Archive for the ‘WMB 3D: World’s Most Beautiful™’ Category

Alright, I’m just going to come right out and say it: I love my job. When I was kid, I could only have dreamed that one day I’d find myself in a career where I am constantly surrounded by the world’s most beautiful women. With all that said, it’s not everyday that you get to photograph an actual supermodel.

Like most, I had first “known” Estella Warren from seeing her in countless Chanel campaigns, and in Hollywood blockbusters like Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes. My first shoot with Estella was in 2011—when I photographed her for Breast Cancer Charities of America’s iGoPink campaign (read post here)—and we became instant friends. Her stories make me laugh, and on camera she conjures the most striking expressions with seemingly minimal effort—truly a photographer’s dream.

After the success of our first two editions of WMB 3D: World’s Most Beautiful, I wanted to follow up with an unforgettable third issue. I envisioned a bold cover to round out the trilogy, and yet I knew that only an amazing and experienced model could make risqué look both artistic and classy. Estella delivered on all fronts, and she was charming throughout the shoot, despite the provocative and sometimes painful poses. She was particularly excited about being photographed in 3D.

I’m proud to announce that today, you can see Estella’s cover, interview and 8-page photo feature in Issue 3 of WMB 3D. It is available on iPad, iPhone and on Google Play. There are also a limited number of Collector’s Print Editions available in the Slickforce Store here. (read about the printing process here). I’m in awe of the beautiful work rendered by the glam squad, and I am eternally thankful to Ms. Warren for our most memorable cover yet.

Enjoy!

CREDITS
Photography by NICK SAGLIMBENI
Makeup by THERESE WILLIAMS
Hair by AL INGRAM
Styling by NATALIE YURI

Production Stills by JOYCE PARK for SlickforceStudio

If you’ve ever held a copy of WMB 3D: World’s Most Beautiful in your hand, you know it’s a beast of a publication. With 2D and 3D sides combined, the magazine measure over 1/2 inch thick, and boasts over 225 pages: each one meticulously photographed, retouched, and designed by our art team. As such, I don’t like leaving the printing up to chance.

After years of seeing my work printed for other publications, one of the printers that always delivered stellar results was Canadian print-house Lowe-Martin (formerly Dollco). For this reason, I chose them as the official printer of WMB 3D. When I received the first shipment of Issue 1 in 2011, I couldn’t believe I was looking at CMYK printing—the colors were nearly as rich as they were on an RGB display. For Issue 3, I decided to make the trip to visit our friends in Ontario, and document the process for you. (Be warned: I’m going to get technical, so the faint of heart should just skip to the pretty pictures now.)

After we locked the layout for the publication, the master PDFs were generated and sent to the printer via FTP. Once the images are cleared through preflight—file prep which insures color and registration accuracy—a high-resolution set of color-match proofs was sent to me in Los Angeles to review. Upon approval, color-separation ink plates are burned (at a microscopic 20 micron resolution) and mounted onto press for printing.

Issue 3 was printed on a brand-new Heidelberg XL 40″ 10-color press. In the case of WMB, five ink bays are reserved for one side of the page (typically Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black, and then a spot-color or varnish), after which the page is perfected (flipped in line) and the back side is run through the next five ink bays.

The pressman color matches individual ink densities using the Inpress control sheet reader. Once approved, the switch is thrown and the sheets are printed en masse. The Estella-Warren-graced cover was then run though press a second time to apply the spot gloss varnish to the WMB logo and to Estella’s boots, making them extra spiffy. Finally, the images are collated, bound, glued and trimmed on a perfect binder, where they are made retail-ready.

My thanks to the stellar team at Lowe-Martin for taking such wonderful care of our progressive publication: Pam, Dave, Brad, Cathy, Paul, Noah, Rose, Rob, April and the rest of the team. To see this beautifully printed book up close, visit the Slickforce Store to order your copy of WMB 3D Issue 3.

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

On my most recent trip to Morocco, I visited the wonderful town of Chefchaouen. I had seen pictures of the fabled blue village in postcards and on-line, but seeing it up close is quite a different experience. The town is nestled in the side of the Rif mountains, just inland from Tangier in northern Morocco. Founded in 1471, Chefchaouen is now home to 35,000 Moroccans.

And if it isn’t obvious from the pictures above, the entire town is painted blue. Like, absolutely everything. The houses, the doorways, the sidewalks…and each a subtle variation on the hue. And though visually stunning as this was, what I didn’t expect was the hypnotically calming effect that walking around a blue city actually has on one’s mind. Besides feeling like you are actually inside an animated cartoon, I also found it strangely impossible to have any sort of negative thought while exploring the peaceful azure alleyways.

