Joe McNally Photography

1.) Flash inside the lamp

2.) Flash camera right side shooting at the back of the table with a blue gel

3.) TV is burned in with fuzz ambient

4.) Softbox (red/orange gel) camera left for the front leg light

5.) Blue gelled flash pointed at wall behind the bed

6.) Strobe outside the room probably bounced around a bunch with same gel as softbox

Here is my take, and my first try to reproduce you photo.

outside: It was raining fog was luck, SB red gel shooting though a large light panel
Camera left: SB 1/3 power full CTO with plastic defuser thing.
Light under table: Gaffers tape to block out the bottom of shade, dim light.
Camera Right: SB 1/3 power shot though a small panel no gel.
light behind bed: night light.

Hmmm…So a nightlight left of the door. Gelled grid spot strobe above on the woman’s leg and the pills. Um…gelled strobe outside the window with the fog machine. No…camera right…either a gelled strobe or a neon sign through an existing window? My best (and probably wrong) guess.

Here goes. Guess I’ll start with ambient–gotta’ be more than 1/60 of a second because the whole tv screen is there, but not too much longer because you can still see the noise–it’s not all white. Gotta’ let that lamp on the floor burn in, too.

Strobe gelled red, with maybe a diffuser dome, lighting the hallway, window, and giving the killer? detective? his rimlight.

Key for the corpse is direct, zoomed in pretty right with a CTO gel slightly to the right and above the camera.

Another direct strobe gelled blue hitting the right wall from camera right.

Finally, a blue-gelled strobe behind the bed, maybe snooted or just zoomed tight? firing into the wall between the door and the window to give the appearance of a night light. Guess they won’t keep you safe, eh?

I’ve not been to any of your workshops , but I will give it a shot! I have a feeling that you controlled any ambient pretty well, so I may be off on this, but oh well!

Gridded and Cto’d flash above camera and to the right a little pointing on the woman’s legs.

Blue Gelled flash way camera right to light the table and its contents.

Another Blue gelled flash behind the bed next to the door to seperate the girls legs and the wall.

Heavily red gelled flash outside, and maybe another on the guy?

Ambient coming from the lamp on the floor and the television int he table.

I can think of three light sources. The red one outside, maybe a tungsten light, very hard. A soft light in the wall behind the TV, matching the screen colour, and a snoot bringind attention to the leg.
Don’t know much about equipment, so I will not guess about it.

Great photo, great blog of yours. Learn a lot in here.

Regards.

Headlight from truck or car with red gel, maybe it amplify red neon Hotel sign outside. That is the effect you wanted (probably not neon though). TV on no input and lamp on floor, of course. SB?00 red-orange geled camera right. fluorescent bathroom light efeect from a flagged SB?00 with a blue gel. Should I draw it on a napkin?

clearly there is ambient from the table lamp on the floor and the TV. 2 speedlights in the hall gelled red, one snooted/gridded/zoomed lighting the man’s face and one behind lighting the hall and hall window. One speedlight gelled blue behind the bed, aimed at the wall behind the TV. One speedlight high (CTO?) snooted/gridded/zoomed pointing almost straight down on the woman’s right foot.

I’m going to guess that there is a mixture of ambient and flash (yea really!)
Ambient light from the TV and the lamp on the floor. Then four flashes -
One behind the tv and one behind the bed gelled blue and hitting the walls.
Two outside the room gelled bright red and directed at the floor/ ceiling
And an umbrella camera left with a CTO on to illuminate the girl and the bed.

Is that the K-Man in the doorway? Is he moonlighting again?

I’m guessing four or five flash…

1) w/blue gel lighting wall behind the monitor like a backdrop.
2) w/red gel aimed at floor in open door
3) w/red gel aimed at wall outside window (again like backdrop lighting)
4) w/red gel directly over knee like a beauty light
5) something small and clean on the spilled pills to keep them white.

Ambient light from the monitor and the lamp…

Close?

I changed my mind, I think there’s two speedlights gelled blue. One behind the bed, and one off to camera right lighting the wall. Corrected post:

Clearly there is ambient from the table lamp on the floor and the TV. 2 speedlights in the hall gelled red, one snooted/gridded/zoomed lighting the man’s face and one behind lighting the hall and hall window. Two speedlights gelled blue, one behind the bed and one to camera right aimed at the wall behind the TV. One speedlight high (CTO?) snooted/gridded/zoomed pointing almost straight down on the woman’s right foot.

