Working on an idea for a new shot for my next book “Tips & Tricks” Vol II I thought of a setup that would give a separation from the model and background with the use of light, not just, bokeh (the visual quality of the out-of-focus areas of a photographic image).
I was given an outfit from a company that I was shooting for their new catalog, a sexy-cowgirl outfit part of a Halloween set & thought I could make it a cowgirl bandit with a mask, but the trick was to have the mask done with makeup. In fact, it was airbrushed on the model’s face (Image below). The background would be a nice red fluffy cloth, not just a red seamless.
I made a call to a Playboy® Playmate friend that I wanted to shoot for this shot, Tiffany Selby Miss July 2007 and she agreed to model for this idea. I wanted to have a model that was not going to be just a big boob girl, but a model that had great face and sexy legs & is well portioned. Tiffany is also a seasoned professional which would make the shoot go smoothly. Lighting would be a ring light from the front and two 1/2 domes one on each side from behind pointing to the sides of her body. As Tiffany was so close to the backdrop I did not need any light on it as the ring-light would light up the background from over spill. The two 1/2 domes were 1F stop higher than the ring light so as to give a nice high light on the model’s sides. I put the image into Adobe® Photoshop and played with the colors with some of my trick filters and got to the result I was looking for.