JOIN OUR MAILING LIST
  • Home
  • Portugal 2023
  • About
  • Gallery
    • This Was STC Santorini 2023
    • This Was STC Miami 2021
    • This Was STC Santorini 2018
    • This Was STC Miami 2016
    • This Was STC Santorini 2015
    • This Was STC Miami 2015 – Temple House
    • This Was STC Miami 2014
    • This Was STC L.A. 2013
    • This Was STC Bahamas 2013
    • This Was Miami – STC Oct 13-14, 2012 Seminar / Workshop
    • This Was STC Miami 2012
    • This Was STC Vegas 2011 – 2
    • This Was STC Vegas 2011 – 1
    • This Was Miami 2011
  • Model Search
  • Store
  • Blog
  • Contact

Blog

A Playboy Special Edition Dedicated Just to Me and How I Shot the Cover

Posted on: 05-31-2016 Posted in: Photography

iPad--ad-290

Every month since 2004 Playboy brought the readers Slovenia’s most beautiful celebrities, models, actresses, athletes, singers and girls next door on Playboy’s “page three“, a section titled “Sanjsko dekle” (Dream girl) which gained a cult following over the past 12 years of being featured in the magazine and having almost exclusively been photographed by yours truly.

As a big tribute to many of the beautiful ladies who were brave enough to come in front of my camera and share the magic, the 130-page Special Edition featuring hundreds of my photographs hit the newsstands as an independent issue this spring.

01 Dream Girl

“An entire magazine (Playboy Special Issue) dedicated to my work on the Dream Girl section over the past dozen years”I am extremely proud of being featured in this Playboy Special Issue, an entire magazine dedicated to my work on the Dream Girl section over the past dozen years. Not many photographers get a chance of having their very own Playboy Special Edition published. I can recall just a handful of veterans, legendary glamour photographers like Richard Fegley and Pompeo Posar. Of course it is also impossible to properly do justice to all the girls that have been depicted on Playboy Slovenia’s “page three”. It is just a glimpse at their grace that has been captured over all these years.

02-Dream-Girl

Upon deciding on the cover model for this Special Edition of Playboy the selection was narrowed down to just a handful of girls. The editors finally went with Nataša Naneva who graced the February 2016 issue of Playboy with her energetic cover shot during the STC Seminar in Santorini. Nataša is an actress, hair and hand model, certified Zumba instructor and an ambassador for several national advertising brands, such as Žito and Subrina.

natashaAles

Setting up a cover shoot is never an easy job. Cover images must speak, they must convey emotions and leave the viewer with the desire to buy the magazine. If the image is not powerful enough, it is just a pretty picture. No editor will entrust you the cover commission and hope for just a pretty photograph. Your images should celebrate female beauty, but they should also add a touch of personal style, a signature look, something that no one else could have taken. This will make you stand out from the crowd.

03 BTS

The challenge for this cover (my sixtieth cover in a row for Playboy) was creating a moody atmosphere using just constant lighting – LED, neon and tungsten sources. I decided to use complementary colors on the model and the background and thus create an eye-pleasing visual harmony. Such schemes should always be used with caution so they do not become jarring. They should create maximum contrast and maximum stability at the same time.

04 Workflow Complementary colors

The equipment used was a custom built 3ft neon sticklight with 54W bulb, a dimmable 312 LED Panel with adjustable color temperature (3200K setting), one 1×4’ Striplight with just modeling lamp on (250W) at 2/3 proportional power and Lupolux DayLED 650 Fresnel daylight at 55% power (for background). The final cover image was shot on Canon EOS 5DsR, 24-70/2.8L lens at 54mm, 1/50s, f/3.2 and ISO1600 at 2500 K.

05 BTS

Such setup floods the model with prominent greenish light cast, but does so carefully and with controlled amount of precision. The image color hue is further enhanced by putting together an 80B filter (used to convert tungsten to daylight) and a sepia filter in front of the lens. The additional cast this combination produces delivers the final punch to the picture’s color balance, which I tweaked in Lightroom to my liking (Tint +6 Magenta, Shadows +25) for the desired effect.

00 Intro1The final cover

Ales Bravnicar

(See more of Ales’s work at www.bravnicar.com)

shop-stc-click-pointer-2-568STC-LA-seminar-568-banner

© 2016 Copyright ShootTheCenterfold.com. All rights reserved.

  • Popular Posts
  • Related Posts
  • Write for us sponsored posts
    Write for us sponsored posts
  • Learning how to take the best photography
    Learning how to take the best photography
  • Sarah Lyons - From STC Attendee to FHM Cover Model
    Sarah Lyons - From STC Attendee to FHM Cover Model
  • How Your Photography Portfolio Can Help You Avoid Rejection
    How Your Photography Portfolio Can Help You Avoid Rejection
  • Sarah Lyons - From STC Attendee to FHM Cover Model
    Sarah Lyons – From STC Attendee to FHM Cover Model
  • How Your Photography Portfolio Can Help You Avoid Rejection
    How Your Photography Portfolio Can Help You Avoid Rejection
  • Hand Gestures: What do I do with my Hands?
    Hand Gestures: What do I do with my Hands?
  • The STC Graduates and Where are They Today? (Part 1)
    The STC Graduates and Where are They Today? (Part 1)

Leave a Reply

Click here to cancel reply.

Twitter Feed

    Twitter not configured.

Archives

  • February 2025
  • August 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • April 2022
  • September 2021
  • June 2021
  • April 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • November 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • September 2010

Search Blog

Recent Posts

  • Write for us sponsored posts Write for us sponsored posts
    02-20-2025
  • Learning how to take the best photography Learning how to take the best photography
    02-20-2025
  • Sarah Lyons - From STC Attendee to FHM Cover Model Sarah Lyons - From STC Attendee to FHM Cover Model
    08-17-2023

Popular Posts

Every photographer has a story to tell …
© 2011-2023 Shoot The Centerfold. All Rights Reserved
  • Privacy Policy
  • Customer Support
  • Ordering Details FAQ
  • Payment Methods
  • Return Policy FAQ
  • License Agreement
TwitterStumbleUponRedditDiggdel.icio.usFacebookLinkedIn