Ok, here’s my guess. not too great at deconstructing lighting, but here goes- Gonna go with 3 light sources

one strobe (sb900?) gelled red, in the rear room pointed at the forward wall, and angled slightly to spill on to the guy’s face (see rimlight, and light spilling through the door, also see the red light spilling onto the left side of the bottles on the table)

second light, behind the translucent wall-thingee (is that a curtain or a wall of some sort?)Im guessing this is either a continuous light, or ambient based on the softness/wrap coming around the right side of the table/bottles

third light, stobe, either ungelled or maybe gelled CTO in room, camera right, maybe 45deg or so? (as evidenced by the shadows behind the woman’s foot) angled down (specular on knee, spill on floor)

I’ll have a shot at it…

I believe there is obviously light from the television, although it doesn’t seem to be casting too much light. I believe there is a tungsten bulb in the lamp shade as well.

Starting with the obvious small flashes:
Looks like there is one blue flash to the far right. Another blue flash behind the bed aimed at the wall behind the picture.
There is a orange flash outside the window providing most of the light out there. There is also one above and camera right providing light on the woman’s leg.

There are a few that are more subtle that I think exist:
There is one that is snooted or gridded providing a splash of light across the woman’s foot. There is also a similar one aimed across the gent’s face and hitting the door.

I do believe there are two more light sources, as well, although these ones are a bit tougher.
I think there is a flash in the top left corner of the room which is providing the orange/red light on the table legs and pill bottles.

Finally, the last light is behind the man’s legs. I’m gonna take a wild guess and say that this is another tungsten lamp, similar to the one that’s on the floor. They are a similar color, and if you put a lamp there, sans-shade, it might look the way it does. Wild guess.

I’ll answer with the gear I own…. and how I would have tried to do this.

Street light outside, gelled with a calcolor 90 red gel.

Vivitar 285 at 5 o’clock with a calcolor 60 lavender gel and a 6″ grid.

Vivitar 285 at 7 o’clock with a silver bounce umbrella at 1/16 power and a calcolor 90 red gel.

The lamp is actually on, as is the telle, one snooted, gridded or both on her knee warm gelled high up slightly right of camera, another maybe two red gelled off the back wall in the back room, another gelled purplie blue from behind the bed up and at the wall on camera right behind the tee vee?

GREAT PHOTOGRAPH! You are a big inspiration.

Cheers from Sweden!
Per

CTR (Red) gel on the floor in the hallway splashed against the wall from camera left. Snooted (or fully-zoomed SB-900) CTO (Orange) (or maybe CTR?) just to camera right highlighting the dead girl’s leg and the pills on the floor, but motivated by the tipped-over table lamp on the right. CTB (Blue) gel splashed across the interior wall from extreme camera right, augmented by the flat-screen TV displaying only static, but providing some tone to the ambient. Very low power CTB on the back wall (visible just under her left (camera right) leg) to boost the ambient just a tad. Unfortunately, I can’t figure out the tiny orange glow at the feet of our hero, the private dick who has just come upon the scene.

I just bought both your books - and Im poor but Lets try take a shot…

The lamp is obviously providing some light. The girl’s leg seems to be a snooted and gelled flash, or maybe some hot lights. Im guessing the outside and the guy are lit by some sort of tungsten light.

The walls have been gelled bluish and flashed, with one flash on the corner of the bed where you can see the intensity between the leg and the bed.

The TV is also providing a bit of light.

I dont think Im very close, as Im kinda new to this thing…can I have a tri grip pretty please

behind the window and the guy with the gun there is a small flash gelled RED. There is another small source of light behind the bed and the women’s leg. Possibly a small flash with some type of small diffuser. The lamp has a small flash pointed towards the woman. And there is a main light coming from camera right and high with a CTO gel with a big diffuser. The blueish light behind the TV is ambient from a window.

This photo is absolutely wonderful! You’re so talented! I’ve always wanted to do something like that… But, of course, I failed miserably.

I have no idea of what the lighting plan is, but I guess there’s a strobe lighting the background (and the mysterious guy) with a red gel, another with a snoot or grid lighting the legs of the girl and the ambient light turned blue/violet by playing with the white balance setting on camera. But I keep wondering if the light of the lamp that is on the floor is continuous or not…

Thanks for sharing this wonderful image, Joe!

Cheers!

