Among the more fun assignments are big one-of-a-kind shoots where everything has to go exactly right because hundreds of people are involved, the event is unrepeatable – and not least, circumstances are marginal for making it all work.
And I did have a good time making the image below for the Southern Asian Seventh-day Adventist Church in Silver Spring, MD. They wanted a group photograph of all their members, and the only time possible to do this was after their services last Sabbath (Saturday).
I knew the group would be anywhere from 500 to 800 people, depending on the attendance and how many people chose to stay for the photo. I paced off the area in front of the entrance and figured there would be enough room for the whole group there – the unknown factor was how far forward they would have to stand. I wanted to work out as many details as possible beforehand so things would move quickly, without second guessing anything.
We had arranged to rent a scissor lift, and I was there when it arrived on Friday to position it for the best angle. I chose my lens focal length, went up and made some test shots, and after getting the pastor’s approval for the composition was able to lay out markers to contain the group. I put painter’s masking tape on the concrete to indicate the boundaries on each side. The forecast called for sunshine so I felt confident of being able to shoot at the highest resolution and still have plenty of shutter speed for sharpness.
The morning of the shoot dawned not only overcast but very windy. Immediately after the service the pastor came out, and after a short prayer with him for success I proceeded to the lift, while he and several helpers shepherded the congregation into place. They were roiling like a living creature and once everyone finally was inside my tape boundaries I didn’t have more than 30 seconds to shoot before the gravity holding them all together began to decay. I banged out a lot of shots during that time.
On the lift with me was the church’s unofficial photographer, a large man to whom I (unfortunately) had not explained the necessity of keeping absolutely still, to keep a rock-steady platform for the sake of image sharpness. He was moving around a lot, and besides the wind absolutely ripping at us I was shooting at a slower shutter speed than I had planned to use due to the overcast sky.
But all things worked together for good anyway. My images were razor sharp in spite of the motion I had feared. The greatest problem I had in post-production was a boy wearing all white, front and center, who was blowing his nose with a large white tissue in nearly every frame. And of course various people also were turned away from the camera or otherwise obscured. Ultimately I had to choose the best exposure and then copy the obscured people from other shots, clone them into the final image and then eliminate all traces of digital trickery at high magnification.
The final image exceeded my best expectations, and I think the pastor was pretty happy with it too. He’s already talking about doing the same thing again in the spring, when all the trees are in full foliage. But meanwhile I like the soft light and colors we got this time. Web reproduction doesn’t really do justice to the astonishing resolution of this photo. My 13 x 19 print (the largest size I can print at home) had phenomenal, almost surreal sharpness. The church will be ordering a much larger mounted custom print for wall display and I look forward to seeing it. The second photo below is just a crop/magnification of the first image.
Data: Nikon D7000, ISO 100, Nikkor 12-24 lens @ 12mm, f 10, exposure 1/40 sec.
Click on the photo below to see the full image.
