The Desert, Part II

[mtonktonki]

odd choice of models, first one (guy) was good but still..

[locknuter]

it looks HDR to me if you have 2 x 500w strobes you have 500w of light just from 2 places not 1000w of light so have a heap of speed light is like a long soft box you have only pread your light out

[GatoBandido]

is not much easier to use an elinchrome ranger quadra kit?

[Naqui330]

omg !!! it goes to my favourites !! so damn nicee

[rmstudio]

Well yes you are correct. But I dont know if I would go as far as calling Joe a jerk etc.. The guy is actually somewhat nice and pretty skilled at what he does for many years. But the thing I was very much against he is not being honest and is only showing all this Multi Pocket 400 dollar flash set ups to "Sell" stuff for his sponsoring Manufactures he is getting paid to endorse. I think he is starting to feel the heat now as he is saying different things now in his seminars. from what I heard.

[commercialzoo]

The video was great!

[valordk]

now that's amazing.

How is the background is so well exposed in such high speeds?

[pbmax]

@valordk The camera's fstop exposes the model and your shutter speed is adjusted for the background. The flashes are super fast on their own and will freeze the model perfectly. So, you can have a very slow shutter speed of 1/10 sec to expose the background with an fstop of f11 for the model and the flash will still freeze everything.

[icekiller151]

@pbmax valordk your wrong 1/10 i very to much slow and its will do the samething if your doing light painting

[surferjc]

@pbmax you my friend clearly do not understand what Joe is showing you here... and are also being rather rude about something you must not have much experience in producing yourself....!

[Goffer30]

The camera is a TINY part of the equation here!

[4Firearms]

Should have saved his money and got a H4D-200MS Digital Camera.

[profineger]

@4Firearms no a 200MS is not a Sport Camera. Buy a hasselblad h4d 60 for Portrait and Fashon shots.

[Goffer30]

As a user of FP high speed sync, i can tell you In bright sunshine I have to use 3 or 4 Canon 580ex with diffusers to get a good quality of light. Overkill? Maybe...but it's a different style that sets me apart and keeps me busy.

[4Firearms]

@Goffer30 Save your money at get a H4D-200MS Digital Camera

[AshtonPhoto]

I just want to know why they would rig up seven SB800s when one Alien Bee B400 with a Vagabond power pack would have done the job. Something I'm not aware of?

Cannot argue with the shots though, nor would I dare.

[spasmoid1971]

@AshtonPhoto That's a good question. And why wouldn't you dare argue? That's just silly. The shots are good, but there are different ways to skin a cat and I think your suggestion about the Alien Bees is a valid one.

[AshtonPhoto]

@spasmoid1971

I was just thinking of having to change out all those AAs!!!

One B800 is $350 and a Vagabond is under $300.

But you know what? I'm not the guy with a cool desert video, so who am I to say.

[Kadadj]

Holy shit, thats a lot of slaves

[Mr80three]

~~hey does anyone know which soft box he uses the SB900 & does that same softbox fit the SB600

[DreamBind]

I want one of those christmas trees!

[erbro]

The sync speed does not depend on your strobe, it depends on your body. And 1/8000 is silly as a sync speed. Try taking a picture on 1/8000 with any strobe, and you will just have a narrow horizontal band.

The SB's are faster than studio strobes indeed. They flash in 1/8000 of a second, while studio strobes flash in 1/3200 of a second. I'm not sure the extra speed is necessary for freezing this action.  Reduce the ambient light by aperture and iso.

[likeawhispr]

most of you are getting the wrong idea- just see how much light you get from a speedlight, when syncing at an insane speed such as 1/8000... most of you will be in for a big surprise (shaking head). Shoot at 1/8000 with a few speedlights at f/10, then get back to me.

[Tortuga699]

It depend what kind of flash you have and how many you got, if you have 7+ sb800/900 and good ambiant light you'll get some where.

[Goffer30]

@likeawhispr been there but used 9 of em! got decent light!

3 wont do it...8 will....

[Kadadj]

Isnt it pretty bad to get sand in your lens?

[Brotmaschine08]

wow. the sync speed of a the sb900s is 1/800th??

damn, thats fast...

i was gonna ask how he could achieve this short exposure with that much light and a sync speed of 1/500 :D

Question:

how can i achieve something similar with a sync speed of 1/500?

Crank up the f/number at the lowest ISO with a gray filter??