Had a look at Chases blog have we

I think it’s a brilliant idea, but I am no good at deciphering stuff like this

But a guess I have to drop

Light on model done with available light.
Red in the background done with speedlite
Lamp on the floor and telly of course natural
Blue light on the telly another speedlite

Thx for some nice posts

Great pic Mr.Mc Nally

The lighting plan:

-Camera WB tungsten. shutter dragged.

-Flash with full CTO gel grided above camera aiming downward at female leg.

- bare flash behind camera right aiming towards the wall behind the tv

-Flash with full and half CTO gel outside door flaged so the light is directed towards man chest and head

-Flash with maybe a full and half CTO gel outside down low flagged to give rim light on mans lower body and leg.

-Ambient light provided by fallen lamp.

My other guess would be the outside light was provided by car headlights and flagged so only parts of the man was lite

My best guess:
Behind window panes, gelled strobe bounced off wall to fill that area
Second strobe same location, gridded tight to man’s head (guessing from the bright spot on his shadow)
Gridded, gelled strobe high, almost on camera axis, pointing down on woman’s right leg
CTB strobe to camera right, wide-ish zoom on the wall
A couple of LED torches pointed at the wall to the left of the door, to make the woman’s left leg ‘pop’
Maybe using the wall lights (which I’m guessing are above the bed, off camera left) to light the woman herself (she’s not lit with the strobes, but is clearly visible)
Oh, and the table lamp, possibly with a high-wattage bulb put in it so you didn’t have to drag the shutter for too long

Hmmm…I’ll take a stab at it, probably a bad stab…but here goes.

Continuous lightsource outside, like a kino-flo type setup?

One blue gelled flash behind the bed next to the “detective”

Another blue gelled flash top right by the pill bottles/tv set

Warm gel flash unit above with some sort of scrim on it lighting the model on the bed.

And one more flash inside the lamp on the floor….

Another flash (snooted?) behind the detective pointing towards his feet to give a little depth and remove some shadow…

Yay, prizes!

Let’s see:

- 2 snooted or zoomed (200mm on SB-900?) CTO’d flashes on he victim’s legs and mysterious man’s face.
- 1 1/64 or 1/128 power 1/2 CTO’d flash replacing lightbulb in the toppled lampshade.
- 1 CTB’d flash at 1/64 behind victim’s left leg to create some contrast and match the rest of the room’s blue.
- 1 CTB’d flash camera right or a blue neon sign coming from somewhere else. Or another TV set?
- I can’t figure out the super red fog. Neon sign? Red gelled flash?
- I see a light source behind the man, coming somewhat low. Car headlight height.
- And what’s the light source on the man’s ankle? Reflected lightbulb?

f/8, 1/4s at ISO800, 14-24mm @ 14mm on D3

Wow this pic looks awesome! I couldn’t guess the set up if I wanted to but good job non the less!

I am going to say you gelled car lights in the parking lot red, and then threw a small flash behind the TV and a main diffused light on the lady model (with red gel.)
thanks

I am not sure, but I’ll give it a try.
It seems to me there is a bare bulb with red gel in the outside aiming the man at the door, a bare bulb with low power and blue gel beside the bed aiming the wall, a snooted flash with orange gel 45º left of the cam, a snooted low powered flash with yellow gel aiming between the man’s legs and the incandescent bulb on the floor.

OK…..lessee…

2 SB units (gelled red) in the hallway. 1 lighting the window and gobo’ed to splash the man’s neck area. 2nd one lighting background behind fella. Hi-power flashlight gelled yellow behind fella’s feet shooting toward camera.

TV light is real. As is the lamp on the floor. Scrim on right backlit w/ blue-gelled SB unit, maybe 1/4 power.

And, finally, a gobo’ed and full CTO SB unit at front left lighting the leg and floor beneath and splashing onto the (TV) table legs (maybe a reflector to aim some of the splash onto the other leg). How’d I do? Thanks, Ron

Joe…or whomever…anyway we could see the pic a little larger? Or is that part of the challenge?

Thanks for everything you do, by the way.

Leon

I would guess you have a flash with CTO gel above and left of camera and a lit bulb in the lamp shade on the floor. There is a flash gelled purple behind the TV lighting the wall and another lighting the wall to the left of the door. The fourth flash is gelled red outside the door illuminating the window and door frame. Just my guess.

1 light maybe in a softbox to focus a CTO gel on the knee, 1 light camera right with on wall diffused w/ Tri-grip, 1 light outside behind man and door with CTO gel, shot with Tungston WB.

