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Monthly Archives: March 2016

Teaching at Photo Uno last night

30 Wednesday Mar 2016

Posted by Bob Harrington in Uncategorized

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CT Headshot Photographer, Expoimaging Rogue Flashbenders, high key, Nikon, NYC, NYC Beauty Headshot Photographer, NYC Headshot Photographer, NYC OCF Workshop, OCF Workshops, off camera flash, Photo Uno, Phottix, Rogue XL Pro, Sony

Hi and welcome back.

Last night I headed to Photo Uno in NYC to teach a class on Rogue Flashbenders.

It was awesome.  If you are in NYC, Photo Uno is an independent photography school located on East 46th St, about a 5 minute walk from Grand Central Station.

They have great classes and a small rental studio.  I love finding these spots as usually the rental studios are all downtown.  With a rental so close to Grand Central, look for future workshops to be held there.

Photo Uno

Many thanks to Expoimaging for sponsoring the event, Patricia and Francisco at Photo Uno for hosting, and Laura Dewey for modeling as I taught.

Here’s a shot of yours truly working, sent by friend and fellow photog, Charles Chessler:

IMG_4568

Till next time, happy shooting!

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Advanced Speedlighting Workshop, NYC, April 9

29 Tuesday Mar 2016

Posted by Bob Harrington in Uncategorized

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Bowens, CT Beauty Headshot Photographer, Expoimaging, Godox, Interfit, Nikon, NYC Commercial Photographer, NYC Headshot Photographer, NYC off camera flash, NYC Off Camera Flash Workshop, NYC Photographer, OCF, OCF Workshop, off camera flash, Phottix, Rogue Flashbenders, Sony, Space4Shoots, Space4Shoots workshop, Workshop

Hi and welcome back.

I’m putting together an “Advanced Speedlight Techniques” workshop at Space4Shoots in NYC.

Take your work to another level as I draw on strobe light techniques for fashion, glamour, and beauty and transfer them to small flashes.

We’ll shoot multi-light setups but never go beyond 3 lights and simple modifiers.

Gear: 

3 speedlights

Phottix Ares Radio Triggers

Convertible Umbrellas

Rogue Flashbenders

Bowens Softbox

Phottix Luna Beauty Dish

Godox Bracket

Details: 

Cost: $260.00, you can use the Paypal link at the top of the page or call with atm/cc card: 203-540-8821

Location: Space4Shoots

Time: 1-5 pm

Date: Saturday, April 9, 2016

Model: Daria Bardola from Anomaly Models

HMUA: TBD

If you missed the Headshot Workshop at Space4Shoots, don’t miss this one.  It is going to be amazing with a professional NYC model.

Daria Bardola

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HBO Documentary on Robert Mapplethorpe, April 4, 2016

28 Monday Mar 2016

Posted by Bob Harrington in Uncategorized

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Tags

HBO, HBO Documentary, Robert Mapplethorpe

Hi Everyone,

On April 4, 2016, at 9:00 pm, HBO will be airing a documentary on Robert Maplethorpe.

If you’ve never heard of him, just Google him.

He is a portrait artist whose work is gritty, sexual, and brutally honest.  His work is avant-garde and this is a show worth seeing.

Robert Mapplethorpe

Here are a few samples of his work:

Screen Shot 2016-03-28 at 6.51.01 PM

Screen Shot 2016-03-28 at 6.51.11 PM

Screen Shot 2016-03-28 at 6.52.48 PM

Screen Shot 2016-03-28 at 6.54.18 PM

Check it out, I am.

Till next time, happy shooting.

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Adding Contrast Quickly Using Blending Modes in Photoshop

25 Friday Mar 2016

Posted by Bob Harrington in Uncategorized

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CT Commercial Photographer, CT Headshot Phtographer, Nikon, NYC Commercial Photographer, NYC Headshot Photographer, off camera flash, Photoshop Lesson, Photoshop Tutorial, Sony

Hi and welcome back.

Since I did one post on Photoshop the other day, why not add another?

I think I may do a series, maybe once a week on a PS tip.

For this tip, I’ll show you a really quick way to add contrast to your images in Photoshop using blending modes.

All of my keystrokes are for a Mac, so you Windows users will have to use the applicable keys.

Here is the image I want to add a bit of contrast.  This is a great and simple commercial shot that needs a boost.  I got this back from my retoucher like this, and I think it needs a bit of help.

