Resources
June 26, 2008 - A little portrait session with Moose
Today I shot a little 10 minute session with my dog Moose, who was happily laying in one of his favorite spots under a window at the top of the stairs, until I passed by and realized his ideal shooting location and pose. TIP: Shooting portraits next to a window often gives a beautiful soft lighting effect, and can be shot without fill-in flash in some instances. For these shots, I used the natural light from above, along with a Hotshoe flash, mounted on a light stand behind me to fill-in the shadows. He was quite happy to lay there for several minutes and give me some poses that really represent his personality. Let me know what you think!
June 18, 2008 - Editing the MAT Collection - "Ghosts in the City"
The MAT Collection shoot has come and gone, and so far Diego is really happy with the raw images we shot. Diego's vision was to have the hairstyles represent "the combination of urban culture and sophisticated socialites; the goal for the shoot was to work with strong technical precision and to create beautifully executed styles that are both creative and inspiring." The shoot took a total of 18 hours (a WHOLE lot of coffee and energy drinks were consumed) and my ears are still ringing from the very loud House/Dance music that is a favorite of Diego's and apparently the rest of the Fashion world. Out of a total of 2,176 images, we've narrowed the selection to 6 final shots that will be edited for print. Based on previous collections that we've done, each of the shots will take about 8 hours of editing (possibly even more due to the fact that we are doing superimposed images.)
The images you see here are the "raw" images, also known as SOOC, or "Strait Out Of the Camera" and they have not been retouched in any way. They were all shot using my portable studio, which was set up in a large classroom at the SDBA campus in Poway, CA. As you can see, they were shot on a white background, using anywhere from 3-5 strobes with softboxes, umbrellas, snoots, and reflectors.
This next set shows the images after they have been subjected to nearly 4 hours of blemish removal, facial restructuring, and contrast enhancement. As the main focus of the shoot was the hair, Diego and I decided that we should really pump up the colors in the hair, and desaturate the skin tones on the models. Notice the dramatic difference it makes for the 1st and 4th shots above. Also, if you look closely, you might be able to see a few sections of the hair that was moved, removed, layered, or copy & pasted onto different areas. (Hint: look at the 4th image, above the ear.)
This set shows the interim stage which I like to call "the extraction". As the images are very detailed, especially in the textured areas of the hair, it requires a ridiculous amount of patience and Photoshop skill to cut around the edges of the models, so they can be superimposed onto the urban cityscapes. Unfortunately, some of the very textured areas, in the 2nd and 5th image were too detailed, and therefore required very light colored backgrounds to be superimposed onto. Also, you'll notice that some of the models' shoulders have been made somewhat transparent. This is so that they will blend better with the cityscapes. This stage took a whopping 5 hours per image, and several glasses of Cabernet...
And here are the finals! Each of the images were flattened and layered onto stock cityscape images. The bodies of the models were made semi-transparent for blending, and the cityscapes were enhanced with desaturation, contrast enhancement, and selective coloring. So keep your eyes peeled for these shots - maybe you'll see them in a hair magazine at your local salon!
June 8, 2008 - The San Diego Beauty Academy MAT Collection 08'
Hey everybody! Some of you may know that I have had a very good history working with the San Diego Beauty Academy for alot of their photoshoots. Usually, my work for the Academy is comparable to a "final test" for the Makeup and Hair Design students; meant to highlight the flaws in their make-up application or hair styles so that their teachers can grade their ability to perform under time constraints and to apply make-up for studio lighting, instead of natural lighting. But every once in a while, I get a really fun and exciting assignment that allows me to go "full-throttle" with creative lighting and photoshop work. The MAT (Master Artistic Team) Hair Collections are just such an outlet for my creativity. The shoots usually last about 2 eight-hour days, and the team consists of 6 models, about 10 hair stylists, and several make-up artists. The whole project is coordinated by Diego Raviglione, the Artistic Director for the Academy, who's work has been published in countless magazines including Elle, ElleGirl, Oprah, In-Style, Marie Claire, Cosmo, Allure and Shape, as well as trade publications such as American Salon, Launchpad, Behind the Chair and Modern Salon. Needless to say, the MAT Collections are the yearly highlights of my fashion work. Here are a few shots from the '07 Collection, and I will keep the blog updated as I edit the final images from the new collection.
June 2, 2008 - The Website is Born!
Welcome! This is my first of many posts to the blog section of ryannicholsroy.com. The preliminary sections of my website were uploaded to the server this afternoon, but the site is still under construction, while I chip away at the html/css coding, and the photoshop/flash work that needs to be done.
In this blog, I am hoping to be able to post a variety of different things, ranging from events from my everyday life to step-by-step tutorials and accounts of my recent shoots. So I welcome you to stop by every now and then to keep up with me, and feel free to email me with any questions or comments found here.
Ryan Nichols-Roy