Here goes:

1 x 900 gelled red in a softbox outside.

1 x 900 gelled red (outside) snooted and aimed at bad guy’s head.

1 x 900 gelled CTO up on a stand aiming at doll face’s knee.

1 x 900 gelled blue, on stand on the floor, splashing up on the wall. Probably gobo’d.

As for me? My name is Friday. I wear a badge.

I’m not usually great at this, but what the hay-hay.

Here’s what I see:

* At least one strobe outside the door, gelled red for that red (duh) look.
* I’m thinking one closer in to the guy in the door frame to make him pop a little, and looks to not be as full-on red as the parking lot strobe.
* Dialed down strobe at the bed corner, gelled blue, pointed up the wall.
* There’s also the light between Guy Noire’s legs… stumped here, but looks like another CTO strobe.
* Strobe behind camera right, aimed behind the tv, gelled blue.
* Gridded or snooted strobe, boomed over the model’s right knee to light her leg and the pills on the floor, gelled CTO to mimic lamp light.
* Constant sources: lamp on the floor, TV, a weeeeeee touch of ambient from outside.
* At least 1/30th second exposure to catch the TV, but not so long as to make the screen go white and lose it’s “noise” look.

Seems like a lot of strobes to me, but that’s my stab…

Love the Picture…alright,I’m gonna say whatever the first comment guy said

“clearly there is ambient from the table lamp on the floor and the TV. 2 speedlights in the hall gelled red, one snooted/gridded/zoomed lighting the man’s face and one behind lighting the hall and hall window. One speedlight gelled blue behind the bed, aimed at the wall behind the TV. One speedlight high (CTO?) snooted/gridded/zoomed pointing almost straight down on the woman’s right foot.”

…including a warm gelled speedlight behind the man,lighting his feet a bit…and a blue gelled speedlight behind the bed…and probably make that 3 or 4 red gelled speedlights in the hall.

Seriously love this picture tho!!!

Ok….4 SB900’s or SB 800’s at the time…..one outside shot back at wall between door and large window with CTO or red gel, actually behind shooter to give whole area a red glow…giving a seedy look to the person (Scott Kelby) who just commited a crime is a CTO with grid (Honl) shot at suspects face…..another one camera right CTB shot at right wall slightly above TV…..third one is slightly camera right but higer than camera CTO with snoot shot back down at person/woman on bed…..Numnuts at bed height about a yeard from her right toe….A priority, at 1/250th (Guess, b/c you like or 95% of the time shoot in A mode)…A 60 watt bulb in lamp, and TV has been unplugged from cable but not outlet to give a late nite (TV over) atmosphere feeling….signaling it’s after 2am….The pills are Drews prescription for working so hard for Joe!….I think I am close to nailing it….I’ll see…cool idea Joe!

Thanks
Tommy Lynch

:::PLUS:::

One more speedlight under the picture. CTB. Aimed at the wall. Low power.

Hi Joe,

been following your work all along and man I can tell you that you even better than Port Wine. As we use to say around these places… the older the wine the better it is

My guess on this one is a strobe behind the door and window concealed right behind the man with a red gel on it to give atmosphere while keeping the man in the dark, another one with red gel and snoot near the door and behind the wall with the painting pointing at the man’s face so it will not contaminate the body, one strobe inside the lamp, clamped to it, on the floor with a CTO gel on lower power just to give the mood to the lamp, one strobe with snoot to the lady’s legs also with a CTO gel from above her and another strobe snooted with a Blue gel pointing to the table, another strobe with blue gel behind the bed pointing at the all to give volume to the bed and legs.

Well I think that’s it.

Curious to see how you did it and keep up the GOOD work and thanks for the inspirational moments.

Rui M Leal

i guess there are five lighting sources except tv and the lamp on the floor. one in the hall behind the man, (we see reflection on the floor) and one lighting his face. we have one light at camera right, snooted and aimed woman’s leg. we also have one more light at camera right lighting the wall behind the tv, it’s also lighting medicine boxes next to tv. and we have one more strobe just behind the bed aimed at the wall at the guy’s left.

Non-strobe: TV

Strobes:
1) In Lamp - low-powered, CTO-gelled pointed at floor
2) Camera-right (low) - wide, Blue/Purple gelled pointed at wall/TV
3) Camera-right (high) - zoomed, CTO-gelled pointed at leg
4) Background - wide, red-gelled on high power pointed at door

guy’s right, our left.

