Hot Shoe Diaries semi-review

[oldwolf]

So I was at a bookstore the other day and happened to see that they had a few copies of Hot Shoe Diaries by Joe McNally. Seeing as how I heard Amazon was out of stock, I decided to pick one up.


http://www.amazon.com/Hot-Shoe-Diari.../dp/0321580141


Anyway, damn you Nikon for having the CLS thing and damn you Canon for not getting your heads out of your butts and doing something similiar. I'm a Canon shooter if you haven't noticed. Now that I got that out of my system, I'm really not too worried about the CLS stuff. All of my off camera flash work is with the flashes in manual mode anyway.

The book is a great book if you're a Nikon user because the first part of the book goes over his gear and how he uses it. Canon users can skim through this because I read it and most of it was Nikon babble to me hehe.

After I got through the Nikon babble, he started getting into situations and how to use the off camera flashes. Joe isn't the type to just say, here's the picture, put the flash here, put the flash there, set your camera to this and press the shutter release. He actually goes through what he was thinking when setting up. So he tells a story. He's got a good sense of humor as well.

If you're looking for a pure technical manual then move on. If you want to get into the head of the photographer and find out what he was thinking when setting up for the shot then this is the book for you. I'd even recommend it to other Canon users. Just skip the Nikon stuff and you'll be fine. It won't turn you to stone if you read it as can be evidenced by my pos...

[LoveDSLR]

Good DVD from Joe McNally:

Nikon School presents - The Speed of Light
Nikon School presents - A Hands-on Guide to Creative Lighting

[Taallyn]

Luckily, I'm a Nikon shooter so the whole book was great to me. That said, I think the basic concepts of the off-camera TTL flash systems will apply regardless of the manufacturer. It is McNally's thought process and problem solving that are the real gems of information in the book. The Nikon tech stuff is just frosting for some of us.

Besides, I think his wife now works for Nikon Professional Services. So, he gets all of the good toys early.