Salma will be on the cover of magazine Redbook’s November issue, and their site has details on how the photoshoot went. They also have a picture from the photoshoot on their site, which you now can see in the gallery, by clicking on the thumbnail below. Continue reading for the story on how the shoot went.

Dress rehearsal: Salma had a clear sense of the styles — hair, makeup, and clothing — that look best on her petite, curvy frame. For makeup she preferred smoky, sexy looks. She liked her hair loose, down, and more straight than curly. The clothes she gravitated to were deep, rich, jewel tones — although she also adored a few black dresses — and she was drawn to fitted dresses more than casual tank tops and jeans. Though she had opinions about what worked and what didn’t, Salma didn’t mind trying lots of different looks on, and she always kept her sense of humor. About one dress, Salma laughingly said that although she liked it, it made “my bosoms look too big.” As for the shoes? We had lots of high heels to give 5′2″ Salma a boost.

And…action! As a director and producer, Salma knows a lot about photography and kept up a running conversation with the photographer during the shots. Some cover subjects prefer to be given direction, but Salma was an active part of lighting and pose decisions. After each shot, she and the photographer would look over the Polaroids together (the photographer takes Polaroids first to make sure the lighting and angles look good) and discuss what changes they wanted to make.

Pillow talk: For the shoot, our stylist borrowed several large, soft pillows from ABC Carpet and Home, a home goods store in New York City, that Salma loved and wanted to buy. We had to return the ones we used, but our stylist helped set Salma up with some of her own.