[rgrebby]

Whats the music to this?

[ikarus19]

@rgrebby RJD2 -- "Ghostwriter"

[handsomelok]

mind-blowing images ......... 

[Angelika902]

wow..so nice))

[Minefieldz]

rmstudio - If you understand manual photography with the Nikon Creative System you can achieve very faster shutter speeds e.g 1/8000th than a conventional studio flash system - If my subject is moving faster than 1/250th your sure fire going to have a form of blur at high speed. With closing down apertures to f22 and speeding up the shutter you can pretty much zero out back ground ambient light and use the Nikon SB 900's to control the overall lighting.

[rmstudio]

Mhogan35 and the reason he is doing this is because he does not have enough power with 7 hotshoe flashes in order to bring up the exposure enough to sync with it.. With a 2,000 watt head he can easily achieve 1/250 sync speed at f-22 this is done all day long in the fashion photography business.. Your a perfect example of the newbie photog that is "Raised" on Camera Makers beliefs or brainwashed way to do things.. Which was my point of all my comments.

[Minefieldz]

@rmstudio I want you to freeze the action of the guy doing backflips with a conventional profoto light setup :-) Blur city there you go! With the Nikon Flash system it all the way to the top end with 1/8000th of sec I'm sorry to to say that 90% of the time in a fashion shoot with the gurus nobody is doing extreme things except for a pose here and there and nothing much that would require a person to be faster than the average...

[rmstudio]

@Minefieldz WTF??? Make sense... Sorry I am not going to spend that kind of money on 7 hotshoe flashes for something I can get 100 times more milage and usage out of with a set of profoto lights... Granted this guy did not have to "Buy" These hotshoe flashes.. This is something nikon cooks up to sell newbies on the idea of buying that many 450 dollar flashes x7.... Yah there a "FEW" times that it maybe useful but rare... Next time make sense..

[paradox963]

@Minefieldz Do you have any idea what your talking about. The 8000th of a second has nothing to do with freezing action when working with flash your flash duration does that the high shutter speed is used to knock down the ambient light. You could do the same thing easy with the Elinchrom Ranger he is using later in the vid and just use some ND filters to cut down the ambient light.

[rmstudio]

P.S. Nothing against the photographer good images and all but he basically being "paid" to use 7 ineffecient flashes to do this task or job.. When a "Normal" commercial shooter would use a "Power Pack" like a Profoto or Balcar packs at 1,000 watts to 2,000 watts out of a single head easily over power the sun in the Flash Daylight Set up.. No commercial shooter would ever buy 7x400 dollar flashes to do this job unless he was forced to..

[turkishdelight6983]

@rmstudio exactly what I was thinking!!! It would be easier to carry around than that stupid tree!

[JohnAgustin]

@turkishdelight6983 lol 2 reasons man. portability and high sync speed. profotos need power, these sbs only need batteries. and profotos sync at 1/200th of a second. make sense now?

[rmstudio]

Yah this may look like the way to do this with 7 pocket flashes if your "Sponsored" by Nikon and get all those flashes given to you.. And the reason for this is to make newbie amateurs think its better to buy 7 x 400.00 = 2,400$ ?? When you could buy one Profoto studio power pack with 10x the power and control than 7 hotshoes flash.. Duh do the math Your a idiot if you buy 7 hotshoe flash. Unless your forced to "Pack Light" ie Cave explore back packing in your lights. Strobist people get a clue

[pbmax]

@rmstudio Your 100% correct! This dumb-ass is sponsored by Nikon and uses an unrealistic amount of expensive pocket flashes.

Just go online and get an Einstein strobe plus soft-box and get tons more adjustable power for half the price!!!! All these videos of this jerk-off are fuckin stupid as fuck.

[icekiller151]

@rmstudio 7x400 = 2800 lol

[logan41891]

Joe McNally is my hero!

(what song is this)

[experienceoner]

@logan41891  song : rjd2 ghostwriter

[logan41891]

@experienceoner thanks dudeeee :)

[moocho1]

7 x 400.00 = 2,400$ ?? this is why people put tutorials up! listen/read what they do...then go do what YOU want to do...like RE-learn math, then complain about what the HAVE's use....and how the HAVE NOT's arrive at the same type shots

[zbyneksin]

Hey Joe, great video and work. thanks. Your books are also great. I have a couple at home =)

[blackp0101]

good photos. I wish you could manage the horizon line absolutly horizontle here.

