Trying to get the whole team in a shot can prove a challenge, here’s a way to do it that has the added advantages of placing the team members exactly as you want them, where you capture them all full length on a normal 9 feet wide background.
The added benefit is that no shadows are cast from one person on to another, not to mention the fact that when you do a normal group shot there is always someone who doesn’t seem to either, be in focus, or looking at the camera. When doing a group of 2 people together, its twice as hard to get right as one person but 3 people are 9 times as hard and so it rises exponentially.
I think the result can also look pretty dynamic and you get everyone looking exactly how you want providing the individual shots are well captured. In this example it would also be good to have more control over the styling, ie, all in black dinner suits or holding a different prop. This takes it beyond the average team corporate photo shoot.
Jackets are very much required for this look as you will be shooting against a white background so white or even light blue shirts will make it tricky to cut out the individuals.
Once you have picked out the shot of the individual you like, give it a clean up in Adobe Lightroom. If the shadows by the feet look a little dark like in this example then don’t remove them in Lightroom, instead just give the person a bit more contrast, lighten the exposure and lose a little in the saturation. Sharpen to taste.
Finally, when you have done the same process with every member of the team, composite them all together in Photoshop where you can then remove the shadows by the feet. If you want, add appropriate company logo, team names and position within the company.
Shadows under the individuals can easily be done by making a copy of the person, flipping them vertically and dropping below and fading the opacity. In this example more time is needed to perfect this.
This technique also works really well with bands as you can never get 5 people all together in the studio, especially when they insist on holding their instruments. There’s always a guitar neck poking in to someone’s face!
