Archive for the ‘Photography Tips & Lighting Setups’ Category

It’s been a bit crazy this week in the studio, with the Slickforce team fielding shipping palettes from multiple factories overseas. We’ll do a proper post in the next week or so, but in the meantime, here is a quick look at the beautiful Mastering Lighting: Volume One Box Set packaging. While supplies last, you get the Slickforce Softlight reference toy free with your order, which you can see hiding on the left side of the photo above. All Slickforce products ship anywhere in the world—special launch pricing for a limited time, order here.

As an art-house, the SlickforceStudio team takes a lot of pride in just about everything we produce. But every few years, a project comes along that requires unprecedented levels of attention—an all-consuming energy beast that galvanizes the team and challenges us to power-up our skills and work together to break new ground.

Ever since the release of Mastering Retouching, my inboxes have been filled with requests for a lighting tutorial. Producing five PhotoKamp workshops provided me an incredible opportunity to work side-by-side with up-and-coming photographers and learn which teaching methods stick. Aspiring artists want to know how to create the worlds that have existed only in their minds…until now.

I’m proud to announce Mastering Lighting: Volume One, available for early pre-order now and shipping in early January. Taught in classic SlickforceSystem style, we’ve combined hundreds of your questions into a revolutionary new teaching tool.

In Volume One, I’ll take you through some of my biggest shoots, completely reverse-engineering the lighting setups. I cover our most highly-requested topics, such as redirecting the sun, working with fog, balancing artificial and natural light, finding the right composition, motivating your light sources, and much more. Best of all, you’ll get to set up the shot and light right alongside me, thanks to the incredible first-person perspective experience created by our visual effects team.

And since more than half of our customers preferred the library-quality Collector’s Box Set for Mastering Retouching and Mastering Compositing (artists like awesome tangibles, go figure!)… well, we’re just going to have to top ourselves on this one. The first 250 customers that order Mastering Lighting: Volume One will received a FREE Softbox reference light toy. I’ll elaborate more as we get closer to launch, but trust me, you’ll want this one on your shelf.

I am indebted to the wonderful Slickforce team who worked so hard to make this series a reality, and a very special thanks goes out to YOU for all of the questions, feedback and support you’ve sent us over the years. You’ve helped us create a fantastic new way to learn about lighting and photography. And I can’t lie… this one was just a little too fun to make. If you don’t believe me, check out the official trailer above.

Special early pricing ends November 30, so pre-order now at MasteringLighting.com!

The team just keeps getting stronger! In this video, travel to a remote location for a behind-the-scenes look at our SlickforceGirl shoot with the stunning Ayanna Jordan. She embraces the Indian Princess role wholeheartedly, and keeps the crew laughing along the way. My thanks to the lovely Ms. Jordan for her devotion to the SlickforceGirl campaign. Order your Limited Edition Princess Ayanna posters here. A portion of proceeds from poster sales are donated to the Breast Cancer Charities of America’s iGoPink campaign.

Photography by NICK SAGLIMBENI
Makeup by THERESE WILLIAMS
Hair by AL INGRAM
Wardrobe Styling by DIANA CHAN
Track: “Light Speed” by Peter McIsaac Music

Last august, we took our photography and lighting workshop to Germany. Here’s a look back at the amazing locations, the beautiful models, and the talented next generation of photographers. (See the PhotoKamp Germany photo gallery here.)

PhotoKamp 2014 is coming up April 4-6 in Los Angeles. Be sure to grab one of the last spots at PhotoKamp.com!

Special Thanks to Carsten Simon at Luminanz Studio for providing the time lapse footage, and also to Stefan Rasch, Vanessa Sofie, Joelle Lahr, and the wonderful photographers who allowed us to follow them around for this video. Enjoy!

As promised, here is a behind-the-scenes video from our SlickforceGirl shoot with the amazing Kaitlynn Carter. It would be hard to ignore just how sincere Kaitlynn is in her portrayal of her firefighter character, and one quick look shows you the amount of fun we had on set that day. My thanks to the wonderful Ms. Carter for her devotion to this courageous role. Order your Limited Edition Firefighter Kaitlynn posters here. A portion of proceeds from poster sales are donated to the Breast Cancer Charities of America’s iGoPink campaign.

As a reminder, SlickforceGirl will be making it’s FIRST public appearance this weekend at Stan Lee’s Comikaze in Los Angeles, November 1-3 at the LA Convention Center. Come meet me and SlickforceGirls Erika Medina, Ayanna Jordan and Vanessa Veasley. Pictures, autographs, and other madness will ensue. We’ll be at booth 1631!

This summer, I photographed good friend Khloé Kardashian in super-sexy black latex for a personal project of hers. The shoot was featured in Season 8’s “Life’s a Beach (House)” episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians. The risqué shoot quickly went viral, and we’ve been overwhelmed with requests from both photographers and Kardashian fans to get a closer look at Khloe’s shoot.

Here are a few of the final shots, some behind-the-scenes images, and a detailed lighting diagram of the setup. Photographers should note the amount of negative fill (4×8 solids) used in the setup—as black latex reflects everything. My thanks to the stunning Khloé for trusting us with such a wild concept, and to the amazing stunt team that rigged the hanging swing and taught our star how to fly!

CREDITS:
Photography by NICK SAGLIMBENI
Hair & Makeup by ROB SCHEPPY

Summer may be over, but there’s plenty of heat for Firefighter Kaitlynn to contend with. Our newest hero joins the SlickforceGirl ranks this October, constantly putting herself in harms way to save others.