Its tilted to left ..

[agun17]

Fuckload of flashes.

Almost looks as if they where greenscrened then layered in photoshop.

[MsPhotographychick]

I really enjoyed it! I learned alot... thank you!

[sheetbreaker]

cannot help myself looking at all those movements!! Au sem mao, and such! capoeira right?? or not..?

[carlbertossi]

great work !!

keep up :)

I have dream have opportunity to do that kind of work like you :)

[XXXXXXXXZ]

I may be wrong, but I think that he uses as much light so he can overpower the sun

[ChicoCDM]

@XXXXXXXXZ You are wrong. The quality of light is the SIZE of the light sources relative to the subject.. McNally is a a world class photorapher that is proud of being near afraid of using photoshop - although I'm sure he's getting, if not gotten over that. If you look at his set up - its solid. Fill flash from the front and a larger light source ( in the form of um what 6 flashes) of set. Shooting with a D3 - MONEy and why he's Joe Mcnally.

[ChicoCDM]

@XXXXXXXXZ I think I missed what you were saying. He uses a shorter depth of field to reduce the sun along with a faster shutter speed while utilizing FP (Focal Point) High Speed Sync flash. i.e. Wide aperture - blurs background - Fast shutter speed reduces light - Auto FP makes up for it with large flash bank shot around (if not upwards of) 1/1000 shutter speed - my best guess. I can't imagine he shot this in aperture priority - though - yuo never know. But doubtful.

[nwagner122]

No, he would use a deeper DOF to reduce the sun (such as f/16). Using a shallower DOF such as 2.8 would require the use of ND filters or something of the like. He could use HSS, though, I doubt he did. He had no real reason to use a shallow DOF considering there was not a lot of a background there to be distracting.

I agree with you, I would be shocked if he didn't use manual.

[ChicoCDM]

I can see your point BUT! I know for a fact he shot this at 1/8000 so at that shutter speed he'd have to open it up a little for the background. I'm willing to bet he would not need a filter for that. BUT I have never shot at 1/8000 yet so I can only go from my experience shooting lower than 1/1000 most of the time. My best guess. BUT when I see him at NAPP PhotoWorld Expo this year I hope I can ask him. Unfortunately I am choosing the class with David Ziser instead of McNally.

[nwagner122]

If he shot at 1/8000 then obviously he did use HSS.

That being said, I was mostly referring to your statement "He uses a shorter depth of field to reduce the sun" which wouldn't work. Using a shorter DOF (or larger aperture) would increase the sun not decrease it.

[ChicoCDM]

I don't know man. 1/8000 is hell of a fast shutter speed. My opinion is still that he shot shallow. I'd love to get the opportunity to ask him. But if he shot at a deeper depth there should be some sun rays showing. I can't imagine it not being a shallow DOF.

[nwagner122]

it might not have been a deep DOF, my argument was merely that one would not use shallow DOF in order to reduce the sun, as using a wider aperture lets more sun in, thus increasing the sun rather than decreasing the sun.

[ChicoCDM]

I see where you are coming from but maybe I either didn't phrase it properly or you are misreading me BUT - to blur the sun he HAD to use the short DOF. Shooting at 1/8000 would seriously reduce the exposure. Cranking up those speed flashes would make up for it and having a wide open aperture would allow both more light in and blur the sun - the sun is DEFINITELY blurred. So it may not have been wide open but definitely short. I still think my guess is good.

[nwagner122]

yes, I did either misread or something. Anyway, I see what you're saying and I am in agreement, shooting at 1/8000 plus the FP would work, and it does explain the lack of sun rays. Makes sense to me.

[arrozconpollo]

nice photoshop

[lukasgisbert]

Hi Joe, such a great location and what a shot. I just have a question, the end shots showing on the video, were they the originals or have you done any work on photoshop to get this final result. Thank you again for this great video.

[ChicoCDM]

@lukasgisbert from watching and reading a lot of Mr McNally's stuff - he is proud of getting it right in the camera - although I'm sure he does do some editing - I doubt its as much as someone like me who is the opposite. I pride myself in sparing no expense ( be it time or otherwise) to produce fabulous shots for my clients.