_DSC1278

After opening your image in PS, you need to duplicate the background layer so you work above the original in layers.  This is a bit like building a sandwich.  The background is your bread or roll, the layers above all are like the mustard, ham, cheese, lettuce, tomato, etc…

A Screen Shot 2016-03-25 at 8.41.52 AM

Use Command-J to duplicate the layer.  The other reason to do this is that the blending modes are not available to you on the background layer:

B Screen Shot 2016-03-25 at 8.41.39 AM

Now we head right on to the Blending Mode.  This is the dropdown box that says Normal above Layer 1 or the layer you just created:

C Screen Shot 2016-03-25 at 8.41.39 AM

Click on the dropdown and head down to Soft Light.  This is a simple and effective way to add contrast and also have the ability to adjust contrast on the image:

D Screen Shot 2016-03-25 at 8.42.55 AM

After clicking on this adjustment, you can adjust the amount of contrast you’ve added by using the slider on the right.  Some images need more that others.  In this image, I’m leaving it at 100% to show you how you can really fine tune the image for color, tone, and of course contrast:

E Screen Shot 2016-03-25 at 8.43.27 AM

Here is my final set to 100%:

_DSC1278 contrast_

I really pushed contrast here.  Normally, I set my slider to around 20-30% so as not to push too much and make the image too contrast-y.

Here is a side-by-side comparison:

Untitled-1

You can really see the difference here.  I love how her skin glows and the blue of her dress really pops.

Adding contrast is super simple in PS.  This is one of those adjustments I love because it is quick and easy.  And if you don’t want to waste time in PS, this one’s for you!

That’s it for today.  Till next time, Happy Easter and happy Photoshopping!

 

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Smoothing Out Seamless Paper in Your Images

22 Tuesday Mar 2016

Posted by Bob Harrington in Uncategorized

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beauty, Columbus, Commercial, CT Commercial Photographer, Dodd Camera, Katy Ngo, Model, Nikon, NYC Commercial Photographer, off camera flash, Off Camera flash workshops, Ohio, Photoshop, Savage Paper, Sony

Hi and welcome back.

I’m not a Photoshop Guru: actually, I despise the time I spend in Photoshop.  However, there are times when you need to dig deep and fix an image.  All my basic retouching goes out to retouching professionals, but sometimes I need to do it myself based on budget and time constraint.

I generally have a love/hate relationship with seamless paper.  Even though it is the industry standard and you can get some really cool colors for a good price, it is a pain to retouch later.  If you lay the roll down, it gets a bow in it; if you roll it up once or twice, you wrinkle it; if you step on it, you ruin it.  Get my drift on why I don’t like it?

But, it is easy to use and transport and every studio in the world has a selection of it on hand.

So I found myself having to retouch a background and was fumbling around when I found this amazing tutorial by my fellow photographer, Frank Doorhof in his book, “Mastering the Model Shoot.”

He gives the tutorial as a set of keystrokes.  Since I’m a Mac user, all the strokes will be for a Mac, for you Windows guys, just swap keys accordingly.

Ok, here is my image of Katy that needs a background fix:

_RVH3656

Ok, here is the process recipe in Photoshop:

After opening the image, press Command-J to duplicate the background and work on the top layer only.

Background

Command J

After copying the background, hit Shift-W, this will activate the Magic Wand tool.  Use it to highlight the background edges first:

Shift W

If you look at my screenshot above, you’ll see how there is one section of hair not highlighted on the edge over Katy’s left ear.

Simple hit Command-Shift-I to invert the layer and then use your Magic Wand to adjust any missing elements:

Shift Command I

Now that everything we want is highlighted, we can begin to work on the image.

Click Command-X to remove or cut Katy out of the image.  This will happen on the layer only.  You will still be able to see Katy, but the layer will show her removed.  This is what you want so you can see the effect of your adjustment later on.

Command X

Now that Katy is removed from the background, we can work on smoothing out the wrinkled paper.

Go to Filter-Blur-Gaussian Blur and choose a blur amount to taste.  You may need to do it several times to get the correct effect depending on the amount of wrinkles you need to move.

Gaussian Blur

In this case, I chose 127.2 pixels by dragging the slider up and down.  I did this three times until I found the right amount by eye.

Gaussian Blur 2

Your image will look like this:

Blur

But you can still see and uneven look to the seamless paper.  In order to smooth that further and to its final look, simply choose Filter-Noise-Add Noise and add noise from between 1-10 or to taste.  I’ve not gone above 5 for any image.

Add Noise

Screen Shot 2016-03-22 at 1.12.37 PM

Now your image will look like this:

Blur

Now for the final.  Click Command-Shift-V to bring Katy back from being pasted out of the image.

Your layer palette should look like this:

Command shift V

And your image like this, fully repaired!

_RVH3656_rt

Then simply use Shift-Command-E to flatten your image.

Voila! You went from bad to good in a few quick steps.

Try this a few times.  Once you get the keystrokes down, you can fix and image with a wrinkled seamless paper background in a few minutes.

