Product Description

THE FIRST BOOK WITH ONE FOOT ON THE COFFEE TABLE, AND ONE FOOT IN THE
CLASSROOM
Joe McNally, one of the world’s top pro digital photographers, whose celebrated work has graced the pages of Sports Illustrated, Time, and National Geographic (to name a few), breaks new ground by doing something no photography book has ever done—blending the rich, stunning images and elegant layout of a coffee-table book with the invaluable training, no-nonsense insights, and photography secrets usually found only in those rare, best-of-breed educational books.

When Joe’s not on assignment for the biggest-name magazines and Fortune 500 clients, he’s in the classroom teaching location lighting, environmental portraiture, and how to “get the shot” at workshops around the world. These on-location workshops are usually reserved for a handful of photographers each year, but now you can learn the same techniques that Joe shares in his seminars and lectures in a book that brings Joe’s sessions to life.

What makes the book so unique is the “triangle of learning” where (1) Joe distills the concept down to one brief sentence. It usually starts with something like, “An editor at National Geographic once told me…” and then he shares one of those hard-earned tricks of the trade that you only get from spending a lifetime behind the lens. Then, (2) on the facing page is one of Joe’s brilliant images that perfectly illustrates the technique (you’ll recognize many of his photos from magazine covers). And (3) you get the inside story of how that shot was taken, including which equipment he used (lens, f/stop, lighting, accessories, etc.), along with the challenges that type of project brings, and how to set up a shot like that of your own.

This book also gives you something more. It inspires. It challenges. It informs. But perhaps most importantly, it will help you understand photography and the art of making great photos at a level you never thought possible. This book is packed with those “Ah ha!” moments—those clever insights that make it all come together for you. It brings you that wonderful moment when it suddenly all makes sense—that “moment it clicks.”

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #693 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-02
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

About the Author
Joe McNally is an internationally acclaimed photographer, whose career has spanned 30 years and included assignments in over 50 countries. Although the majority of his career has been spent shooting for magazines such as Time, Sports Illustrated, and National Geographic, in the mid-1990s Joe served as Life magazine’s staff photographer, the first one in 23 years. He also has shot commercial assignments for Target, Nikon, and Sony, to name a few. Joe is a recipient of the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award and has been honored by Pictures of the Year International, World Press Photo, The Art Directors Club, American Photo, Communication Arts, and Graphis. He conducts numerous workshops around the world as part of his teaching activities. One of Joe’s most notable projects, Faces of Ground Zero — Giant Polaroid Collection, has become known as one of the most significant artistic responses to the tragedy at the World Trade Center.

Customer Reviews

Inspiring Book by an Innovative Photographer
Mr. McNally is a very successful, inspiringly innovative, commercial photographer with extensive knowledge about lighting people anywhere, and in an impressive variety of ways. This book's color plates give ample evidence to that. Its audience has quite a wide range of expectations. Perhaps the publisher's description could be more clear but I suspect the problem would persist. It is no one's fault. For example, I do not agree with the publisher's description that this book's printing is "coffee table" quality. The printing here is competent but ordinary for its genre. The photographs are what are extraordinary, not how well they were reproduced. It isn't very important.

What really is important here is discussing what the book potentially offers to readers of good faith wishing to learn about location lighting and from productive problem solving including when things do not go as planned. Scott Kelby writes another kind of book that is a "How To" and he is excellent in offering a step by step approach. That is his niche and he is the master. By contrast, Mr. McNally offers far less experience teaching via written books but he has a portfolio that few can boast in his field and that includes Mr. Kelby. Writing is difficult and unlike teaching a class there are thousands of consumers with very different levels of expertise. I suggest that we look at Mr. McNally's strengths in lighting and composition, his perseverance, his outgoing personality and implicit ability to give his subjects confidence and place them at ease despite the lights, stands and camera in their face doing everything to defeat all of that. To expect that this book will teach you to equal the best of what he has done in extremely complicated situations that demanded everything he knows from his entire career and lifetime of learning including his failures is probably wishful thinking. There are no shortcuts. You can get better if not every day then every week and that adds up. If you think photography is a simple, easy profession now is the time to question that. Moreover, explaining everything behind each shot would take a lot more than a paragraph or even a page or two to convey -- far more.

What can you learn from this book? Lots. Learn to methodically add knowledge and solve problems that you can experiment with to make your own. Do more than try to mimic the appearance that Mr. McNally uses. He also thinks, creates content and generates emotional power within his shots that evolved over his particular life and career. He knows what you do not. He knows why and what he went through in a series of decisions and choices to arrive at what we see. The appearance is - believe it or not - the easy part. People who hire you will be rather savvy about that.

You can learn to analyze how light works in each shot - which he very carefully composes - again, that is not obvious, nor was there one solution that is either simple or easily mastered just by copying someone else. Look for the underlying principles about what explains how various qualities of light look, how you can gain command and predictability of them and then learn to choose the best solution(s) for a particular client. Begin to discover how he lights by learning to see the evidence of all his light in each scene. Nothing is hidden. Break it down into simple parts like seeing the effect of distance of a specific light from the subject, the effect from the change in size of the light source, the kind of light source and combining direct light with diffused light and bounce light. Make your own flags, cutters and gobos to experiment with refining your light. Learn to make experiments, record your findings and test or make practice assignments to observe how and why light behaves as it does. This book's shots are in part about the control the color of artificial and mixed ambient light sources, blending effects from different heights and angles of light that are all simple principles easily learned on their own. You can see that yourself. After all, each plate leaves direct evidence about every light source's type, position and how each was modified.

I believe he has generously explained a lot about how he works. We can agree to disagree if it is sufficient or not. Perhaps for each shoot a video on site would have been the best answer for some people who are looking for the most comprehensive view of his how's although logistically that would be unlikely. I believe that you will still need to know the why's if you want to apply these skills in original ways. But keep in mind we are discussing just the means, his craft. This is not a cookbook. You might become a competent technician that way but I suggest that Mr. McNally is far more than that and that is why he has both the professional recognition and the clients he has.

Great pictures, so-so advice, exorbitant price...
The book has won more praise from photographers of all ilk than just about any other book ever, though as I discovered $55 later, Joe McNally's blue-collar celebrity and incredible photographic versatility don't guarantee that everything he publishes is as cool as he is. The party line is that the book "has one foot on the coffee table and one in the classroom," which amounts to two few feet, as I see it; each image is paired with a very soft technical explication that merely suggests that McNally is, in fact, alive (and proud of what he's done while alive). Sure, the novice with little imagination may feel treated to privileged perspective thumbing through the candied panoply of McNally's greatest hits, but unless you're at ground zero with this novice, this book will not elevate your craft at all (even though Joe is cool).

Beyond f/stop and shutter speed
Not for those looking for f/stops and shutter speeds.

It gives you the litle tricks you gain by practicing...

In cooking (and in French) this would be similar to a great cook explaining his "Tours de main". The little secrets that turn a known recepy into a journey to the realms of scents at tastes...