electrafire

Hey guys and gals,

I'm a noob and I was not quite sure where to put this post.

I am about to do a photo shoot and would like to make the models look very airbrushed and cartoonish like in the link below...
electra-fire : photos : examples- powered by SmugMug


So my questions are:

1) Is the background lighting/effect a result of a layer in Photoshop placed over the photograph or was it actually shot that way??? I have seen a guy on TV once show how to use a layer like a mask and create that background effect.... How would I do this?

2) What filters would I have to use to give my image that cartoonish airbrushed effect?


Any help is good help :]

Cheers!