Joe McNally: Light on the Subject
When the subject is flash, photographers professional and amateur want the same thing: lighting that looks natural, doesn't call attention to itself and does the job as automatically as possible. And when they attend a workshop about lighting, they want real-world situations, real-world solutions, and frankly, not a lot of technical jargon.
This is exactly what they get from legendary photography and lighting master Joe McNally at the lighting workshops he teaches around the country.
"I think people respond to the workshops and appreciate them because I try my best to demystify the lighting process,"Joe says. "Sure, I get specific questions, but what people really respond to is watching as we all work together to solve a problem."
When we spoke with Joe, he was gearing up for his second run of Dobbs lighting workshops, so named because they're held in his studio in Dobbs Ferry, New York. A series of six one-day intensive sessions in lighting, the workshops cover everything from the basics of one-strobe lighting to elaborate multiple-light studio setups. "We did Dobbs for the first time last year," Joe says, "and it was very successful."A few of the photographs you see here were taken during those sessions.
Most of the photographers who will attend the workshop will be photojournalists, so Joe will place emphasis on demonstrating what can be done with one or more SB-800Speedlights. When used with D2Hand D70digital SLRs, SB-800s open up all the creative possibilities of multiple wireless flash.
The workshop mixes studio and location work, and often the location is close by. "My studio is in a large building,"Joe says, "and we'll do some shooting in the studios of other people in the building. Last year we photographed in a drum repairman's studio and in an artist's space. I bring the class in, we look around and start solving lighting problems."
Because many of the workshop students will be shooting digital, they'll see right away how the solutions are working. "We see what moving a light or adding a light will do for the picture," Joe says. "Now they've got real-world experience with handling this situation, so they know what to do when they face it again."
