Joe McNally Deconstructs his Cowboy Portrait

Joe McNally takes us through his lighting setup for a recent Cowboy portrait he shot. Joe's vision was to have the photo look like it was being lit by daylight coming through a window. He accomplishes this with a set of speed-lights and a 6x6 diffuser. He also adds additional lights to add fill for the shadows that the cowboy hat creates. Joe breaks down the gear...list he used for this shoot, I have also listed it with links.

Jerrit Pruyn's picture

Jerrit Pruyn is a professional wedding photographer based in NYC. His work and articles have been featured on Lifehacker, Gizmodo, Huffington Post, and Daily Mail.

Log in or register to post comments
9 Comments

I remember being blown away when i saw Joe's CLS demonstration with the girl and the pool table a few years ago - his skill at executing a lighting scene without the benefits of modeling lights is impressive to say the least!

I want 70-200 f1.4 like the one he used to shot the cowgirl.

yeah that is a miss type in the video but I would take one

That is beyond silly, do you know how much that lens would weigh?

Ya, a 70-200 f/1.4 would be about 8" in diameter, you wouldn't want to carry it around :-)

Joe truly is a master of artificial light!

WTF is growing on Joe's jaw?

6 flashe$$$, stand$$$, diffuser$$$, windows, 2-3 a$$istants.... that's definitely a photo "on the go" Mcnally style.....and all that for a look easily achievable with a small softbox at eye level of the cow-people:))) C'mon, Joe, we are getting tired of the nonsense already:)))

I spent a week with eight other people learning from the master. He is such a great instructor and photographer, and a very nice person.