Kids and Santa

[djguk47]

I have been "nominated" by my wife to take photos of the kids at her school with Santa on Saturday at the school Christmas Fayre.
The fact she is Deputy Head more than likely "sealed" my nomination and acceptance by the staff running the Fayre.

I am looking for general advice as to lens, flash, lighting etc etc....you know all the usual stuff that many of you take for granted.

Information to help with your advice:

Camera: 50D
Lenses: 50mm 1.8 II, 17-85 IS USM or whatever you may suggest as I will go hire one if needed.
I am looking at having an in focus background, although it may be softer than the kids and Santa
Flash: 430EXII
Lighting: I have been offered the use of a large hexagonal softbox.

Environment:
School classroom that will be turned into Santa's "room" - chair for Santa, chairs for kids, standing area for kids, room for kids in wheelchairs, "Christmas Style" backdrop - red and green, stars, Rudolph etc etc.
Large wall of windows (half wall height) and glass double door behind me.
School lighting above, fluorescents.
The Fayre runs from 13:00 to about 17:00 (at latest) so will start in daylight and will turn dark during the afternoon.

The "Gotcha":
This is a Special Needs School so many kids have the attention span of a nanosecond, are often in wheel chairs, many need supporting by a carer etc etc (you get the picture).
This "gotcha" means no real chance to shoot, check histogram, maybe make a change to camera settings and then shoot again, it will be a one shot that's it scenario.

I will be shooting in RAW and processing at home on Saturday night/Sunday to give the kids on Monday the photo in a nice Christmas Card folder.
I was thinking of framing the photo with a white border with their name and the year across the bottom.

Over to you guys for suggestions please.

David

[Canon-Fodder!]

Re: Kids and Santa

Hi David;

You seem to have things well thought out. Hopefully you'll have time to shoot off a few testers before the action starts... After that the light should change slowly enough to keep up with continual reviewing between new sitters...

Special Needs kids add an extra dimension. You will need a helper to grab their attention so they are (hopefully) looking at you - or Santa. Waiving big brightly coloured objects around behind you generally scores. Those big bright-pink glove-puppets that are currently all the rage would be good... (John Lewis has them...) Helper can sit them on your head or around your shoulders to make silly faces etc...

HTH & good luck...

Cheers...

[pelliott1954]

Re: Kids and Santa

Hi David,
Not well qualified to give advice but will add my two penneth anyway.

I would imagine that given the circumstances you describe there will be a fair amount of hustle and bustle, therefore you could well be moving around a lot to get a line of sight of your subjects, so I would imagine a Tripod will be unusable, also I just can't see you will have time to set it up, I think you will have to be more reactive.

So, I think the 17 - 85mm zoom will be more useful, I know it is not as fast as your 50mm F1.8 but as you say, you want some background focus so you wouldn't be using the 50mm lens wide open anyway, which takes away it's advantage and leaves it with it's disadvantage of being fixed length which at 50mm on a cropped body may be too much when shooting inside,also as you may well be dodging about and snapping opportunities I think the IS of the 17-85 would be valuable as well.

I think also the Flash would be better with a Diffuser on, direct mounted rather than set up remotely as again I can imagine your subjects could well be pretty mobile on occasions.

Regards Paul

[briansquibb]

Re: Kids and Santa

Over to you guys for suggestions please.

David

Tell SWMBO that the camerameister says you need a 5DII and 135 f2 to go with your 430EX

[djguk47]

Re: Kids and Santa

Thanks C-F and Paul.
It appears that I am to be asked to take photos as the kids and parents arrive and then when Santa "Opens for Business" I move of to his area and photo the kids with him.
I was thinking that the 17-85 would give me more "flexibility" so Paul you have confirmed my thoughts.

As well as the softbox I have also been offered some slave flashes and umbrella reflectors, some with diffusers to soften the light. Will possibly use the slave flashes on Santa's backdrop to give a bit of "lift" or maybe use them at a lower level on the sides to lighten the smaller kids in wheelchairs.

Brian, yep could not agree more but I fear that there is a coup in the making and all expenses are about to come under the watchful eye of the "auditor general"..... mumblings about a new bathroom are gaining in volume.

David

[Muscat]

Re: Kids and Santa

Will that include the new 24-105L type bath tub ?

[djguk47]

Re: Kids and Santa

will that include the new 24-105l type bath tub ?

ROFLMAO

[pelliott1954]

Re: Kids and Santa

Agreeing to do the Wedding I recently posted about of one of SWMBO's Nurses was how I got my 24 - 70mm past the Elliott family Finance Controller!!!!