Phoenix, AZ Seminars: Registration Opens This Sunday

Registration for the March 15th-16th lighting seminars for Phoenix, AZ, opens this Sunday at 2:00 p.m. Mountain Time.

I originally hoped to be making the I-10 desert drive to open an additional LA date for this trip, but time constraints have me too hemmed in to do so. It is spring break, and we are coming out as a family to visit the Southwest. (I still hope to get to LA sometime later this year, but have no solid plans yet.)

Please note that all of the previous seminars have sold out, some within just a few minutes. And I never know how fast they are going to go. If you want to pre-read the typical seminar setup, along with reviews of past seminars, see the sign-up post for next week's Orlando seminars.

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Readers Making News

Strobist reader Gary Cosby, Jr., who is a staff photographer for The Decatur (AL) Daily, had a nice "on assignment-style" post about using small flashes to create this illustrative portrait about a local low-budget movie director. Click on the pic, or here to read more.

On a sadder and more timely note, if you happened to look at nearly any major paper in the US today you also stood a good chance at seeing Gary photo from the tornadoes which ripped through the southeastern states on Feb. 5 and 6. Gary's photo became the iconic image for a tragedy which left more than 50 people dead, and many more lives altered.

It was lead art in the New York Times and USA Today, among many other papers. You can see his photo, and read his account of making it, here. For those of you interested in pursuing a career in photojournalism, Gary's account offers much for you to learn.
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On the lighter side, my colleague Chris Assaf threw up an OA post of his own on Photo Edge today, blogging about the process of trying to sex up a shot of a keyboard with a little funky bottom light.

Chris has also started a new Photo Edge Flickr group, if you are into the PJ thing and want to mingle.

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Newest Reader Hot Shots

I see lots of cool BMX MTB (oops) pix coming through the Strobist Flickr pool, but every now and then one stops me cold. This one, by Sylvain, AKA RazorImages, breaks a lot of rules. But it totally works for me.

Click the pic to see it bigger, and find out how it was lit with two speedlights. And if you want to see more, click here for a slideshow of the latest Reader Hot Shots.

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L102: 4.3 -- Cross Balance and Sculpt Discussion

Report from the assignment given on January 18th, in which you were asked to shoot a photo predominantly lit in one direction, and partially filled by restricted strobe coming in from another direction. This concept proved a tad elusive for many of you, but there were some cool photos made, all the same.

Pix and more, après le jump.
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This assignment and technique is a pretty tough thing to get, IMO. But it is one of the most useful ways to use a single flash. For instance, Joe McNally is basically doing exactly this -- selectively lighting against the ambient -- in his blog post on lighting a fence.

Seriously, if I put out an assignment for you guys to shoot a fence with a single flash, take a moment to picture in your mind what would come back. But a photo like that in the hands of a photographer who is elegant with his or her light can yield a beautiful photo.

Also: Until he starts explaining to you how he lit it, did you notice that the final photo was not really about the light at all, but the fence? It just looks pretty darn good photo of a fence, is all. When light works really well, it does not call attention to itself. Your mind just explains it away as being natural light. Only really cool natural light.

That is sculpting with restricted light. He restricted it by zooming the flash out to 105mm, which at that range is as good as sticking a snoot onto the flash.

That said, there were some cool shots in this group, too. So let's look at a couple.

Leading off is a nicely done photo that I am reluctant to post because it just reinforces that 94% male thing we apparently have going on here. (I would like to report, for the record, that I am 100% male, whereas you, as a group, are merely 94% male.)

I'm just saying.


Anyway, here is Dat-Tuyen Nguyen's simply and beautifully lit portrait, shot in color but (IMO) looking better converted to black and white.

I really like the photo, but I might have moved the camera-right light up (in direction) a tad. As it is, it is pretty cleavage-oriented. But I suppose that is a matter of personal choice. Remember that you connote a lot about what is important and what is not by what you choose to selectively light.

(And yes, I do expect that there will be some comments -- both ways -- about this...)

That said, I think you will find that any controversy attached to the above photo pales in comparison with that of the following picture, which is by Lowell Sannes:


You see, Lowell is busy shooting his assignment while he is also flying a Boeing-Effing-737 jet plane.

