To Get the Shot, Ya Gotta Break the Rules

Question: Joe, on page 1 of Chapter 1 in "The Moment It Clicks" is an image of a ballerina on a very steep roof, being photgraphed by someone. Is that you? What is the deal on this shot? Where and how was it done, and how was the ballerina protected from falling off? Thanks.

Question: I am on a very limited budget and every month I treat myself to some kit. I have a Pentax with a 360 flash and some reflectors, and started buying correcting Gels etc. For me to become proficient with flash lighting, what's the minimum amount of flash units I could get away with -- e.g. 2 or 3-- in order to develop my skill set? I am still using my 18-55 kit lens and can probably save for for a better one, but I am inclined to want to get another flash unit in order to get really good at this. I also bought a Honl 1/4 grid and thinking about a 1/8 as well to slowly build up my kit.

Question: When I looked at the video, "Joe McNally - Empire State Building," I could see the original shot looked much lighter (earlier in the day?) than what I saw on page 3 (worker holds bulb) in The Moment it Clicks, but more like the one on page 236 (Joe takes photo), although a bit lighter.

Here are short answers to some great questions!

Question: I have just upgraded to an FX body and I'm debating between which two lenses that I should get, the 14-24mm or the 24-70mm.  I shoot events and people in their environments. Which lens would you recommend for those types of photographs?

Question: I just finished reading "The Moment It Clicks" and liked the idea of "30 magenta plus full green equals good sunset" as I'm in AZ and the better it gets the better it gets. So I checked how much a 72mm 30 magenta would cost at B&H: $90 + shipping = I couldn't try it now. Not so good.

Question: Joe, what I would like to know is whether you use some kind of predefined camera profiles that do some work inside of the camera already. Color correction (not white balance), contrast etc... Is there something that allows you to do that, especially without losing quality?

Question: On your Kelby training video for lighting with one flash, you were shooting a model in a warehouse near the end of the day with a speedlight outside the door. Can you tell me why you use aperture priority and use minus EV instead of Manual mode? Can you also tell me how the speedlight outside is set up, compensation, diffuser or not, zoom, etc.?

Here are short answers to some great questions!

Question: How much creative control do you keep when it comes to post production? For example, the mountains behind the building show a distinct "sunset" light on the mountain tops that wasn't there in the photo.  Did you tell them to put that in?  Did your post-production guy decide to do it himself?  Is it a committee decision?

Question: What lenses do you recommend for family or group portraits?

Question: How would you show the rain a little better than in this photo and still show the runners well?  What settings would you use for this photo?

Question: On the Coast Guard swimmer shoot, how did you protect your camera and SB's from the spray?  How about cleanup afterwards?

Question: I want to know what inspires you and what makes you a good photographer?

Question: Joe, what are your top 3 lens choices for shooting portraits (standard situations) and why?

Here are short answers to some great questions!

Question: I am watching your Kelby training videos and your other YouTube videos. You seem to rely a lot on the Nikon CLS system. When you take a shot, it almost always comes out looking good on the first or second try. Specifically, when you have a dark foreground and bright background, your CLS seems to expose perfectly.
 
When I try to do it, 99% of the time my foreground is underexposed with flash because it is reading the bright background under matrix metering. And I can sync at 1/500!
 
How do you do it? Are you on Matrix metering and Aperture priority? How do you account for that bright background? I tried the underexposure by 2 method, and it still doesn't work under CLS.

Question: You use a lot of the small flashes - I'm curious to know what are the batteries and charger you use. Any recommendations? Also, how often you renew the batteries? Do you have spare batteries always ready when shooting?

Question: I have a D80 and an SB800. The only way I can figure out to increase or decrease the flash EV is in the flash menu on the camera. Once I set the built-in flash camera Commander Mode, I don't see a place on the SB800 LCD to apply EV compensation. I see how to do that in the flash manual mode. Does that compensation still work once I switch to Commander Mode? A huge mystery for me.

Question: Joe, I am looking to get a basic kit for doing portraits of my kids' school events. What's the bare minimum I need as far as lighting goes? (I have a D80 and an SB600 already.)

Question: How did you get that shot of the ballerina on Nikon World? Is that just a composite? Did you shoot it all with a strobe?

Question: Coming from a film background... how hard was it to make the transition to digital workflow?  What did digital make easy?  What is your biggest challenge with digital?