MarkBarbieri
Semi-retired
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2006
- Messages
- 6,172
I just finished day two of my two day McNally workshop. It was really more lecture/demonstration rather than workshop. The students didn't shoot; Joe did.
The basic structure was Joe taking questions from the audience or showing a slideshow and discussing it while his assistants set up a shooting area. The workshop was in a theater style room, so it was a horrible place for shooting. The light was dim and very warm, so he did almost no ambient light shooting. Once everything was ready, he worked his way through the shoot, adding and adjusting lights as necessary. The results of his shot were displayed on a large projector screen over the stage.
In one sense, I didn't really learn a lot of new specific techniques. On the other hand, I learned a lot about how to approach a shot. It was interesting to see how he built each shot up one light at a time. So while I didn't learn much from a technical aspect, I still feel that I learned a lot about using lights in my shots. I think for my next shot, I'll slow down and focus on more creative lighting.
It was definitely weird being in a room full of Nikon people. The ratio was probably 3:1 Nikon to Canon shooters. I actually felt a bit self conscious taking out a white lens today. The guy I car pooled with today brought his D3 and had Joe sign it. There were a lot of D3 and D3s's there.
Nikon had a table with just about body and every common lens they sell. They didn't have a D7000 or the new 85mm. Joe had a new 85mm. Here's a quick shot of the lenses he brought. The big, fat one was a 200 f/2. He didn't use it.
Here is a table with some of his 24 speedlights.
He demo'd everything from single, naked on-camera flash to shots with lots of flashes and shots with several studio lights. I learned several new things about flashes. Nikon flashes can be set to fire whenever they see a flash, like slaved studio strobes. Canon's can't do that without an extra accessory. PocketWizards still doesn't have their Nikon TTL radio poppers out. Joe used beta versions and the results were decidedly mixed. Of course, that didn't stop them from releasing Canon ones.
Why does a guy with an almost unlimited supply of speedlights use studio lights for some of his shots? Several reasons. First, a lot of modifiers aren't available for speedlights. There are no large softboxes, for example. Also, the recycle time of studio lights is much, much faster when you are driving them hard. Also, if you are shooting a lot, there are no batteries involved. I'm still wondering why no one makes an AC adapter for speedlights.
He brought in several models for the shots. Because it was at the zoo, he shot a parrot yesterday and a snake today. He had two female models that were there both days and one male model that was only there today.
Liz was a model from The Woodlands. She's only 19 and was incredible as a model. Her dad is also a photographer. He told me that most of her friends are models as well, so he has lots of good subjects to work with.
This is Liz waiting to be shot.
These are shots of the screen showing the results of a couple of shots. This first is a demo of a shot using a 6'x6' sheet blocking a doorway with a speedlight shooting through it. We experimented with various ways to trigger the speedlight since it couldn't "see" the camera.
This was a shot from the end of the first day. It was shot with a single off-camera strobe way back in the back of the room. I think the main purpose was for Joe to have a bit of fun at the expense of someone that asked if we would use a cookie. A cookie is something used in movies to cast interesting shadows to simulate things like light coming through leaves.
Here is Liz in front of some light panels. These were often used as focus lights (dim lights used so that the camera could focus, but not bright enough to affect the picture). In this case, they were used for background lighting. They are really cool. They are large enough to be relatively soft and they can be color switched from daylight to tungsten. I thought they'd be great for video, so I looked them up on Amazon. $2,600 each! I guess not.
I've already forgotten the name of our other models. Both were very good.
This one had a habit of making funny faces when she got bored or flustered. Joe was very quick to snap whenever she made an odd face.
The male model looked almost exactly like me except that his hair was different and his skin was darker. We have almost the exact same body style except that I carry more of my wait in my stomach rather than my pecs.
All in all, it was a lot of fun and very interesting. The only problem is that I now have another dozen things that I want to buy (speedlight grids, a 15 foot flash cable, a strip light with a grid, C-stands, and Justin clamps, to name a few).
Joe is not much of a salesman. He's got a new book available for pre-order and he hadn't even mentioned it by half way through the second day. During one of the question rounds I asked him about it because I couldn't stand to see him not pitching it. Heck, I knew that there would be a bunch of people in the audience that would like to know about it.
The workshop was very different from the Ziser one I went to. David Ziser's was really focused on learning one basic lighting style and trying to work out basic formulas for quick, repeatable success in getting portrait shots on location. Joe's was focused on approaching each shot differently and methodically working out the lighting that best suited the circumstances and the story you wanted to tell. Both are very successful photographers giving good advice, but their advice was very different.
The basic structure was Joe taking questions from the audience or showing a slideshow and discussing it while his assistants set up a shooting area. The workshop was in a theater style room, so it was a horrible place for shooting. The light was dim and very warm, so he did almost no ambient light shooting. Once everything was ready, he worked his way through the shoot, adding and adjusting lights as necessary. The results of his shot were displayed on a large projector screen over the stage.
In one sense, I didn't really learn a lot of new specific techniques. On the other hand, I learned a lot about how to approach a shot. It was interesting to see how he built each shot up one light at a time. So while I didn't learn much from a technical aspect, I still feel that I learned a lot about using lights in my shots. I think for my next shot, I'll slow down and focus on more creative lighting.
It was definitely weird being in a room full of Nikon people. The ratio was probably 3:1 Nikon to Canon shooters. I actually felt a bit self conscious taking out a white lens today. The guy I car pooled with today brought his D3 and had Joe sign it. There were a lot of D3 and D3s's there.
Nikon had a table with just about body and every common lens they sell. They didn't have a D7000 or the new 85mm. Joe had a new 85mm. Here's a quick shot of the lenses he brought. The big, fat one was a 200 f/2. He didn't use it.
Here is a table with some of his 24 speedlights.
He demo'd everything from single, naked on-camera flash to shots with lots of flashes and shots with several studio lights. I learned several new things about flashes. Nikon flashes can be set to fire whenever they see a flash, like slaved studio strobes. Canon's can't do that without an extra accessory. PocketWizards still doesn't have their Nikon TTL radio poppers out. Joe used beta versions and the results were decidedly mixed. Of course, that didn't stop them from releasing Canon ones.
Why does a guy with an almost unlimited supply of speedlights use studio lights for some of his shots? Several reasons. First, a lot of modifiers aren't available for speedlights. There are no large softboxes, for example. Also, the recycle time of studio lights is much, much faster when you are driving them hard. Also, if you are shooting a lot, there are no batteries involved. I'm still wondering why no one makes an AC adapter for speedlights.
He brought in several models for the shots. Because it was at the zoo, he shot a parrot yesterday and a snake today. He had two female models that were there both days and one male model that was only there today.
Liz was a model from The Woodlands. She's only 19 and was incredible as a model. Her dad is also a photographer. He told me that most of her friends are models as well, so he has lots of good subjects to work with.
This is Liz waiting to be shot.
These are shots of the screen showing the results of a couple of shots. This first is a demo of a shot using a 6'x6' sheet blocking a doorway with a speedlight shooting through it. We experimented with various ways to trigger the speedlight since it couldn't "see" the camera.
This was a shot from the end of the first day. It was shot with a single off-camera strobe way back in the back of the room. I think the main purpose was for Joe to have a bit of fun at the expense of someone that asked if we would use a cookie. A cookie is something used in movies to cast interesting shadows to simulate things like light coming through leaves.
Here is Liz in front of some light panels. These were often used as focus lights (dim lights used so that the camera could focus, but not bright enough to affect the picture). In this case, they were used for background lighting. They are really cool. They are large enough to be relatively soft and they can be color switched from daylight to tungsten. I thought they'd be great for video, so I looked them up on Amazon. $2,600 each! I guess not.
I've already forgotten the name of our other models. Both were very good.
This one had a habit of making funny faces when she got bored or flustered. Joe was very quick to snap whenever she made an odd face.
The male model looked almost exactly like me except that his hair was different and his skin was darker. We have almost the exact same body style except that I carry more of my wait in my stomach rather than my pecs.
All in all, it was a lot of fun and very interesting. The only problem is that I now have another dozen things that I want to buy (speedlight grids, a 15 foot flash cable, a strip light with a grid, C-stands, and Justin clamps, to name a few).
Joe is not much of a salesman. He's got a new book available for pre-order and he hadn't even mentioned it by half way through the second day. During one of the question rounds I asked him about it because I couldn't stand to see him not pitching it. Heck, I knew that there would be a bunch of people in the audience that would like to know about it.
The workshop was very different from the Ziser one I went to. David Ziser's was really focused on learning one basic lighting style and trying to work out basic formulas for quick, repeatable success in getting portrait shots on location. Joe's was focused on approaching each shot differently and methodically working out the lighting that best suited the circumstances and the story you wanted to tell. Both are very successful photographers giving good advice, but their advice was very different.