In the upcoming Issue 3 of WMB 3D: World’s Most Beautiful, you can see the colorful Chefchaouen as if you were really there, getting lost in the labyrinths and doorways. My thanks to my guides, Karim Tibari, Tarek & Yousef Turner, and Moustafa el Habti for the personalized tour of this magical town. Pick up your copy of WMB 3D in the Saglimbeni Store here!

It’s hard to not fall in love with Morocco after the first few days. Casablanca, largely due to its’ classic Hollywood fame, conjures cinematic visions of mystery and romance. And Marrakech—with its snake charmers, night markets and brass bazaars—is straight out of an adventure novel.

I first visited Morocco in 2009, and again more recently to photograph the country in 3D for World’s Most Beautiful. I found the people friendly, the food delicious and the culture absolutely magical. A mix of African, Arab and European influences, Morocco is as diverse in culture as it is in people and terrain. The cities, in fact, are the most Western thing about Morocco. As such, I’ve broken my Morocco travelogue into four parts.

This first segment starts in Casablanca, at the spectacular Mohammed V mosque—which both overlooks and partially sits on the Atlantic Ocean. Then, we travel south to Marrakech, where we visit the bustling Jemaa el’Fnaa market square. I can still smell the steaming food stalls and taste the mint tea. Lastly, I get to play with impressively large knives at the Azlag Dagger Cooperative in El Kelaa Mgouna.

For the full adventure, be sure to pick up your copy of WMB 3D: World’s Most Beautiful on iPhone, iPad, Android phones & tablets and in Collector’s Edition print.

CREDITS:
Photos 1-6: Mohammed V Mosque, Casablanca
7-13: Food stalls, tea carts, and brass souks line the Jemaa el’Fnaa square in Marrakech.
14: “That’s not a knife, THIS is a knife.” in El Kelaa Mgouna

This morning, Global Grind revealed the 2D version of the upcoming third issue of World’s Most Beautiful. Here is the first look at the 3D version of stunning supermodel Estella Warren.

This issue is jam-packed with unbelievable content and weighs in at a record 226 pages thick, insuring new levels of eye candy jumping off the pages. Order your copy now, and stay tuned for more news and images throughout the coming weeks!

I have always been fascinated with the industrial technologies associated with the arts. Offset printing, darkrooms, chemical baths at film labs, drum-scanning, silk screens—all of it. As we were preparing the upcoming issue of WMB 3D for print, it occurred to me that the rising generation of photographers may never get to experience the sheer awe of large-scale press printing, just as many have never set foot in a darkroom. So I decided to document our latest print venture for our readers.

Over the last decade as a magazine photographer, I’ve witnessed my images printed both wonderfully and horribly—something every artist will experience at some point in their careers—largely dependent on the critical choices of printer, stocks, coatings, and color-profiling, often made by the publishers. So, when it came time to print the first issue of WMB 3D: World’s Most Beautiful in 2011, I already knew which direction I would go with regards to printing.

Last week, I traveled to Ottawa, Canada to press check WMB 3D Issue 3. I spent the day touring the massive press facilities, marveling at the precision with which beautiful art can be made from such massive, outwardly grungy, industrial machines. I will follow up in a few days with a post on the actual press check experience, but here’s a sneak peek for the curious artists.

Order your super-sized Collector’s Print Edition of WMB 3D here!

Breakthrough.

This morning, we were notified that an image from our 3D fashion feature, Warehouse Wonderland, made the finals at the Sony World Photo Awards in the 3D Category. The piece, entitled “Breakthrough,” was featured in Issue 2 of WMB 3D: World’s Most Beautiful in 2012.

This is the second year we’ve been recognized by Sony and the WPO. In 2012, we won the Grand Prize in 3D for our fashion piece, Nuclear Summer, also shot for WMB 3D (See pics from last year’s award win here.) It is an honor to be in such esteemed company as our fellow nominees, and it is a personal thrill for me to see our wonderful art house get recognized for its landmark achievements in 3D photography.

I also must thank our team for helping me create this beautiful image. Fashion model Aryn Livingston graciously allowed me to dirty her up in the industrial warehouse. Genius stylist Monica Rose wowed us all again with her out-of-this-world wardrobe styling. Hair stylist Gio Campora and make-up artist Gaby Ramos Torell—the same glam squad that brought you our globally-reknowned desert shoot with Bollywood superstar Mallika Sherawat, returned to lend their enormous talents and create their signature brand of magic. My thanks to WMB 3D Executive Publisher Howard Misle and the WMB staff, and to the entire Saglimbeni3D technical team, including lead engineer German Pinchevsky, post-production supervisor Joyce Park, production coordinator Kevin Savarese, and art director Clint Davis.

