Greetings,

I have been asked to take a group portrait of my HS class reunion ... and will probably also shoot the three other class reunions that are scheduled to take place at the same time. 

Shooting a group portrait is enormous fun ... as anyone who has seen the French farce, "Le Placard" (2001) can attest.  ... BTW, here in the USA, that film is called "The Closet".  The film starts ... and ends with the taking of a corporate group photo ...

Back to my question about shooting a group photo ...

There will be about 30 people in the shot ... I'm guessing that the field of view will be about 20 feet wide by 10 feet high.  I want the final resolution (in the print) to be sufficient to easily recognize each face. 

How many megapixels do I need to shoot?  ... per person ... and for the whole group, as well. 

Can it be done digital ... or do we need to engage a professional with a view camera? 

What size print (8X10, 16X20, ...)?

BTW, 'the committee" wants a prop in front ... HaHa!! ... But they don't want the expense of a professional photographer, the expense of an oversize print ... one of them hinted that an 8X10 might be too much expense for some of those attending. 

--
Martin

10x8 should be fine... and in terms of megapixels - well technically 6-8 would be fine (at 4:3 framing btw)... work at a 300ppi and a 10x8 = 3000x2400 - just over 7megapixels...  Problem comes with quality of shot (meaning glass in front of sensor) which basically means i would be happy taking that photo with any entry level DSLR out there... (and maybe some compacts would do a decent enough job). Good lighting will help too - bouncing a flash around is a good idea if you can or get them outside if it is a sunny day and shoot them in a shaded area against a plain wall or something so the sky lights them.

But you mentioned a 2:1 aspect ratio which is probably a better idea...and just have head and shoulders, maybe torso and 3 rows of ~10. Thing is printing weird sizes is more expensive as i seem to recall and you mentioned a "prop"... could be a sticking point...

I see that responded to my question,

in terms of megapixels - well technically 6-8 would be fine

Yeah ... that rules out my Nikon 4300 w/ 4.3 MP.  That's about the advice I expected to get. 

Somehow I don't think that my Canon A-1 35mm would give me quite the image quality needed. 

OTOH, I have a medium format 6X6cm (or 2 1/4 square, if you prefer that name) film camera -- I could shoot 120 (or 220) film and scan to get either 60 MPx or 90 MPx ... but the lab wants a bit of money for a scan at that level of detail.  $15/image if 60 MPx.  That means if I shot a roll of 120 for each of the 4 classes, it would cost $900 to scan the film ... or that could convince me to buy a DSLR wouldn't it??? ... For that matter, at those rates, I could almost justify buying a new toy ... the Nikon Super Coolscan 9000-ED for about $1900 ... it would handle these film formats ... 35mm, 120/220, 16mm, 6 x 7, 6 x 9 film at 4000 dpi optical. 

I could use the Nikon 4300 to shoot backup images.  But the camera positions would probably not be the same.  There could be perspective issues between the digital and film cameras. 

What do you think of that Idea? 

--
Martin

p.s. Thinking about these costs is making my head spinn ... must sleep on it. 

p.p.s. ... and this is a hobby???

What you can do to test it is to take a shot with your nikon of a similar subject - say 30 beer bottles... align them like you would the photo, take the shot - then blow the photo up in photoshop, have a play around - print it at 10x8 and see if you can read the label on the neck... if you can, then use the nikon

I see that inshaala turned the question around,

test it ... take a shot with your nikon of a similar subject

Right!!!

Here is the process I'll use ...

[1] If I'm going to get a group portrait of 10 people ... that would be 10 by 2 ft. for each person plus a side margin of about 2 ft.  That's 24 ft total subject width. 

[2] Set 2 stakes 24 ft. apart.

[3] Position the camera at the center of the staked area and just far enough back from the line between those stakes to get both side stakes in the image frame. 

[4] Use as a subject something the size of a person's head/torso and enough detail ... e.g. a pillow with a busy print.  Set a target in the center ... and also at either the far left (or far right). 

[5] Capture image ... inspect to see if I actually got enough detail. 

Great!  Thanks inshaala for making me think it through. 

--
Martin

You are welcome :)