Hey this is Daniel Norton, I'm here in my
studio in New York City with Marissa, and
today we're going to do a video. I want
to talk a little bit about compression
in photos, and this came about because I
was actually in a video with Mark
Wallace and Gavin Hoey, we, and Seth, we
kind of made a video together shooting
Marks profile picture. And one thing is
the pictures I took, anyways I got really
close to Mark and what that does is it
actually changes the way somebody's face
looks. And one of the conventional things
that people say when they're shooting
portraits is to use a long lens, right?
Use a long lens for portraits and the
reason for that is really it makes you
backup further.. right? It's not that that
long lens per se is making the person
look better. It's that when the further
back you stand the more compression you
have, so the more compression there is,
noses look smaller, the ears move forward.
You know you don't get as much
distortion...if you will, in the face but
there's something about being close. You
see this a lot in filmmaking, where they
use wide lenses, and they come in really
close for scenes, and you get this kind
of it's a little distorted. It's not the
most beautiful necessarily, but you get
this really, kind of more intimate
feel. So we're gonna use the same lens.
I've got my Hasselblad X1D, I've got the
90mm lens as opposed to
switching lens. So I can show you, and
what we're gonna do is, we're gonna shoot
some clothes, and then I'm gonna back up
and I'm gonna show you what the same
lens, and then we will just crop in to show
you, kind of same lens, how different it
looks based on where you stand. Right? So
just to go over the lighting, so you guys
know we're doing. A kind of a really
simple beauty portrait lighting here.
I've got Profoto B1X with a beauty dish
right here. It's kind of above the shot, you
can see it, that's going to be the key
light on on Marissa. In the back I've got
a B2, each one fitted with a 1 x 3 softbox,
to give her kind of a, kind of a
glamour rim. Right to make it really
glamoury, and we have this very
expensive, reflector that I made from
Home Depot. So we're gonna use this to
create a really simple portrait. I think
I'll start with the close one, and we'll
see what that looks like. Then I'll back
up and show you guys the difference. So you
could have a seat, So we're set here at
f/4 at 250th of a second ISO100, which
gives us basically a black frame. If we
do not use the flash, but of course we're
using flash. So I'm tethered into focus
here which is Hasselblad software and we'll
take a shot. With no reflector first,
because just see what it looks like, right
we're gonna look at our exposure. That
all looks good. I have a crop on there
for some reason cuz messing around with
it. Okay there we go, right that's Marisa
nice and close. Now when I'm making
portraits of somebody, like a fun
portrait. I like to be close, I feel like
it could add a little dimension to it.
So let's shoot something like this, right what I
generally do is, get as close as I can
until I can't focus anymore. Cuz it's
past my minimum focus distance, and I
just back up. So here of course there was
the light is so high on, her she's gonna get
shadow. She puts her chin down, so we will
add the reflector in a second.
You may notice too that, like whenever I
use reflectors, you guys ever notice this,
but I always get everything set up and
metered and stuff, before I add the
reflector. I know some people put in the
reflector, and then meter. But I feel this
gives you a better kind of, cleaner
exposure, and you're really seeing what
the fuck you're doing. So I'm gonna bring
this up, nice and tight, and this is a silver
reflector so it's really gonna kick
light back up on her. And if you want to
make sure, you can always throw the
modeling light on for a second, and then
we can see it. So same tight shot, but
with the reflector. You can see there the
difference that's gonna make, really
Glamour's it up, so if you're going for
that glamour look. You know this will add
that to it, but you know, and yet we're
still close oops. That's gonna be out of
focused, cause I wasn't ready, ok, very good
that's pretty one. Other advantage you
have it being close like this is, your
depth the field becomes very shallow, so
if you're into that, we're definitely
gonna have a shallower dept of field,
Alright.... so that
looks pretty cool right?
You can see how around her face looks
and everything. I mean this is pretty much
what Marissa looks like all right? So now I'm gonna
back up now, because I don't care for,
about anything but her, her face. I
don't care the reflectors in the shot
and everything. So you'll see when I
shoot, this it's going to be in the first
shot. So here we go, that's good,
hold that okay. Stay where you are for a
second please. So I'm gonna come in and
I'm going to add a crop to this. Just so
as I'm shooting you guys will see what
we're getting. So obviously I have all
the stuff in the thing, which is the
advantage of having a super sonic
mega pixel camera I guess. You don't have to
worry about that. Perfect, all right so,
all right now. Let's shoot a few more cuz
you get paid by the frame. You never want
to get it on the first shot.
Bring the reflector up a tiny bit, good
right there, nice, now you could get a
stand to hold the reflector, but this
actually gives models uh you know a
workout. It helps them with their
clavicles.. well isn't a clavicle a
bone... so probably doesn't make a difference.
Alright, so anyways it does something. Good,
good, good, good. One more, awesome
okay now.
So let's take a quick peek, so they've
been cropping in here, and you can see, oh.
That's pretty, nice, right. So this is a
nice shot of Marissa here, this one green.
Let's go back up to where we shot with
the other lens, and pick a similar shot.
Right, that's what the, not lens, the
position. All I'm doing here is I'm gonna
basically just, I just tag them both
green, so I can come in and and just see
those. Alright, so
shot alright, so we can see right I mean
obviously they're not exactly the same
crop, I'll crop this one a little bit, by the
way this is another advantage of
shooting tethered. When you are working
like this with a client, and there is a
certain crop you want to get or whatever
you can just add it right to your shot,
as you're shooting, and then they're
seeing what they're gonna get, so they
don't get all concerned about the
background stuff. Alright so we can see
here if you take a look at her face
shape. Right and her nose
her nose looks a little bit wider in
this one. This is where I'm closer to her,
for the back, you see how her chin like
look at the shape of her chin, and here's
some from earlier right. So further back
right, up close for the back right? Look
at the cheeks. Look at the the shape of
her face. Wider right? More natural, more,
more intimate, more kind of glamorous. So
depend on who you're shooting right, and
the look you're going for, because
perhaps you're shooting somebody who is,
your gonna big thing here. We're gonna put
a sign up. If anybody wants to buy
advertising. You're ad here.
Here, we can do this for sure. So yeah, so
what we'll do is if you're maybe
shooting somebody, let's say that has a
heavier face, or, and you want to get you
know the more narrower look. Right? Then
backing up, or using a long lens as I'm
gonna help. If you want to add a little
youthfulness to it. Getting closer will
will help get the face rounder, but
also just being that, that closer look,
really gives that intimacy to it. So
depending on what you're shooting, when
one or the other is not right or wrong. I
feel like for portraits, I like getting
in close. I like that feel of a little
distortion, but if you want that to look
as ideally beautiful as possible. Backing
up is gonna help, or you know, and I
should say when you back up! It's always
best to use a longer lens, so you're not
wasting all those mega-pixels, because
megapixels are a terrible thing to waste.
We've got to save those you know..
otherwise they'll keep making cameras
with more megapixels. We have to keep
buying more cameras, and nobody wants to
do that right? Wants that! Alright so
anyways thanks for watching guys. I hope
this was helpful. Be sure to leave
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and I'll see you next time On Set.