[likeawhispr]

You can expect to lose several stops in real world shooting. Try to shoot close to your subject with a really high shutter speed and you'll likely notices darkness in one half of the frame. FP is "ok" at shutter speeds that are less than say, 1/500 as it's nice to add a bit of fill on bright afternoons to combat unwanted shadows, etc.

[ConstantlyQuestion]

Does anyone know how much flash power you loose in FP mode?

[JONTEJOY]

Amazing!

[PippoWasHere]

you are absolutely awesome!

as a teenage photographer i can't have a better inspiration than you!

[beef7790]

@PippoWasHere you totally can

[citizenofvirginity]

@PippoWasHere He's my number one inspiration...

[Mhogan35]

For those who don't know, the reason he's using the SB's, versus a "studio flash", is because he's achieving a sync speed of 1/8000th of a second, via the Nikon CLS system... You can't do that with a studio strobe.

Now, if I couldn't only afford a bunch of SB900s, hehe...

[Daspankster0000]

Sync speed of 1/8000th isn't necessary for these shots. You can get these shots with battery power Rangers, however, your sync speed may max at 1/250th. Seems a bit over kill...... 7-SB 900's, 6-ext battery packs , 2-C-stands = approx. $5,000(lighting). If I could afford it, I would have it though. A person could get the same images for less than a $900. I like his vids, I have learned much from him. If Joe went dear hunting he'd be the one with the 50 Cal. LOL!! He's always ready for anything!

[HillClimbersForum]

what is the benefit of that sync speed? sorry im a newb.

[ELTEATROESTUDIO]

@Mhogan35 I understand the maximum sync speed a nikon can handle is 1/250th, are you serious a sync speed of 1/8000th can be achieved???

[Tortuga699]

@ELTEATROESTUDIO If you use the "Auto FP" option with sb600+ you can go up that high. But here if you look closely youll see that the sb on the camera is directed toward all the others flash serving as the one who will start all the other flash (those are probably in SU-mode (optical slave)) at very low power so the light are short and fast (thats why he got so many flash, to make sure he get light well). I think its that but I might be wrong, sry for my English.

[skellingtone]

@ELTEATROESTUDIO Auto FP lets you sync to 1/8000... Seriously. Nikon CLS all the way!

[Axxex]

@Mhogan35 Is it me or the look like HDR's

[eakiboz]

@Mhogan35 how can i sync to 1/8000 ?? or what do i need to do ?

thx 

[likeawhispr]

@Mhogan35 Why on earth would he need a sync speed of 1/8000? You can get the same result from simply shooting the background first to your satisfaction, then using a (quick) studio strobe and ND filter (shut out the ambient) to stop the subject mid-motion. When it's dark out, you don't need a fast shutter speed, all you need is a fast burst of light from a quality strobe as it (the light) becomes you shutter speed for all practical purposes. No way would I buy all those speedlights!

[Nilz4FR]

@Mhogan35 that is wrong....I have shot sync speed of 1/8000 with the hensel, you just have to know how :)

[leave12]

@Mhogan35 Do what I did to afford them. Pimp out your mother, she earns me shit-loads.

[shanman1168]

@Mhogan35

YEAH!!!! the sync speed!!!! Right!!! Now I get it!!! Brilliant.... I thought for a second.. "why in the hell doesn't he use strobes..." ...... now I GET IT!!!! COOL!

[shanman1168]

@Mhogan35

YEAH!!!! the sync speed!!!! Right!!! Now I get it!!! Brilliant.... I thought for a second.. "why in the hell doesn't he use strobes..." ...... now I GET IT!!!! COOL!

hi-speed sync only works in TTL, right?

[Webcz]

Those Nikon hotshoe flashes are silly, but good job anyway ;) I think you know wham I'm talking about...

[younessy]

Joe, the images are unreal!! I absolutely adore your work!

[mrtrixterathotmail]

Great clip. You GOT skills!!!

[digitalgraphixvideos]

where is "The Desert, Part I" ?

[joshuamichaelcomau]

I think its desert shoot w/Joe McNally

[kwerfeldein]

Very good, Joe. I'm just wondering (and admiring) that you still keep using the small strobes. But is ist worth the work of setting up all the SB's? Nevertheless - Very cool ;)

[shadowblack1987]

Nikon's make the best speedlights on the market. It is true that most photographer would want more powerful strobes (especially in the desert), but he is using his strobes at close range for fill light and key light so.... if it ain't broken, don't fix it :D

[trollhunter]

Uh, don't quit your still-photography job...