Here, Kaitlynn risks her life to save a pair of dalmatian pups in this Saglimbeni Store Exclusive Collector’s 13×18 Poster. A portion of proceeds from poster sales are donated to the Breast Cancer Charities of America’s iGoPink campaign. Order your Limited Edition posters here.

My thanks to the incredible team that helped make this high-concept shoot a reality, especially model Kaitlynn Carter, the SlickforceStudio crew and our brilliant glam squad. We’ve got a wonderful making-of video for you on the way next week. Stay tuned for more details.

The SlickforceGirls need your help. Find out how you can join the fight at SlickforceGirl.com!

CREDITS: 
Model: Kaitlynn Carter
Photography by Nick Saglimbeni
Make-up by Therese Williams
Hair by Al Ingram
Styling by Diana Chan
Post-production by SlickforceStudio
Production Stills by Joyce Park

In late August, we packed up our bags and headed to Germany for our fourth PhotoKamp workshop. Being our first PhotoKamp outside the US, this weekend workshop drew participants and crew from 9 countries—some traveling from as far as Nigeria.

On day one, we met at Luminanz studio in Saarbrücken, near the French/German border for a meet and greet with the photographers, followed by an informal Q&A. As a sign of the changing times in our industry, a majority of the questions this year focused on brand building, marketing one’s art, and making a living as a photographer at a time of unprecedented competition. We then all headed for a real German meal in downtown Saarbrücken.

On Saturday morning, we met at Luminanz studio for a full day of studio lighting. I divided the room into two setups. The first was a commercial fashion lighting setup, similar to what I’ve done for Kardashian Kollection and Neiman Marcus. The second, by popular request, was my “pinup glamour” setup, which I all but retired in 2010 when I stepped down from my last long-term magazine contract. I also covered several “one light” setups that produce striking (and super affordable) results.

On Sunday, in classic PhotoKamp tradition, we ventured out for a day of location lighting. Our German coordinators arranged for us to shoot at a vacant coal mining facility, complete with all kinds of industrial madness. We again split into two setups. The first involved lighting a massive space with minimal lighting, using a combination of natural light, strobes and fog. The second focused on mixing strobes with outdoor elements, positioning your model relative to the sun, and—an unplanned lesson—shooting in the rain.

I continue to marvel at the good fortune we’ve had to attract such amazing talents and personalities to our PhotoKamp workshops. Being that even I was out of my Los Angeles-centric comfort zone, it was a wonderful opportunity to eat, talk and bond with both new friends and old. My sincerest thanks to our German coordinators Stefan Rasch, Carsten Simon of Luminanz studio, our four wonderful models and makeup artist Miriam Regitz. Also to my amazing international SlickforceStudio crew Scot Fortino (US), Hayden Phoenix (NZ) and Peter Major (Hungary).

We’ve just created an official PhotoKamp Facebook page to learn more about PhotoKamp and for past students to stay in touch. New dates for upcoming workshops will be announced in the next few weeks on our Facebook page and at PhotoKamp.com!

CREDITS: Photos by Hayden Phoenix and Carsten Simon.

Last week at SlickforceStudio, we photographed the Arthur George designer sock line for Neiman Marcus. Created by Rob Kardashian, Arthur George features wild designs for both guys and girls, ranging from socks to stocking to leggings.

After seeing just how bright and colorful so many of the designs were, I opted for a neutral photography palette to allow the socks to pop. The models did a wonderful job of showcasing the brand, and I give them a lot of credit for proudly conveying a young, energetic label. Having photographed both Kendall and Kylie Jenner’s very first modeling shoots, it is also awesome to witness just how comfortable they have become in front of the camera.

Congratulations to Rob Kardashian and John Burtzloff on producing an amazing campaign. Look for Arthur George at your nearest Neiman Marcus store or visit agsocks.com for more info!

CREDITS: 

MODELS Kendall Jenner, Kylie Jenner, Matilda Price, Pia Mia, Matt Cook Jr.
PHOTOGRAPHY Nick Saglimbeni for SlickforceStudio
MAKE UP Etienne Ortega
HAIR Guy Romeo
STYLIST Matthew Ryan

PRODUCTION STILLS by Joyce Park for SlickforceStudio

This was my first shoot with Melanie Iglesias, for the premiere issue of WMB 3D: World’s Most Beautiful. Glamour is a tricky business, because it’s very easy to fall into the “men’s mag” category. I wanted the glamour in WMB to be as classy as it was sexy.

We found this beautiful mansion in Pasadena; they had all this really great furniture and huge windows. I like to shoot at very slow ISOs, so we augmented all of the natural light with umbrellas and diffusers. For this particular setup, where Melanie is in the chair, I had one diffused umbrella on a 2400w/s pack keying her, and an Octabank outside the window boosting the ambient sun. I was using a lot of fan on this shoot, so I wanted a really fast shutter, but I opted to keep it at 1/125 so we didn’t lose the natural light exposure. Enough of the hair exposure came from the strobes so we didn’t have too much motion blur.

Mel and the whole team did a great job on this shoot, and to this day it’s still our most downloaded gallery on WMB 3D. Enjoy the behind-the-scenes video…we left the original production audio track in for a more authentic shoot experience. Download the FREE WMB 3D here for iPad, iPhone and Android.

CREDITS:
Photography by NICK SAGLIMBENI
Hair by AL INGRAM
Makeup by GABY RAMOS
Styling by SARAH WALLNER