So go from bad to good with the amazing tutorial:

Katy Ngo_1456

Well that’s it for now.  If you are coming to the Fitness Workshop on April 2, we’ll be shooting on a colored seamless so you can definitely try this at home!

That’s it for now.  Till next time, happy retouching!

 

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A Poignant Thought

21 Monday Mar 2016

Posted by Bob Harrington in Uncategorized

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Bowens, CT Headshot Photographer, CT Workshops, Expoimaging, Interfit S1, Lighting Workshops NYC, Nikon, NYC, NYC Headshot Photographer, NYC Lighting Workshops, off camera flash, Off Camera flash workshops, Phottix, Rogue Flashbenders, Sony, Workshops

Hi and welcome back.

This is a quick and thoughtful post.

I just found this online and thought it was poignant for all educators.

As a photography educator, I thought it really applied to the workshop format, something I take pride in and teach internationally.

Keep it in mind as you can only go so far with books and videos; you really need to shoot to learn:

Tell me and I forget

Teach me and I remember

Involve me and I learn

Take a workshop, get involved, shoot, shoot, shoot, and when you think you’ve had enough, shoot some more!

Make plenty of mistakes and enjoy the ride.

Till we meet at an event or workshop, happy shooting!

 

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Workshop Updates

17 Thursday Mar 2016

Posted by Bob Harrington in Uncategorized

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Anomaly Models, BH Photo, Crossfit Expressions, Nikon, Nissin, OCF, OCF Workshops, off camera flash, Photo Uno, Rogue Flashbenders, Rogue gels, Rogue Grids, Sony, Sony A7 II, Space 4 Shoots, Speedlights, Unique Photo

Hi and welcome back.

I’m going to give you the current workshop list for the next month or two to get them out there.

Interested in learning lighting?  Then don’t miss out as all my workshops are shooting events, bring your camera and lenses and shoot the looks I shoot and teach.

Here’s what is up for now:

Photo Uno Sponsored Presentation

March 29

6:30-8:30 pm

Join me at Photo Uno in Manhattan for an Expoimaging sponsored presentation on shooting small flashes.  I’ll go from simple to complex lighting setups to show you how to get amazing results with small flashes and Rogue Flashbenders

Registration Link: Photo Uno

Our model is Laura Dewey:

_DSC1621

 

Fitness Photography Workshop at Crossfit Expressions

Crossfit, 1341 West Broad St, Stratford, CT

April 2

1-4 pm

Cost: $160.00, use Paypal link above to register

Join in as I teach lighting the commercial high key shot for fitness, commercial on color, bodyscaping, and the P90X Style of high contrast black and white for fitness.

Our model is the Amazing Rachael Anders:

_DSC3620-Reala

 

BH Photo Event Space

April 4

1-3 pm

Creative lighting presentation to bring your work to the next level using small flash modifiers and gels.  Don’t miss this free event at BH Photo.

Our model is Tina Scariano:

_DSC3379

 

The Advanced Speedlight Workshop in NYC

Space 4 Shoots, 25 W 31sr St, Manhattan

April 9

1-5 pm

Cost: $260.00, use paypal link above to register

I’ll show you how to light effectively and creatively using techniques from fashion to get amazing results from your flashes and simple modifiers.  The last NYC Headshot workshop was a raging success, don’t miss this one as headshots will be included.

Our model is NYC professional Daria Bardola from Anomaly Models.

Daria Bardola

 

Unique Photo: The Headshot

April 30

1-4

Unique Photo, Fairfield, NJ

Link to follow.

I’ll be teaching the headshot.  We’ll have 3 models and 3 stations to run through multiple lighting setups and looks for the Headshot.  Can’t afford Kino Flo’s or the new Westcott headshot setup for $5,000.00?  Let me show you how to achieve the same results with portable speed light gear.

 

That’s about it for now.  I’m stacking up the travel and the workshops for Spring, so join in the fun and don’t miss a moment of shoot time!

Remember, all my workshops, except for Photo Uno, are shooting workshops.  I set it up, teach the look, and we all shoot for our portfolios!

Hope to see you there!

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WPPI-That’s a Wrap!

14 Monday Mar 2016

Posted by Bob Harrington in Uncategorized

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Beauty headshots, CT Headshot Photographer, Dark Beauty, Expoimaging, headshots, Nikon, Nissin Flash, NYC Headshot Photographer, OCF, OCF Workshops, off camera flash, Rogue Flashbenders, Sony

Hi and welcome back.

I just spent 5 days in Las Vegas teaching OCF for Expoimaging and Nissin Flash at WPPI.  If you haven’t made it out to Vegas for this event, definitely check it out and try for 2017.  It is a fabulous event in a wonderful location, the perfect late winter getaway to start the season off right!