Now, I do not know about you guys, but what I like to hear from my pilot during a flight is the occasional report of the (smooth) weather that is expected ahead, meted out over the intercom in a confident, baritone-pitched voice.

And not something like, "Hey, look, Bob! Every time I do a test pop with my Pocket Wizard the nav displays go nuts!

That's right, the same guy who would prefer that we turn off our pacemakers as he prepares to land the plane is just hunky-dory with a Pocket Wizard transceiver going off repeatedly at 34,000 feet. It's good to be the captain.

Also, I would like to know: Did he actually turn the plane to position the sun correctly?

I can hear it now:

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is Captain Lowell speaking. Shortly, we will be executing a quick l'il barrel roll, so's I can nail my backlight for an important photo. Please do not be alarmed. Oh, and you might wanna buckle up...

That said, what is important in this venue is that it is a very cool pic. And it is just what the doctor ordered for the assignment. Lowell has chosen a scene defined by strong backlight and selectively filled it with restricted flash to light exactly what he wanted lit, and nothing else.

And if I may address Mr. Sannes directly:

You, sir, are the charter member of the Strobist Lighting 102 Six-Mile-High Club. That said, my URL had better not be the most recent address in the browsing history of your charred iPhone when they find it next to the plane's black box.
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Smoldering remains aside, the takeaway from this assignment should be to consider the possibility of working against the direction of the ambient light, and then working some selective light back into it to create a center of interest that is controlled entirely by you.

NEXT: 5.1: Refract and Reflect

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2008 Southern Short Course Now Registering

If you are planning on attending the Southern Short Course in Charlotte, NC (March 27-30) you'll want to register pretty quick. It is an absolute killer deal, at $95 for four days of gettin' your learn on.

I'll be teaching two, two-hour breakouts there on Thursday and Saturday. One is for newbs/students and the other for experienced news photographers. Two hours is short-form, compared to the usual stuff we do. But these short course weekends are fast-paced, and lots of fun.

(Bear in mind that they are geared primarily to the needs of photojournalists.)

:: 2008 SSC Schedule ::
:: 2008 SSC Faculty ::

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Newb Catch-up Day

Is all this off-camera light stuff making your eyes glaze over? We get our fair share of fnugy's (as McNally would say) around here. And we can sometimes lose track of how far we have come as a group since the site began back in 2006.

Fortunately, Paul Duncan (the guy who did the Bogus Artificial Ring Flash and the strobe spotlight thingie) has put together a very nice slideshow video that really nails the basics.

Take a look if you are new. Or even if you are old. And if you haven't yet hit Lighting 101, you'll have a bit of a head start after seeing Paul's very cool slideshow. (Thanks Paul!)
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Related Links:

:: Paul Duncan's Website ::
:: Paul's 'Bogus Artificial Ring Flash' ::
:: Paul's Strobe Spotlight Snoot ::

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Joe McNally: The Moment it Clicks (Verdict: Awesome)

UPDATE: Be sure to read Scott Kelby's post on how this book was born. And I finally figured out what makes this book so different, in terms of pacing and personal touch: It's basically a blog, bound up and printed on pretty paper. McNally has been blogging for the past year, without knowing it.

UPDATE #2: You can hear a great interview with Joe about the book here. (Also via Scott Kelby.)
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Joe McNally's new book, "The Moment it Clicks," is 256 pages of wall-to-wall photos, lighting and photography tips, techniques and war stories from a world-class shooter. And that's not even what makes it so special.

Hit the jump for a full review, and an extra-special surprise after that.
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Sitting here at my laptop trying to wrap my head around what I like so much about this book, I keep drawing blanks. It's not that I cannot find anything to like about it -- it is that I like everything about it.

Joe McNally's 30-year career has seen him shooting for Life (as their only staff photographer at one point), National Geographic, self-generated projects out the wazoo, corporate clients -- you name it. And of course, a guy like this is gonna have a book full of photos and stories that'll knock your socks off.

But given all of that, the thing that jumps out at me from this book is instead how personal it is, and how generous he is with his thought process and know-how. It doesn't feel like he is your teacher, handing out pearls of wisdom from some inaccessible (for you) place. It feels like you are just hanging out after a long day's shooting, and he is talking shop with you over beers in the hotel bar in the evening.

The book is edited by Scott Kelby, who is either a very good editor or knew when to leave good stuff the heck alone. Or maybe some of both. In a seemingly endless stream of photography and photo how-to books, I have never seen one like this.

