A simple shot on the front porch. Great face for a portrait. Don Prince, Nashville stalwart. Traveled with the Charlie Daniels Band, which means the man can pick.
So, great face, simple but eloquent location. First question: How do I not screw this up? First thought in my head was, let’s just keep this simple, huh, Joe? Calm down and don’t try to light the whole damn building.
Did some testing with the ever patient Jon Cospito in place, prior to the arrival of the subject.
Nice try, but no cigar on this one. Good info to judge light and placement though. A couple of the building blocks of location got set down here in the testing phase. Sun at this point was behind the house and to camera right. So, I thought, let’s warm up the scene and make the sun discernible, through the use of flash, from that general direction. Bad idea.
Jon’s expression above says it all. In addition to having my equipment in the photo, which I have done a lot of times, truth be told, I just totally blew out any mood or eloquence the shot might have had hopes for. It was about this moment my subject arrived. Project confidence! “Hi, yeah, almost ready. Looks great!”
Know this. The subject will save you. (Many times, anyway.) Presumably you are photographing them because they have a gift, or charisma, or they have traveled an interesting road and you are trying to picture a hint of that road by making an effective photograph. So when they sit in, the light actually works for them, ’cause it’s their face you’ve been thinking about to photograph, and presumably you’ve chosen the right light–for them.
I settled Don in and quickly moved my simulated sun (read; 3 SB-910 units with CTO gels) over to camera left. Raw lights, no diffusion. All three are perched on a Lastolite tri-flash receptacle. He’s got a face that is made for a simple character portrait, I used a simple, straightforward light–Ezybox Hot Shoe soft box with a white interior. (On an Avenger C-stand.)
Jon is hand holding a little layer of extra diffusion for the upper half of the box, courtesy of a Lastolite tri-grip diffuser. The circular thing on my backside is mosquito repellent. Ah, Nashville in the dead of summer.
My sunset lights are as far away as I can manage, just about, to get a decent exposure. They flare across the ancient porch, and splash just a tiny highlight on Don’s silver mane. Not overmuch, just a hint of late day. And, as you can see from the production shot above, it was not late day at all. But using the Speedlights enabled me to shoot at 1/250th @f5.6, which muted the porch, and emphasized my subject. And also made the sun go down before its time, in a different place.
(For the technically minded, the shot was made on a Nikon D7200 fitted with a 16-80mm lens.)
More tk….
Thank you for sharing the steps and behind the scenes of this beautiful portrait. I love it.
Great mix of light! Why didn’t you show us that trick in your workshop in 2009 at Maine Media? Awesome…makes me wanna dust off those lights again. Thanks Joe.
Fabulous work, as always, Joe! I love that you listed, “Calm down and don’t try to light the whole damn building.” I continued my ongoing work with Opera Birmingham last night, and decided, primarily because the production company had gone with a simple staging and costuming, to go with simple eloquent light, one light, reflector fill. I think I got a little bit of a nervous tick looking at the other packs and heads sitting in the bag saying, “Come on, use me, just a little, maybe a skim kicker back right, you know you want to.” Overall though, it was the right light for the right occasion. Thanks for teaching me that through reading your books and blog, and studying under you in Dubai. Cheers to a wonderful and successful 2016!
Joe, I’m from Mexico, and I’ve been follow you ever since I started in photography a few years back, and still you don’t cease to amaze me with how you attack every different situation on your portraits, you make it look so simple but I’m pretty sure one needs some of those thirty something years of experience in order to process things so smoothly. I really hope one day to be 1% of the photographer you are, I really admire you!
The “make believe” sun looks great, and the softness of the light on his face look terrific too. To actually do this might not be technically so difficult (haha), but for me the genius part is to imagine it would look like this and then go for it. Outstanding. Looking forward for your class in Brazil in April.
I love your innovation. Thanks for being so open and giving!
Does the mosquito thing work? They are bad where I live too
I could tell that was your picture because nothing looks quite like a McNally photo! Great stuff~
Nice outfit the D7200 and 16/80, glad to see you using a consumer level camera/Lens
You make it look so easy. Then I read the narrative.
Hello, Joe. Great pic. No exposure compensations at all for this one? Thanx
You are definitely the master of light Joe. Awesome photo
Cheers back! I hear ya. You bring the lights and they are very seductive. Use me! Sometimes the best parts of a photo are the ones you don’t light. all the best….
Dunno! :-)) Guess I was waiting for Don as a subject! 🙂
Sorta, kinda….it was helpful to be sure. hope you are well Tim…
many thanks!
For a lightweight camera lens combo, that rig is pretty terrific, gotta say. Having fun with it.
The “sun” flashes I think were pretty maxed out. Up front, if I recall, the main light was TTL about minus one….best of my recollection, anyway….
