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?