Here are a few highlights from the trade show:

The mirrorless revolution is expanding with new offerings from Fuji and Olympus.  Sony is releasing 3 new lenses for it’s FE mount mirrorless cameras.  The mirrorless cameras are becoming a thorn in the side of the bigger D-SLR companies.

On a side note, I was watching House of Cards episode 2 last night from the new season and a surveillance photographer was using a Sony camera.  That used to be Nikon or Canon, so look for that more often now.

Interfit showcased its new self-contained monolight, the S1.  It looks like a Broncolor Siros and has a removable battery like a Profoto B1.  Priced lower than these two lights, Interfit is attempting to re-brand itself with better quality gear.

Nissin, who I worked for, has the new Di700A and Air Remote.  A great alternative to more expensive speed lights, the Di700A is awesome in that you can get one speed light and change Air 1 remotes, so you can shoot different camera brands and only change the remote for that camera.

Expoimaging, who I also worked for, is releasing a new set of white grid inserts.  These give a more even spread of light over their black grids.  They are also releasing the Super Soft Silver Reflector.  This new reflector uses a unique silver/white surface that was included in some older Flashbender units.  With an abundance of leftover material, they are entering the collapsible reflector market with a unique silver surface that provides an amazing reflected light.

Drones, last year was about drones with a booth on every corner; this year I saw only 2 drone manufacturers.

Printing and books.  If you sell books and albums, there was no shortage of companies there to sell you books.  There was also a huge influx of overseas manufacturers: books, prints, and albums dominated this year.

That’s about it.  If you missed WPPI this year, try to make it out.  Las Vegas is a great place with a lot to do and see, plus enjoy the show!

A quick note on workshops:

One Speedlight, 16 Looks is next Saturday.  Interested?  Please register by Thursday or I will have to cancel.

Photo Uno is March 29.  Sign on at Photo Uno for this free event on speed lighting.

April 2 is a fitness workshop at Crossfit Expressions, Stratford.  Link will be live soon.

April 9 is Advanced Speedlighting in NYC.  Sign on soon so everything can be confirmed.  Learn advanced techniques using simple gear.

That’s it for now, till next time: happy Spring!

Bob

Here are a bunch of proof images I shot for Expoimaging and Nissin Flash:

 

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Advanced Speedlight Techiques, NYC

04 Friday Mar 2016

Posted by Bob Harrington in Uncategorized

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beauty, Bowens, CT Headshot Photographer, Expoimaging, fashion, Fashion lighting workshop, Godox S Mount, Nikon, NYC Headshot Photographer, NYC OCF workshops, NYC workshops, OCF Workshop, OCF Workshops, Photoflex, Phottix, Phottix Ares, Phottix Luna, Rogue Flashbenders, Sony, Space4Shoots

Hi and welcome back.

I’m putting together an “Advanced Speedlight Techniques” workshop at Space4Shoots in NYC.

Take your work to another level as I draw on strobe light techniques for fashion, glamour, and beauty and transfer them to small flashes.

We’ll shoot multi-light setups but never go beyond 3 lights and simple modifiers.

Gear: 

3 speedlights

Phottix Ares Radio Triggers

Convertible Umbrellas

Rogue Flashbenders

Bowens Softbox

Phottix Luna Beauty Dish

Godox Bracket

Details: 

Location: Space4Shoots

Cost: $260.00, use the Paypal link above or call/text for atm/cc card: 203-540-8821

Time: 1-4

Date: April 9, 2016

Model: Daria Bardola from Anomaly Models

HMUA: TBD

If you missed the Headshot Workshop at Space4Shoots, don’t miss this one.  It is going to be amazing with a professional NYC model.

Daria Bardola

Hope to see you there!

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Rogue Flashbender Presentation at Photo Uno, NYC

03 Thursday Mar 2016

Posted by Bob Harrington in Uncategorized

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CT Commercial Photographer, Expoimaging, Expoimaging Rogue Flashbenders, Nikon, NYC Commercial Photographer, NYC headshot, NYC OCF workshops, NYC workshops, PhotoUno, Phottix Ares, Rogue Flashbenders, Sony, Speedlighting

Hi and welcome back.

I’ll be heading to Photo Uno in Manhattan on March 29 for a 2 hour Rogue Flashbender presentation.

This will be like a BH Event Space Presentation: 20 minute slideshow, I shoot 3-4 looks with model, we end with Q+A.

Here is the registration link: PhotoUno

Cost: Free

Location: Photo Uno, 222 E 46th St, Unit 303, Manhattan

Time: 6:30-8:30

Our model for the time is Laura Dewey:

_DSC1621

Hope to see you there for a fun and interactive event!  Till then, happy shooting!

 

 

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