A Muse for Magic [Rf Photo of the Day]

After a long day of lookbook shots for the New Zealand brand WORLD, photographer Garth Badger decided it was time to mix things up for the “quirky and adventurous client,” he says. “I always work with this client in a collaborative and fluid way. The only thing we had planned for this shot was the glitter—the smoke, lighting and pose were all-last minute decisions as we built the shot.”

Badger—who used a Canon 1D X and an 85mm f/1.2 lens—set up Profoto B1 units with two backlights (one high up and one low), as well as a small softbox with a grid in front of the model. He flagged off the entire set so that the back of the studio behind her would go near-black.

“The client was managing the glitter, literally throwing handfuls from a ladder just out of shot,” he says. “My assistant was running the smoke machine and we were able to get a great set of shots, each quite individual, very quickly. It’s exactly the way I like to work: spontaneous and fun.”