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| © Joe McNally |
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In addition to his versatile body of work for such magazines as National Geographic, Sports Illustrated, The New York Times Magazine, Time, and Newsweek, photographer Joe McNally is also a sought-after educator, sharing how-to tips and telling anecdotes at workshops and lecture series throughout each calendar year. In McNally's new book, The Moment It Clicks: Photography Secrets from One of the World's Top Shooters (New Riders Publishing, $55), he shows off both of these aspects. One one hand, the book is a retrospective of McNally's editorial, portrait, and commercial photography made over more than three decades. Each spread contains a single image from his portfolio, ranging from serious photojournalistic assignments to lyrical personal projects.
But much of McNally's accompanying text reads like a how-to manual, with case studies about how particular imaging problems were solved, tips about lighting and exposure, and generous doses of McNally's folksy, witty lecturing style. "Scott Kelby, of Photoshop fame, is the editor of the book and the real reason it is published," confides McNally. "He took one of my lighting classes and urged me to start writing down what I was teaching, in a conversational, irreverent way, which is the way I teach. Thus the tone of the book."
For more information about how McNally's book was put together, check out this background clip created by Nikon. For more on his work and teaching schedule, visit his website.
Aside from technical tips, McNally's book showcases a mastery of the medium that's grounded in common sense. "I can't tell you how many pictures I've missed, ignored, trampled, or otherwise lost just 'cause I've been so hell bent on getting the shot I think I want," the photographer relates in "Shoot What You Love," the book's first chapter. "You always have to go into the field with an idea. Hopefully, a good idea. But a good idea becomes a bad idea when you don't see anything else. So turn around. Look around." What follows are a few more of McNally's book excerpts and their accompanying photographs.
Click photos to enlarge.
Prepare to Launch
McNally says this photo was part of a magazine assignment to take a tongue-in-cheek look at the U.S. Winter Olympic Team. "I always had a good relationship with the people who run the Empire State Building, so I asked if I could put a skier at the edge of the building. Surprisingly, they said yes," he recalls. "We're about 100 stories up and the wind is just howling, so it's not the time for an umbrella or a softbox. I took a strobe, positioned it to the right of the camera and put on a honeycomb spot grid so the light wouldn't spill over everything." "Look at the window to her left. Imagine the same photo if that window was black," he adds. "By putting a little light into it, the window comes alive and the picture has more depth. So I put a strobe head in there covered with a blue gel (which worked well with her orange suit). Once the lighting was in place, we put her in position, waited for dusk, and shot very quickly. It wound up as a double truck in Life."
Another Side of Tony
For a portrait of Tony Bennett for Parade magazine, McNally shot several background variations, including this deliberately dark one. "He loved the old prop microphone and he turned that wonderful, soulful face into the one light, and it was the picture of the day," McNally recalls. "In a scene like this, you try to match the light to the mood. Tony's very soulful, so the last thing I'm going to do is blast him with a whole bunch of brassy, hot light. I positioned a big Octabank1 to my camera's left and slightly behind him, so it starts to wrap around that famous Bennett profile."
Accenting Beauty with Light
This is an illustration of "The Over-Under," as McNally calls it. "This is a lighting combo that gives you the classic 'glamour look.' Use two softboxes. Position them high and low. Think of an open clamshell with your subject's face at the open edge, and your camera peering at him or her from the other side. The upper source is middling size...say 3x4'. The lower light is smaller, maybe 1x2'. The higher source is dominant in terms of size and exposure. It runs maybe a stop to a stop-and-a-half over the output of the lower box, or fill. "Move your subject into the wide end of the clamshell, as tight as they can get. Fill the frame. Photographer adds a dash of appropriately encouraging/suave/smarmy/inane patter from camera, and voila! This is a light grid for the ladies, who, if you do this right, will love you forever."
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