It is broken into little mini-chapters. Double-trucks, mostly, that hit on one main subject, with a big photo used as an example. There are snippets on lighting, camera position and angles, photographer/subject interaction, seeing light, putting yourself in a position to make a great photo, learning to hit the inevitable curve balls that come at you -- just about everything, really.

The funny thing is, there is no one big secret or silver bullet that makes a shooter like McNally so different from us. It's a million little things. And these things are so simple, and make such sense -- if you have someone to tell you about them.

Little things like how to turn any house into a studio with a bed sheet from the linen closet (covering a doorway and turning a harsh strobe into a giant light source) and a tablecloth (taped to a wall as a quickie backdrop).

Well, yeah. "Of course," you'll say. Only I could have gone another 20 years and maybe never thought of that. D'oh.

McNally is a walking catalog of lighting techniques. But that stuff is not worth a hill of beans if you cannot pre-visualize interesting photos and then do what needs to be done to make sure you and your subject pull them off.

This book gets you inside a working shooter's head like no other book I have ever seen. Those of you who are closer to the beginning of your journey than to the end will find this book invaluable.

Those of us who have been around the block a few times will be at once fascinated to see how he works -- and thinks -- and pissed off that we did not have this book twenty years ago. And the "how he thinks" part is there in spades. All of the little voices in his head are on full display throughout the book.

From simple bedsheets in doorways to complicated production shots (like this one of shortstop Ozzie Smith) he lets you completely inside his thought process to see how he breaks down barriers -- technical and interpersonal -- to produce the photo he first sees in his mind.

And if you think his shoots are a bed of roses, think again. It's the problems -- and how he solves them -- that makes the book so interesting. This is all done with candor and a total lack of pretense that is rare in a book of this level on any subject, let alone photography.

And it is laugh-out-loud funny, too. This is a guy you could have a beer with.


Not Your Average Joe

It is hard to explain how different this thing is from the typical photo book. Just for a little sense of what it is like, let me hit you with the names of a few of the mini-chapters:


• Get the Right Five Minutes
• Have Faith in Your Ideas
• Remember, You're Not Spider-Man
• Put the Light in an Unusual Place
• People Will Think You're Crazy
• Better to Ask for Forgiveness
• The Subject Determines the Light
• Yanko Supremo
• Bring a Chainsaw
• Think Like a Comic Book
• Be a Pest

You know, the typical chapters in a photo book.


The last part of the book is entitled, "Bar Stories," and that is exactly what it is. This is one of the very best things about being a photographer, and reading these makes me wanna shut this whole blog thing down and go back to shooting full-time. It really brings you into the heart of what is so interesting about the profession.

It wouldn't be a photo book without a glossary, but even this is off-kilter. Some terms, in alphabetical order:


• Arc 'im
• Biddybastards
• Cheeseball Piece of S#!%
• Fnugy
• (A) Strong 8
• Valley of the Gels

(FWIW, "Inverse square law" didn't make the cut for this volume.)

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It's a wonderful book, and I suspect many of you will remember it twenty years hence, assuming you still have twenty years left on your odometer. I sure as heck wish I would have had it twenty years ago. When people ask me what they should be reading if they want to be a better shooter, this is where I am gonna send them.


About That Special Surprise

Just as exciting as the book, I am very happy to tell you that McNally has just joined the growing ranks of pro photographers who are also bloggers. He already has a few posts up, and will be adding more as he goes.

You can get a good sense of just who you'll be dealing with by reading his introductory post. I am very much looking forward to seeing where he takes it. He is a great teacher who knows how to break things down so they are intuitive for even the most thick-headed among us.

He's thinking video too, with a new YouTube channel. So he's pretty much in it for the whole nine yards. This is a perfect example of the tipping point I believe we are at WRT the photo industry starting to teach the next generation of photographers in a direct, unfiltered way.

Which is way cool, IMO. Welcome to the sphere, Joe. We are so glad to have you.

And to those of of you who have read the book, I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
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:: Amazon: The Moment it Clicks ::
:: Moment it Clicks: Video Preview ::
:: Scott Kelby on McNally's Book ::
:: Joe McNally's New Blog ::
:: Joe McNally's New YouTube Channel ::

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