Posts Tagged ‘SlickforceGirl’

This is an excerpt from a recent interview I did with Rebecca Britt for Fstoppers. Read the full interview here.

Fstoppers/Rebecca Britt: I’m always fascinated when a photographer uses their talents for a greater cause than themselves. SlickforceGirl is a commercial and creative pinup brand that helps raise awareness for women’s causes and breast cancer. I recently had the opportunity to review creator Nick Saglimbeni’s Mastering Lighting series, and I wanted to sit with Nick to discuss his SlickforceGirl campaign and how he uses the techniques taught in Mastering Lighting within the campaign.

FS: I’ve been a fan of your SlickforceGirl brand for a couple of years now. Can you explain to our readers what started the idea of a SlickforceGirl?

Nick Saglimbeni: I originally created SlickforceGirl because I found myself at a crossroads in my art. My career first gained traction in the urban glamour market, an arena which boasts huge fan followings but very little recognition outside of that world. The models are gorgeous and every bit as talented as — and in some cases, more hard-working than — their “mainstream” counterparts, but because they are curvy, or ethnic, or short, they are historically limited to roles such as “music video girls”.

I’ve always seen color, curves and shape as assets rather than hindrances, and I think I instinctively knew how to photograph these women in a way that was different from what had been done before in that world. I wanted to create a diverse universe full of strong female characters for a new generation that isn’t used to every character just being tall, skinny and white.

FS: The scale of your Astronaut Vanessa character looks massive, it looks more like a movie. How did you choose your location and why?

NS: Visually speaking, Vanessa’s story was the most logistically difficult to shoot, but it’s also the most excited I’ve ever been on set. It felt like we were making a feature film, and we all turned into producers trying to find ways to get feature-film production value into a photo shoot budget. I’ll never understand this new era of just compositing everything onto a stock photo background. Being on location is at least half of the fun, and it changes the energy of the shoot dramatically.

We found a huge spaceship set that was built on a sound stage for a sci-fi movie, and they hadn’t broken it down yet. It was architecturally perfect, but aesthetically very gray and drab. I wanted a very stylized color palette for our pop version of deep space, similar to the bioluminescent scenes in James Cameron’s Avatar.

One of the ways we achieved this was through costume and glam. We originally planned on putting model Vanessa Veasley in an actual NASA Mercury suit, but quickly discovered they were so bulky that it was impossible to shoot anything even remotely sexy. So we had her space suit custom-made, and used fabrics with a reflective sheen to capture the “monitor glow” around the spaceship.

FS: How did you approach the lighting for this concept?

NS: For the cockpit scene, we had two lighting motivators — the interior glow from the monitors and bridge controls, and the exterior glow from the stars. There’s really no manual on lighting for outer space, so I looked at old American Cinematographer articles on Armageddon and Terminator 2 for inspiration.

I didn’t want to deal with the spill from green-screen, so we built two 12×12 white griffolyns outside the cockpit window and fired 4 heads on two 2400w/s packs into them. Compositing is much easier in stills than in motion-picture, so you can use whatever color you want to end up with. We then created “nebula hits” by pointing a couple of strips and softboxes with pink and purple gels directly at Vanessa. The trick with making outer space ambience look believable is to let some of the scene fall completely to black, so we were very careful not to overlight the cramped space. For the interior cockpit glow, we placed small double-silked strip lights with steel blue party gels around the ship and behind camera.

This scene was shot at ISO 100 on a 50mm lens (medium format). Even though we were wide, the biggest challenge is carrying the depth of field at that speed because theoretically both Vanessa and “the stars” needed to be in focus. Ultimately, we were able to get the light barely to an F4/5.6 split, and then I set the lens to F8 and let it underexpose a stop-and-a-half, except for a few highlights on her suit. It would have taken too much power to get our ambience higher, and if there were really stars outside that window, the light that reached the ship would be perfectly believable a few stops under key. Also, blues and purples saturate better at a darker luminance than warm colors so it ended up working in our favor.

(Read the complete interview on Fstoppers here.)

— My thanks to Rebecca and the Fstoppers team for a great interview!

Welcome the newest hero in the SlickforceGirl universe, Desert Mechanic Jessica. Word on the street is that she can fix anything, including your incorrect opinion.

Model Jessica Burciaga graciously stepped in to bring this rough-around-the-edges savant to life, and she was nice enough to let us cover her in dirt. Check out the making of Jessica’s shoot in the video above, as well the final campaign images and a BTS gallery from the shoot below.

For additional photos, hop over to SlickforceGirl.com and be sure to check out the SlickforceGirl Facebook and Instagram.

CREDITS:
Photo: Nick Saglimbeni
Model: Jessica Burciaga
Makeup: Therese Williams
Hair: Al Ingram
Styling: Diana Chan

Melanie Iglesias is back, and this time we are raising money for Hope for the Warriors. Watch as Melanie tries to keep up with the outlandish signing requests for her SlickforceGirl “Marine Mel” posters while fighting for a good cause!

