los angeles men's fashion and beauty photographer ronald n. tan

Congratulations to John Kenney for appearing in the recent GAP Holiday advertisement. I was happy because John was one of the professional male models I’ve met when I was in Los Angeles and he’s a great gentleman and well-mannered. I don’t throw around compliments.

When good people work really hard, they deserve to be successful. I AM VERY HAPPY FOR YOU!

Link to HD Gap Holiday Ad on the Official GAP Channel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0j1yupiHgek

Here is John Kenney for Neiman Marcus.

John Kenney @ LA Models for Neimen Marcus - http://www.neimanmarcus.com/

Prior to my move, John was the last male model in LA I shot. He’s great man engaged to his high school sweet heart, Ms. Sharon Klarman. To the future Mr. and Mrs. Kenney, my heartfelt thanks to you both and I wish you both the best and brightest future as you traverse further in life.

John was the last Los Angeles male model I photographed prior to my relocation. I am so glad to be around family and friends. I figure while my agents in LA and in Paris, France are representing me and my works, this gave me the opportunity to move back up north trying the San Francisco market.

Of course, I’ll fly into LA if I have important shoots or special meetings with clients.

When I first moved to LA two years ago, Sergio Garcia initiated contact and invited me over to LA Models to test a few male models under his roster. I picked Brandon Stoughton. Here is one of my favorite images of him from my test. These are from Sept. 2007.

In the latter half of 2008, Brandon was cast as a lead male model in Britney Spear’s “Womanizer” video. I do wonder what’s happening in Brandon’s life since we lost touch. I hope all is well with him.

Castings on Modelmayhem.com are a hit or miss. The majority of the male models do not read. Here is the link to the casting: http://www.modelmayhem.com/casting.php?ccid=339295. Notice how I CAPITALIZED the READ CAREFULLY and LOS ANGELES MALE MODELS?

On the 26th February, 2009, I received a submission from Ash and he followed my instructions. I normally don’t meet models prior to the shoot, but I had to meet with Ash. We met on the first of March at my favorite Indian restaurant in Artesia called “Ashoka the Great” on Pioneer Blvd.

These are my photographs from our quickie test on the 3rd of March, 2009:

Ash wants to get representation with LA Models so I helped setup an interview at LA Models. I wish Ash the best of luck! Great guy with wonderful personality.

Today, LA Models and Click LA sent me Adam B. Burr and E. Remington Hoffman for my continuation of my vintage texture portraits. Adam is from Atlanta, Georgia and he has a Southern accent. Remington is a mix between German/Irish and Japanese.

Here is a sneak peek of Adam @ LA Models.

Here is E. Remington Hoffman @ Click LA.

I grabbed some quick shots of Victor @ LA Models for my ageing photo series. I found interesting textures and will be using them on the photo of Victor.

Here is my interpretation and take on the “photo-painting” style. There are many variants of the “photo-paiting” style and these styles fell under the umbrella of utilization and combination of techniques such as local contrast enhancement (LCE) and dodging and burning (D&B) or “painting with light” (PWL). Experiment and you’ll find your own “photo-painting” style.

I lit Crosby with my 22″ Speedotron Beautydish with a 35-degree honey comb grid.

Crosby T. Wehr @ LA Models

1). Download my layered 8-Bit Tif file to study the layers. Crosby-2-205-Tutorial.tif

2) Looking at the layers should be self-explanatory.

3) The interesting layer is the “R-Channel Find Edges.”

4) CTRL + ALT + SHIFT + E to merge all the layers onto a new layer and name it “Merged Layer” for naming purposes.

5) Click and select “Merged Layer,” and go into the channel palette and duplicate the Red channel. You should see “Red copy” in the Channels palette.

6) To the “Red copy,” apply the “Find Edges” filter located Filter –> Stylize –> Find Edges.

7) The “Red copy” will resemble a pencil sketch after executing the filter. Run a Gaussian Blur at R=1 and then auto level.

At this point, an edge mask was created. CTRL + click on “Red copy”. Click on the RGB composite image in the Channels Palette and CTRL + J to copy onto a new layer. Name this “R-Channel Find Edges.”

9) Set this layer to Luminosity blending mode and run an Unsharp Mask (USM) at 50,30,0. Vary the settings here depending on taste and one’s own image.