not too far so the light is even across the group. If you use flash without a softbox, bring it a little closer to the camera and raise it up so any shadows it produces won’t fall on someones face.

6. I take another meter reading with the flash this time. I use a sekonic 358 and pocket wizards to fire the flash. A great feature of this combination is that the meter has a transmitter in it to fire the flash, which is very convenient. The meter will also give me a reading of the light that is coming from the flash as opposed to the ambient light. I have already partially lit the family with the available light so I like the way it looks when the flash is 1.5 to 2 stops less bright than the ambient. It shows this on the scale on the bottom of the meter and also gives a percentage. I like 30%. There is no rule here it is a question of taste and what looks good to you.

7. Do a custom white balance.

8. Take a test shot.

8. Bring in the family and shoot another test and look at it, change anything that needs to change. You can see a lot just by looking.

9. Shoot and enjoy.

Best,

Peter

Source: shootsmarter.com

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