Nice portrait, always love seeing your setup and thought process behind making your great images.
as always, a great read with many take-aways. And re: Keith’s comments about his Opera BIrmingham shoot. . . I just saw a couple and they’re truly beautiful.
Another excellent post! Always learning from you. Anxious to know your take on SB 5000. Cheers.
The “sun” is fantastic!! I want Triflash Bracket now=))
Everytime, Joe – you do it everytime – AMAZE me with your brilliant work! Wish you could come to Denmark for a workshop – I”d be there for sure!
haha… “How do I not screw this up?” I love it! That’s gone through my head more than a few times during a shoot! Awesome portrait Joe! I never know just exactly what it is, but there’s just a combination of a whole lot of things that come together and really make your shots really stunning!
Really wonderful photograph, Joe. The quality of light you achieve on the human face is such a point of inspiration for me. You have a way of diffusing speedlights that makes the light look bounced; or like the scatter of natural light in shade (yet mysteriously directional) which I am constantly endeavoring to harness for my own images. Faces are my favorite ^_^ Thank you so much for sharing what you do, your patience with students, your refreshing humor, and your kindness.
I don’t normally pay much attention to the gear (except for the modifiers). I did see that you are using a D7200 and a 16-80 f/2.8 – 4 for this shot.
That’s unusual gear for a Joe McNally shot. Are you trying to show me how to get a good shot with what I have? 🙂
The balancing act of lighting sometimes eludes me. I have the idea, go out and try it, and come back with images that look ‘flashed’. What is the secret to create seamless images that don’t look artificially lit?
Hey Joe what an excellent post! You sure didn’t have to worry about mossies when you were in chilly London in November as I remember!
Question;Why do you position those “sunset” lights so far away? Is it to create a harder edge to the light?
Awesome photo with great and deep knowledge of light
Exactly that Nick…further the light is away, the more it behaves like natural daylight. all best, Joe
Wow….big question, and it varies from scene to scene, shot to shot. Can’t really help in a couple paragraphs. The one thing I relentlessly do is study where the light is coming from anyway. Windows, doors, etc. and then, often, try to mimic and augment it….best, Joe
It’s a very light camera and the lens is quite sharp. I was experimenting. I shot some of this take on D810, and some on D7200, and the 7200 was the select….
How your mind works, your vision and then your technical execution is why you are the master. The idea of the sunlight streaking across the porch in the way that you would show the road falling behind the subject is just amazing. Then the mix of light to separate the subject from the background letting the background help tell the story is simply magical.
Wonderfully insightful as always Joe. Thank you! Just curious, why the tripod, were you dragging the shutter?
No, Analia…it was a fast shutter speed. I was just trying to retain constancy of the framing and keep my lines relatively straight. all best…
Thanks for all of your insights. I’m thinking that just enough “sunset light” is bouncing off the Tri-grip diffuser and a bit off of the front of the softbox too, so that this reflected flash is warming up the portrait a bit compared to straight flash from the softbox and that this also helps light his face well by boosting the TTL dialed in at -1.
Wonderful shot, love the BTS take that we can learn from. Question: Why D7200 instead of D810?
Most likely true….there had to be a bit of spill back….
Shot D7200 and D810. The select we liked was the crop sensor camera. It performed really well.
Brilliant, both lighting and capture. Love it.
The final image looks quite natural. Nice work, Joe, I’m delighted that I came across your blog.
What’s the green tape on your flashes doing? Is it significant, or just a way of keeping track of everything?
Looking at the gear you use, I thought I was a professional photographer! For now, I ONLY have my Canon camera. Hopefully, in the near future, I too can have some pro gear such as yours.
Yep, it’s about tracking. We have color coded cases, and everything that goes into a case has the same color code. Helps organization out on the road especially.
very useful and also beautiful blog.
great I will try this method on my pictures as well
The effect is simply amazing. Back to the drawing board for me!
Nice photos
yes really nice thought and excellence for your efforts
simple thought and make more like this
Love that you used a D7200,crop sensor dx cameras are what I can afford at this time, so it just goes to show it’s not the equipment but the photographer. Thanks again keep up the good work.
wow I think this is really an awesome and creative style editing of pictures
simple and creative
Love that you used a D7200,crop sensor dx cameras are what I can afford at this time, so it just goes to show it’s not the equipment but the photographer
It looks like a great sunset and amazing visual, great work by photographers.
Amazing stills you had done with nice and reality pics like wise
Nice post. I learn something totally new and challenging on websites I stumbleupon every day. It’s always useful to read through articles from other authors and practice something from other sites.
You explanation behind the scenes are very nice. Thank you for sharing.
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Nowadays this very difficult to handle this.
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Wonderful