Hope for the Warriors is an amazing 4-star rated charity that aims to enhance the quality of life for post-9/11 service members, their families, and families of the fallen. We are proud to have made a donation from the Saglimbeni Store and the Melanie Iglesias Store.

Special thanks to all of YOU who ordered autographed posters and made our donation possible. We couldn’t do it without you!

Want to see the making of Mel’s stunning Marine Cadet poster? Click here.

If you’ve been following SlickforceGirl.com, then you already know that our beautiful heroes will be taking a brief rest from saving the world to attend Stan Lee’s Comikaze at the Los Angeles convention center from October 31 thru November 2.

In anticipation of the event, we’ve been releasing creative renderings of our Girls from talented artists across the world. Take, for example, this stunning faux cover pin-up of firefighter Kaitlynn Connor — drawn by illustrator Corey Knaebel and colored by Ula Mos. We’re excited to announce that Corey will be joining us at our Comikaze booth this year, so be sure to come by and meet the growing SlickforceGirl team!

Kaitlynn was, of course, played by the talented Kaitlynn Carter, who is shortly launching her very own style blog. Here is a look back at her shoot below.

Stay tuned to SlickforceGirl.com for more art, new heroes, and upcoming appearance info!

Pencils by Corey Knaebel – Deviant Art | Website | Facebook
Inks and colors by Ula Mos – Deviant Art | Facebook

.

As America gears up to celebrate Memorial Day, the SlickforceGirl team is commemorating the holiday with Special Edition content releases featuring our newest hero, Marine Melanie, played by the lovely Melanie Iglesias.

Pre-order your 24″x36″ Marine Melanie Collector’s Wall Poster before May 29, and Melanie Iglesias will autograph them—personalized to the recipient.

For the hardcore Marine Melanie fans, we’ve got a Marine Melanie SuperFan Combo Pack that contains the 24×36 wall poster, a Charcoal Gray Marine Melanie SlickforceGirl T-Shirt, a Limited Edition 11×17 care-package poster, all in one set.

A portion of profits will be donated to Hope for the Warriors, and incredible non-profit that aims to enhance the quality of life for post-9/11 service members and families of the fallen.

Wishing everyone a happy and safe holiday. In the coming week, we take the time to remember those who have lost their lives in the fight for freedom. You are the real heroes, and SlickforceGirl salutes you!

Part II: Melanie Iglesias continues her armory tour in search of the perfect battle companion for her SlickforceGirl Marine shoot.

Animated GIFs from these videos are now available on the SlickforceGirl Tumblr here.

Special thanks to Will Huang and Independent Studio Services. Visit SlickforceGirl.com for more info and stay tuned for more from Marine Melanie!

SlickforceGirl: Melanie Iglesias Suits Up for Action, Part 1 from Nick Saglimbeni on Vimeo.

While our first six heroes are out saving the world, Melanie Iglesias is getting ready for her SlickforceGirl shoot. She’ll be joining the fight as Marine Melanie, but before she does, she must gear up and prepare for battle.

Special thanks to our military advisor Will Huang and Independent Studio Services for letting us play in their ultimate prop shop. Visit SlickforceGirl.com for more info and stay tuned for more from Marine Melanie!

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

In November, SlickforceGirl made its debut public appearance at Stan Lee’s Comikaze in Los Angeles. Our heroes Air Force Airman Erika and Indian Princess Ayanna turned out to meet fans and educate a curious audience on what SlickforceGirl is all about.

Here’s a backstage look at the exciting 3-day convention. Order your Limited Edition SlickforceGirl Comikaze Exclusive Collector’s T-Shirts and Posters here. Special thanks to models Erika Medina and Ayanna Jordan for their energy and enthusiasm, and to the amazing SlickforceStudio support team for orchestrating the appearance!

Videography by DANIEL U. MAGANA for SlickforceStudio
Stills by JOYCE PARK for SlickforceStudio

In early November, SlickforceGirl made its first public appearance at Stan Lee’s Comikaze Convention in Los Angeles. We commemorated this special occasion with the release of our sixth SlickforceGirl, Ayanna. Our resident Indian Princess might be the most petite of our heroes, but consider this fair warning that looks can absolutely be deceiving. Though not much is known about Ayanna’s abilities, rumors of mysticism and magic are enough to keep us on her good side.

Collect Princess Ayanna’s Limited Edition 11×17 poster, along with our other heroes, at SaglimbeniStore.com. As with the other posters, a portion of your purchase will go to help the fight against breast cancer. Visit SlickforceGirl.com for more info!

Enjoy these behind-the-scenes images of Ayanna’s shoot taken by the amazing Joyce Park!

CREDITS: 
Model: Ayanna Jordan
Photography by Nick Saglimbeni
Make-up by Therese Williams
Hair by Al Ingram
Styling by Diana Chan
Production Stills by Joyce Park for SlickforceStudio