Read more about our Sony WPO nomination on FStoppers.com, and watch the making of Warehouse Wonderland below!

WMB 3D: 02 Warehouse Wonderland High Fashion from Nick Saglimbeni on Vimeo.

This summer, Saglimbeni3D made a big splash in the UK, thanks to a front-page PrintWeek story and cover features in two of England’s leading photo publications: Professional Photographer and Photography Monthly.

All three features focused on our advances in 3D photography. UK audiences have embraced the progressive art form, and to their credit, they also are aren’t afraid to ask the tough questions. Journalist Jon Severs interviewed me in London while I was in town for the Sony World Photography Awards. While most of our American press features have been focused on which celebrities we are shooting, Jon’s hour-plus-long interview covered so many intricacies of the 3D photo universe—both technical and artistic—that I was actually caught a bit off guard, but happily so.

My sincerest thanks to Jon for his in-depth interview and articulate writing, and also to Adam Scorey at Archant Imaging. As an artist passionate about 3D, it is exciting to have the opportunity to talk about the science behind the art and the future of the genre, especially to such an interested and curious audience.

Get your copies of Photography Monthly (August 2012) and Professional Photographer (September 2012) at Barnes & Noble and on newsstands now. See a preview on Jon’s blog here.

Read the PrintWeek feature here.

Blogger & photographer Jade Lisa also wrote a wonderful piece on my traditional (2D) photography. I’ve received many positive letters from women about this interview, and I have to give Jade credit for approaching my work from a refreshing female perspective. See it here.

The wonderful folks at NVIDIA 3D Vision Live surprised me last week by awarding me the 2012 Photo Champion award. This was the culmination of much support from our fans as well as two previous monthly awards on the 3D Vision site. It’s an honor to receive this award, and my deepest thanks go out to everyone involved. (Detailed thank-you’s below.)

We’ve been working with NVIDIA to roll out some of the world’s most ambitious 3D content, and as part of this new venture they encouraged me to look at our work on some of their high-end 3D rendering hardware. Now, as most of you know, I’m a Mac lover through and through, but one of Apple’s few major shortcomings is its lack of 3D support. So after a week-long test-drive of NVIDIA’s butt-kicking Quadro 5000 graphics card, I decided to make a foray back into the Windows world and build SlickforceStudio a new 3D PC workstation. After reading many reviews and speaking with several friends in both the visual effects and 3D worlds, here’s the setup I opted for (pictured below):

Eizo ColorEdge CG275W 27″ LCD display (left)
BenQ XL2420T 24″ 3D LED display with 3D Vision Lightboost (right)
NVIDIA Quadro 5000 2.5GB Graphics Card
NVIDIA 3D Vision Pro hub & active-shutter glasses system
Wacom Intuos 4 Medium tablet

First, let me say that this Quadro 5000 card is a BEAST. At an inch thick and with built-in fan big enough to cool a small tower, it takes up two bays on your machine and looks like no graphics card I have ever seen. That said, it’s also the best visual experience I’ve ever had on a PC. Rendering out both 3D video and stills and fast and effortless, once you get used to the new workflow. The Eizo display is absolutely gorgeous and showcases some of the richest color I’ve ever seen. The BenQ 3D display with 3D Vision with Lightboost is awesomely bright, which 3D connoisseurs know is almost always a problem with shutter-glasses systems, because you lose half the light in each eye. Not here. The 3D is absolutely beautiful and perfectly luminous (and unlike iPads using red-cyan glasses you retain full color information.)

As a test, we converted a portion of WMB 3D to be viewed on the 3DVision Pro system, and I can honestly say our 3D images have never looked better. Clint Davis‘ layouts jumped off the page, and it made me yearn for the day when everyone can view our content in full-color 3D.

My sincerest thanks go out to Steve Klett and Sean Kilibride at NVIDIA, and also to Thomas Gadbois at Eizo for helping us put this fantastic system together. I also must thank the amazing Saglimbeni3D team who continues to create and innovate in a new world with never-enough resources: Post-production supervisor Joyce Park, Director of Operations Kevin Savarese, lead engineer German Pinchevsky, photographer Christian Arias—this would only be a dream without you all.

For me, the NVIDIA 3D Vision Champion award is another landmark step in showing the world the undiscovered beauty of 3D photography, and I am grateful to all who have supported us in our journey.

For more on the 2012 Photo Champion Award, visit NVIDIA’s 3D Vision Live site here.