One of my first commercial assignments was to shoot 12 models (Pinup) for a new calendar for a company called the Palm Beach Princesses (a casino cruise ship that would actually go out to sea every day and people would go and gamble on the boat.) They contacted me and wanted me to put together a 12 month calendar featuring all the pretty girls that worked on the boat, so this is one of those shots that was featured in that calendar.
The technical aspects of this shot are pretty interesting. I have a light on her which is to the camera left position and this has a tight grid on it and this is a small softbox in very close to the model. Then I have a backlight which is lighting in the background blue and you can see that on the bar. This was a simple speedlite with a blue gel fill place over the head and aimed up towards all the bottles in the bar. Then lastly I have one other light which is another speedlite down very low around her leg that is extended down to the floor. The problem that I had was that the main light wouldn't reach her leg without creating too much of a spill on the rest of the bar, so rather than backing up the main light.. I decided to add a third light to the near bottom of her leg which is just admitting a very tiny tiny amount of light just enough to pull the shadows out of her downward leg so it doesn’t blend in with the background.
TH
Location: West Palm Beach, Fl.