What the hell, I’m sure I’m way off but might as well take a shot:

1)Camera WB to daylight or flash
2)TV – camera right (visible)
3)speedlight in table lamp, creatively positioned off table (floor) CTO gel, diffusion screen on “top” oipening, flagged off at “bottom”– camera right (visible)
4)Strobe, camera right, CTO gel, about 5′ high, gridded ~10 deg. (main)
5)Strobe over camera, ½ CTO gel, -1 EV, small softbox, flagged
6)Speedlight next to wall on floor stand about 4′ to camera left of door, full CTB
7)headlights outside, gelled red

tv on a static channel
lamp is just a tungsten bulb, plugged in, continuous
blue gelled flash behind the bed, hitting the wall underneath the picture. that’s whats giving the blue tint to the room, and the purple on the right wall is where the red from outside the room is spilling in; another blue light possible hitting the wall hight and camera right
red gelled flash lighting up the room
warm gelled flash above, slightly camera right of the camera targetting model on the bed
warm gelled snooted flash hitting the guy coming in the door on the right side of his face

My attempt:

Hallway: SB800 with red gel at about +1 EV, with a flag to keep the light off his body and legs
Hallway: behind man, SB600 about knee high with a full CTO to give the reflection at his feet
Camera right: SB900 through tri-grip, -1 EV, 1/2 blue gel
Camera left: SB900 0 EV with 1 red gel and 1 CTO, zoomed to 200mm
Behind Bed: blue gelled nightlight in socket

Fun idea, and a cool image! Gotta try that someday.

Ok I’ll have a bash.
Camera is set to Daylight to help the Red lighting? Semi slow shutter under 1/60th to get the tv. Highish f stop to get the whole of the frame in focus along with setting the lens at hyperfocal.

I’ll start with the background. Outside through the fog, I’m guessing there’s more than one red gelled flash out there, perhaps two, the one for the window and one for the kicker on the man’s face. I’m guessing they’re coming through a lasolite panel or ye ole bedsheet to get the spread.

Next, a lovely wide, low flash gelled blue for the wall, bare by the looks of the door shadow.

The lamp… hmmn, puzzled me for a bit, thought it was just turned on, but there dosen’t seem to be anything blocking the back of the shade and if the bulb was creating the light there would be splash back on the wall so I’m gonna go with a CTO’d gel’d flash in there as well.

The woman looks to be lit by a zoomed flash, gelled 2 cuts CTO?, though partially covered brolly, the shadow is softly sharp (if that makes sense). From the fall off I reckon the brolly was on a c-stand floating somewhere above your head.

Maybe one more, snooted to pick up the pills?

There seems to be a blue gelled flash camera right, bringing up the right hand wall and looks to be bare from the shadows.

Personally I love the red and blue. The transition between the colours which mix to make the purple tones really give it a dirty, bruised feeling.

Wow! This is a great shot…at least from an amateur’s point of view…and believe me, I’m an amateur.

I would say you have camera right gel(blue), camera left snooted with orange gel. Behind the bed, blue gel, 1/4 power. Gel outside, red. It also appears to be a gelled flash behind the detective yellow gel. (the yellow at his feet).

Great shot!

I love watching and learning from your courses on kelbytraining.com. I have a question, which do you consider is more important to break into shots like these, a flash or the camera?

Thanks again for great shots and sharing your knowledge.

Oooh, can I just add, there is a street light outside creating the orange separator for the bloke’s legs.

- Camera WB set to Tungsten to make white light give blue cast
- White flash to camera upper right. Shows as blue
- Flash with CTO filter to camera upper left to give orange light on girl’s leg and light on left foreground floor
- Lamp on floor with normal Tungsten bulb. Shows as white light due to Tungsten WB
- Flash in corridor, heavy red filter, pointing at rear wall between door and window, about head height
- Flash with CTO filter behind man, shining onto floor
- TV contributing own static light

OK - I think that the girl’s leg looks to be lit from camera right, with a snoot and a warming gel. It’s very hard light on the leg, and falls off fairly quickly.

The red light looks too bright to be from a sign, but since you indicated some of the light is not flash, I’ll go with this being a hotel sign in the parking lot.

Blue light is the most confusing to me, because the small bit of blue behind the model’s leg is very curious? The source has to be behind/above camera right though, based on the table lighting on right, and then bouncing off the wall to the right and making purples on the far wall where it’s mixing with the red bouncing off the door. I’ll guess the source to be a blue gel’d flash.