Hey this is Daniel Norton,
I'm here in my studio in New York City
with Kaydence and
Marisam Sharinna, Dave and Erica.
This is the 200th episode of OnSet, so I
wanted something special.
So we broke out all of
my favorite people, or most of my
favorite people, but well we'll see if
they're your favorite people as well
after this right? But what I'm gonna do
today is kind of is influenced by a shot
that I really liked when I was younger.
It's a shot by Herb Ritts, it was kind of
during the period of the the supermodels
if you will!
I guess maybe they're still
supermodels, but it's not like it was right?
that was like there was they were
they, they were coming up, was like a big
thing... it was new, and at the time I was
in art school, and kind of fighting
against the whole art thing.
Fashion is an art kind of thing and they
did a show the Museum of Fine Art in
Boston of Herb Ritts work, and it was
actually called Herb Ritts work, and it was literally
fashion and beauty and celebrity
portraits, in it it kind of helped me
feel like okay... I can you know do
something that's more commercial, and
still have like an art bend to it... so I'm
not gonna copy the picture exactly, but I
like the idea of shooting this like
group of people, that are you know that
he worked with a lot, and these people
that I work with a lot. We're gonna kind
of do a nice little group portrait, and I
get asked for portraits all the time, so
here we go, to keep this really simple.
in the original shot which again, I'm not
doing exactly, he used natural light
which is a great way to shoot groups,
because it's easy right? Put them in the
shade, but since we're in the studio and
in New York City, and it's the winter...
although surprisingly warm today!
But it's the winter... we are gonna light it up
in a really soft natural way.
So I've got over here a six-foot scrim Jim
so this is basically just gonna give me a swath
of light, and in the past you probably
have seen me, just set it up, and shoot a
light through it, in many different ways.
But today I'm doing a little different,
I've got over here all kinds of lights right?
I got four lights going on here,
and the reason why they're set the way
they are is... I want to make the light
kind of scattered and uneven, I want to
feel more natural, like it's coming from
all over the place. So basically I've got
some lights bouncing off the ground, I've
got some here. I've got some even
bouncing off the wall over here...
I've got one just blasting through.
All over the place... to kind of give me a nice
even light around them.
I'm just gonna wrap around, I'm gonna
use one light source,
I just have a roll of white paper behind
them, and they're gonna be there down on the
ground.. so if you guys want to...
We didn't rehearse this at all.. I swear!
So they're gonna come down on the ground.
I actually have on the ground here... some
black cards, because Kaydence is quite
reflective. So because I have light
bouncing off the white floor, and you
know some people's skin tone is more
reflective.. mine is as well... it was just making
her overexposure so I put that there.
I am in Capture One. I'm over here with
my my 1DX I have the 24-70mm on here.
I'm roughly 70mm, and let's
see what we get. So I used TTL to set
this up, but I've now switched to manual
All I'm doing is... I'm shooting at f/8
250th of a second, actually let me turn
the flash off for a second, like we
always do.
Lets see what we get... that should kill most,
if not all they've ambient light in here.
Yep that's pretty good, if it didn't, it
wouldn't be the end of the world. They're
not moving around, so if I pick up a
little bit of ambient light it would
just act as fill, which wouldn't really
bother me, but we're not getting any so
we're good again.
I'm in manual, I'm set at a f/8 so
let's see what we get for an exposure.
We're bringing everybody in... nice!
So I'm gonna jump up, I always put the computer
way too far away...
Okay so we're gonna
look at this, and one of the first important
things I want to make sure... the light is
even on everybody, and it is.
We can see that there's detail everywhere,
but now we're gonna look for.. this's a
group shot right? We want to look for
holes in the pattern.. we want to look for weird
things going on, so I can see that either
Marissa has to turn more to the side,
right more, and more toward... chest
towards camera... yep! or okay have to
come in closer because we got a big gap
there otherwise.
Everything looks pretty good.. maybe move
your foot slightly this way, okay and I'm
just gonna quickly check my... I'm at
f/8 because people often ask that like...
what do you need to set the camera.. right
at this distance it's plenty, everybody's
in focus. We're not really worried about
it even down to like their feet and
everything, so they're fully in focus, and
this is actually cropped in
a little bit too, better to shoot a little
bit wider and crop it in, so that you
have the space if they move randomly
and what I'm gonna do is... I'm gonna set up
here. We're gonna just work through a few
different poses, right, and generally with
this kind of stuff, once I get set up,
I'll actually stop looking through the
camera, so I can see the people better,
and I'm kind of looking at them.
Remember bring your shoulder this way
Erica, come in closer you get.
There we go... let me fix that one, here,
that's coming down, perfect, good, good.
it was good for us to keep that, yep
coming closer kids..
Good, good, good...
there we go, that's it!
We're just gonna work through it, do
some nice... you guys
are basically supermodels now.
So I'm gonna get the attitude that's a
supermodel attitude, but okay you know
who's being goofy you guys.
I don't even have to say who it was, what,
we know you know who that was!
Yeah we're gonna work
through shooting.
I've got the lights up
be ready... kind of looking at
everybody... nice good, okay,
so we've got the nice kind of standard shot.
That's good, now let's kind of mix up a bit.
Let's get some personality going, let's do some
fun stuff. So let's get... here we go, good,
you see what I have to deal with
everyday, people, great group, people
pretty much kind of chilling out, good,
good, good.
All right let's end it supermodely at the
end... let's bust it out, here we go.
Come in a little close with your shoulder Erika... good, right,
There, everybody's good looking again,
beautiful,
just like that, nice and easy, that's good,
good, and I mean I probably actually
could shoot this in natural light in
this studio, but I just you know, I'm a
lighting guy... what can I say!
it's 200 episodes, I want to do my thing...
Everybody gets to do their thing... there
we go, one more time, last one, come a
little more in Sharinna, actually Marissa move
your head slightly this way cause your
blocking Sharinna, good, there's some weird sound
coming up... so nice, fantastic...
Alright! Awesome job guys!
Cool, cool, cool...
and how we can have this set it up
without having me in the shot, and I have
a celebrity photographer special guest
star Vanessa Joy..
Vanessa is going to fix this.. who is the master
of group shots...
So yeah... so you there you go... so
I'm gonna sit in the middle, because I am
the star...
Should have worn my black shirt.
I don't do yoga
Awesome thank you for Vanessa...
Alright and thank you guys for watching..
this is the 200th episode.
I couldn't do without
you guys watching, and my amazing
models/friends/collaborators... right!
Right this is all about, I say this a lot,
it's all about a team, we work together.
You're not just out there on your own.
So thank you guys, thank you guys!
Thanks Adorama!
Make sure you follow them, follow
me, I'll put everybody's information in
the description so you guys can follow
them, follow me, DanielNortonPhotographer
and I'll see you next time!