When working with a Playboy® cover model Michelle Baena you better come up with a good shot. What I did here was to use the bathroom door of a location and put a light behind it so it would glow in the bathroom, I also used a gel on that light to add more color to the bathroom. You can see the main color is pink with for the backdrop and hot pink for the outfit on the model. When shooting something like this you should make sure you have a good makeup artist and do not forget about hair as that will play a big part in your look for a pinup image.
My main light was a large soft box to one side (Left) which was straight onto the model with another off to one side (right) as a fill, there was also a side back light which was a strip light, a very thin long soft box to help separate the model from the background refer to as shaping the subject. I could have put one each side of the model but I thought it would look unnatural and as there is a light in the bathroom which was more on one side (Door ajar) I think its balanced well. You can see in the shot when I pulled back a white board on the floor which will help bounce light up to help as also a fill, the board is also there as it was not easy for the model to pose with the carpet under her feet with shoes on. In that image you can also just see a flag (Black) that was stopping any side light flaring into the camera as the model would move about.
I did have a fan on the model to move her hair about so that each shot was not looking the same, you might like to use this trick as it will help with your looks, but make sure it’s not too much wind or the model will start to tear! You can also do this with a card and your assistant or helper can wave it at the model to get almost the same effect. My big tip from this shoot is to color coordinate.
Canon EOS 10D F6.7 @ 1/125sec Lens 28-75mm set at 75mm
