Portraits in a gym

rickj

rickj

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rick
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Today I was asked if I would take some pic's for a women at my local gym she would like a portfolio of the next 4 months as she is getting ready for a bodybuilding show . The idea is to take shoots of her working out and posing
I have said yes as it will be good experience the idea is the first session will be free if she is happy to have the pics put on a disc if printed then just to cover the cost's. If she is happy with the results and for me to do the next 3 months and the comp we will come to some arrangement for a small fee.

Now the questions :) as I have never done this before :help: the gym is lit with strip light's , and I have no studio lights and as I said in my last post just been made redundant so cant go out and buy any. So my thoughts are to use my 5D with 50mm f1.4 and flash. When using flash should I defuse it bounce it or use it straight on, or do you think I could get away with out flash it is fairly well lit do you think this is right?? any tips will be much appreciated.
 
If it's strip lights you'll probably want to balance the flash colour using a green gel and change the white balance to flourescent otherwise you could end up with some funny colours. I've got some gels recently from http://flashgels.co.uk/shop/ recently. Reasonable price and delivery was quick too.

I'd try bouncing the flash off a close white wall if you can't get it off camera and underexpose the ambient. Difficult to really advise though without being there.
 
I'd go with no flash, ambient only and open the aperture for minimum DOF, shoot raw and do a test shot of something white for the white balance - tweek the white balance in post production. :thumbs:
 
don't forget the model release forms if there are people in shot
 
Hi Rick, sorry to hear you've been made redundant.. i hope you find something easily..

Id be a bit carefull with that lens wide open.. it CAN be fairly soft below F2 ish... if there are big windows then try to use natural light, and fill flash if you can, but just a little.. maybe try and get a cheap reflector... Make some if you have to!! lol.. its easy enough..

remember your trying to get the contours of the muscles so light from above or to one side would be best imo...

Best of luck with this m8.. lets hope word gets about for you and you get some bookings on the back of it.. :thumbs:
 
remember your trying to get the contours of the muscles so light from above or to one side would be best imo...
Click to expand...

I think for boodybuilding this would be better then soft lighting - and as the bodybuilder gets more "cut" near the contest - more contrast would be good to show the stritations in the muscles that they want to see
 
thanks for the reply guys I will post my atemp when done. I may stick the 28- 70 on my other body and take 2 lots of shots this will let see whats the best combo. there is no real pressure as I told her I am not a pro and if she likes them great if not fair enough. but I will learn from it which is very important
 
I was on my way to work this morning and it suddenly hit me!! Put your 28-70 on!! its a cracking lens and covers a wide range for you...

When you doing the first shoot??
 
rickj said:
Today I was asked if I would take some pic's for a women at my local gym she would like a portfolio of the next 4 months as she is getting ready for a bodybuilding show . The idea is to take shoots of her working out and posing
I have said yes as it will be good experience the idea is the first session will be free if she is happy to have the pics put on a disc if printed then just to cover the cost's. If she is happy with the results and for me to do the next 3 months and the comp we will come to some arrangement for a small fee.

Now the questions :) as I have never done this before :help: the gym is lit with strip light's , and I have no studio lights and as I said in my last post just been made redundant so cant go out and buy any. So my thoughts are to use my 5D with 50mm f1.4 and flash. When using flash should I defuse it bounce it or use it straight on, or do you think I could get away with out flash it is fairly well lit do you think this is right?? any tips will be much appreciated.
Click to expand...

Hi Rick,

I'd go with the available light, a tripod, slow shutter speeds, careful WB setting, and shoot RAW(+JPG).
Remember, body builders go from pose to pose, which they need to keep for one second, before moving into the next pose. That one second is the ideal moment for you to expose with relatively slow shutter speeds. Once I had figured out the right exposure I would try to shoot multi image sequences ('Continuous Drive').

Still, they will be more like typical work-out photos than like show photos. And since muscular definition is what turns body builders on imo you would need a more dedicated light set-up – with controlled directional light and (a) (D-I-Y) reflector(s), to accentuate musculature – for serious glam show photos.

Anyway, will you be posting some of your photos here?

Have fun!
 
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