I would really appreciate it if you will indulge me  on a little project and fill out the quick survey below.    As a bonus I’m offering a $25 Amazon gift card to a winner chosen at random.  Thanks ahead of time.

To fill in this survey visit http://www.boandbro.com/blog/2011/03/fashion-survey-sweepstake/

I’m going to be doing a beauty Retouching workshop on March 13th in DC.  This is 3 hour retouching workshop where you get to retouch an image with me from RAW to the finished product.  We will go through all the steps I use for beauty retouching.  Here is a rough table of contents.  Click here to sign up on meetup.  Feel free to email me if you have any questions

Retouching is an essential part of the digital photography process. With
the right retouching mindset and skills, post processing can completely
transform your photograph. This retouching course focuses on retouching
your fashion and beauty photographs with a concentration on flawless skin

retouching. Learn how to edit smooth skin while keeping all the texture

through a live editing demonstration.

Please see below for the aspects that will be covered….

1. pulling the best out of your original photograph

2. skin toning/color matching

3. body contouring and restructuring

4. background/hair editing

5. blemish removal

6. skin colour matching and smoothing

7. toning and highlight/shading

8. dew and sheen

9. hair shine/ volume

10. sharpening

Duration: 3 hours, 12 to 3 pm on Sunday the 13th

Workshop Pre-Requisite:

A fundamental understanding of working in Photshoop including:

a) understanding of layers and masks

b) skills with brush and heal tools

Still spaces left.  see full details here on meetup:

Unlike other workshops where there is a lot of shooting and not much teaching, this workshop is aimed to give much more detail photoshoot workflow process. Go through with Bo the thought process behind planning a shot and the technical aspects of executing a shot. The workshop will be limited to 10 photographers to ensure plenty of direct involvement with Bo.

The workshop (2 pm to 7 pm) will cover a beauty look and a fashion look. In the first part, Bo will cover what to look for when searching a model, a MUA, a hair stylist. Then Bo will go through the process behind each look and what to look for in the final beauty or fashion photo. You will learn how to interact with a model and what directions to give.

Each photographer will have the opportunity to take photos of each look. In the second part of the workshop, the photos will be uploaded to the computer and a group feedback and critique session will start for the best pics from each photographer. Feedback will include, but not be limited to details to look for when choosing the final photo, and what to look out for in post processing each specific photograph.

(Please note, this is not a lighting workshop or a workshop to get dozens of images for your portfolio. This a a workshop to teach you the subtle details to get your photo to the next level!)

Content:

1) What to look for in a Model?
2) What to look for in a MUA/Hair?
3) Model Interactions and Directions
4) Intro Beauty Concept
5) Beauty photoshoot
6) Intro Fashion Concept
7) Fashion photoshoot
Individual photo evaluation and feedback
9) Prepping for post processing.

See you there

Not to mention, a smaller setup is often much cheaper to organize and acquire.

Today’s setup is perhaps one of the simplest studio setups. I used one Profoto silver beauty dish high just above the model’s eye line. The light could’ve been an Alien bee or a speedlight or even a hotlight. For this series, i preferred the more biting characteristic of the silver beauty dish versus my flatter and matte white AB beauty dish.

There also was no fancy background either, just an empty white wall of my studio for the model to stand against.

One of the tricky parts of this setup is the angle and the height of the beauty dish.  Depending on the model/hair style, the angle and height of the beauty dish at such close distances will have a very big effect on the shadow behind the model as well as on the model.  With this look I particular setup, I kept the light relatively low in height and not too angled (closer to straight on).   This way, I minimized the shadow under the nose and chin. At the same time I was able to pickup the catch light in the eye.

Here is the lighting setup below:

More to come soon.  If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments below.

Sorry for the small break in blog posts.  i’ve been travelling a little over the past few weeks, going up to Vermont and east to Montauk seeing a lot of snow and sun, which have become my sources of inspiration.   Lots of monotone images focusing on shapes/textures and then high key lighting.   I will be trying to work these concepts into my shoots over the next few weeks.  I will also catch up with my regular lighting and retouching posts over the weekend.   For now here are some of the pictures from my travels which have inspired me or are just pretty to  look at.

regular programming to return shortly

Kelly was a lot of fun to work with.  She’s from NJ and is half Haitian and half Cherokee.  Such a beautiful mix.  She was on the recent Project Runway (with her designer winning the show).  As it happens, coincidentally, my makeup artist Christyna did her makeup for the finale show.  Small world.

Anyways…Kelly was a goof ball(in the kindest of ways) and here are some shots:

For the idea and reason behind the Girl in the Model Project, please check out the introduction post.  And you can check out the other posts in the Girl in the Model Series.

I worked with Alla a month ago just before NYFW.  She has come to NY from Ukraine via Paris and Milan to work during fashion week.  She had only been in town for a week or so and I was one of her first test photographers.   We had a quick and fabulous shoot, albeit a bit chilly as the outside temperature was 7 degrees Fahrenheit and closer to zero degrees when you factor in wind chill.

here are just a few quick ones of Alla  trying not to pose.  As she found it very difficult because as she says, her mind goes into the posing mode when there is a camera, let it be a friend taking a family portrait or a fashion photographer.

For the idea and reason behind the Girl in the Model Project, please check out the introduction post.  And you can check out the other posts in the Girl in the Model Series.

At first it may seem rather straight forward and just replace the sun with a strobe, but the problem is that the sun is a huge light source.  When the model was up against the window the light is wrapping around the model and nearly coming from all behind her.  So essentially in studio we have to build a very large light source.   Of course if you have a giant studio and a big light then this is easy, but most likely this is not the case.  so here is how I cheated the setup.

Instead of using one light source , I used two strobes.   One of the AB800 was shooting through a big softbox and diffused by a big white scrim to increase the light size even more.  This light was behind the model on the right.   To create the wrap around, I added a second AB800 with a beautydish for almost wrap around effect behind the model on the left.  And then it’s a matter of adding in my v-flats to fill in the shadows.

For this particular photo, I had taken off the lens hood to get more of the hazy lighting effect, more reminiscent of the morning mood.

As this is a new blog series, any feedback would be appreciate it.  Leave me a comment below, or if you have any questions or if there is anything I did not cover, feel free to drop me a line below and I would be happy to answer.   In the meanwhile check out our other Lighting Of the Fortnight tutorials,  Photo Breakdowns and past photoshoot recaps.  Enjoy

Then Kel got really silly:

Furthermore, Kel had a quirky and fun fashion style.  Ps.  she’s wearing a pair of rugged boots to boot….pun intended :p

For the idea and reason behind the Girl in the Model Project, please check out the introduction post.  And you can check out the other posts in the Girl in the Model Series.