Photographer Daniel Norton is one of the most prolific photographers in New York. He is especially known for his ongoing collaboration project with AdoramaTV called “OnSet“. In one of latest episodes, Daniel discusses the making of a colorful portrait of Larena using a mixture of gels to light the white wall of his studio.

The secret ingredient to create this “stained Glass” effect is a few colored gels taped to a “cookie” – a piece of foam board with cutout shapes to create peculiar patterns. Using Rosco Gel Kit, Daniel mixed gels of different colors to create a certain mood/vibe to a photo.

WHAT IS THE SETUP?

For this setup Daniel uses two profoto strobes. First one is pointed at the cookie with gels to flash through and create stained glass effect on the background. Second strobe is pointed towards the model from camera’s left side, almost at 90˚ horizontal angle. Daniel uses simple rectangular soft box at the close distance to create soft light with smooth transition into shadows. On the opposite side from the model there is a white bounce board that acts as secondary fill light source that makes that transition even smoother. 

! The important aspect of this setup is that the key light, pointed towards the model on a side, never spills light on the background to avoid diminished saturation of gel colors.

WHAT ARE CAMERA SETTINGS?

Daniel uses cool medium format camera Hasselblad X1D-50c with 90mm Hasselblad F/3.2 XCD lens . He shoots at F8, with shutter speed 1/250, and ISO 200.

Here is how the image looks without strobes turned on.

Here is how the image looks with just the background, cookie-gel light.

And here is the final setup with both strobes on.

WATCH THIS “OnSet” EPISODE ON YOUTUBE: