Oh boy, what a birthday gift I got this year
!! Kamila bought me Joe McNally’s advanced workshops in Dobbs Ferry, NY. My friend and photographer – Pete – always wanted to go and see Joe at work, but I was hesitating, since I’ve been to McNally’s workshops last year, and New York is not exactly around the corner. This year, Joe and his crew came up with something new – Advanced Workshops – I knew it would be super cool and I could learn something new. Advanced workshops were more intensive, setup and techniques were more complex than the last year workshops, and after lunch Joe split us into 4-5 person groups and we got to use whatever is available in the studio to shoot gorgeous models inside and around the building.
It was awesome to see master at work…
Joe checking the result on Mac HD display, I’m not an expert, but he looks quite happy
Entire group (15 peeps) could see what’s the end result on Joe’s MacBook Pro screen and 24″ Apple LED display:
Crew as always was super helpful and ready to answer every question. Here’s Andrew, ugh, Andrew’s back I mean…
Joe using his Lastolite Ezbox and CLS
Joe explaining and working photography technique that he learned in France: bouncing light from inside those big reflective doors and then white wall – the result – super soft wrapping light:
and here is the result
Before we broke for lunch we covered how to turn small flashes into big ones, how to integrate small and big lights, how to work out the ratio between flashes, and used high speed sync. Also we covered some basics like how to change WB depending on the situation, and that one light setup works for one model/outfit, but not necessary for another one. It was great to watch Joe working, creating problems on purpose just so he can solve them and share the knowledge with us.
After lunch Joe showed us some advanced techniques, which is stroboscope motion photography, double exposure, etc. I didn’t use my camera there, since it was pitch black, and I wanted to focus on watching and understanding Joe, but if you want to check it out, click here. Joe started with two light sources (left and right), and 2 exposures, so he can freeze the subject, but get the motion blur as the subject moves. But that wasn’t quite working as he would like it to, so he ended up with single exposure.
Joe explained what he calls “Triage mode” – how to step out of the fire and finish up the shoot and deliver picture you’re getting paid for. Not always everything is as we would like it to be, and sometimes you’re not creating art, you’re just saving your ass
After that we (4-5 person group) had 2 hours with the models, and Joe was checking with us throughout that time, making sure that we’re getting the results we wanted and if not – giving advices how to achieve that.
Because it was pretty bright (and hot) in the studio, I decided to use Flash Zebra 24 feet cord, so I can go high speed via E-TTL. I knew I cannot go crazy with it (like 1/800th), because of power loss, so I stayed just a little bit over my max sync speed (1/200th). I used my 85mm 1.2 and 24mm 1.4 @ 2.8 and below.
Steve – another photographer in our Canon group (all other groups were Nikon) had that strive to use CTO gels and go tungsten on white balance, and I actually liked the resultA little bit moody, more dramatic, but at the same time pretty cool:
Then we went to another location, and I noticed that if I underexpose the glassy ceiling by 1 – 1&1/2 stop I will get pretty cool result. Of course I had to light our beautiful subject, otherwise she’d be silhouetteWe used 580EX II + Lastolite Ezbox for upper part of the body and 580EX II + reflector for lower body.
CTO + tungsten WB again:
Another location we were able to squeeze in during our 2hr shoot, very moody and dramatic, specially when you bring your shutter speed up to 1/800 of a sec and kill ambient light (last picture). As a main light source – Lastolite Ezbox via Fash Zebra cord, because I wanted to shoot wide open with my 24mm…
Couldn’t decide which one I like better, so I uploaded both: straight out of camera and b&w
After that we went up to the roof for “great finale” – Joe was overpowering the sun with 6x SB900. Lot going on here: mattress for amortization, Maria Arce jumping with knives and swords, lots of flashes…
Here is Joe and my buddy Pete shooting Maria
Yup, that’s it. It was definitely worth it! I’d love to go to Joe’s workshops again, maybe next time to that 5 days one in Santa Fe
– I hope you’re reading this Kamilabut seriously, it was great experience to watch Joe doing his magic, and it was worth every penny.
Thanks again to Kamila for the best birthday gift ever and to Pete for spending it with me!
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by bizior
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