Finding good resources for this topic seem to be fairly difficult, and to be honest, the resources I did find simply didn’t cater to my aesthetic or style. Of course one of the best ways to get into a new type of photography is to simply go through photos you like, and deconstruct them in terms of lighting, composition, and figure why you love the way they look. Thats half the battle, and the other half is going out there and doing it yourself, troubleshooting problems, and making photos you are happy with.

Lighting

It is not like this is the only photography discipline where lighting is important, but it is essentially the one thing that can, and will, make or break your fitness or bodybuilding photos. You are looking to capture muscles, veins, and body shapes, and to do this you use highlights and shadows- if you understand that, your way ahead of the game. Here are my general lighting tips, then we will look into some details:

• You generally want a good source of light coming from up high, either on an angle like rembrant lighting with a soft-box/umbrella, or from a beauty dish directly above the models head. This will be the drama light, creating shadows under muscles, and highlighting the peaks of them.
• Unless you want to be super-moody, you will want some type of fill light so the model isn’t only lit from the top. While you need to show off shapes, you want to avoid creating bags under a models eyes, and bring out details in the scene.
• Having some type of rim light, or background lighting can make the model a bit sharper in the photo, and allow them to stand out.

The photo above is using an overhead 36″x24″ soft-box, along with a white shoot-through umbrella coming straight on from about 4-feet off the ground. The soft-box is set just a little brighter, so it will dominate the scene, while the umbrella provides some needed fill light (notice the weight he is holding is also light up from the bottom). I discuss some post processes below.

In this photo, I used a mixture of some natural light coming in from outside, along with a soft-box low to the ground, behind the model, and angled towards his shoulder. The natural light was acting as a soft fill onto the models whole body, and then I used the soft-box shooting down his chest and stomach to highlight muscles and contours. Remember, the best way to mix ambient light with flash is to first get your exposure settings where you want without the flash, then bring the flash in and adjust it’s power accordingly.

Post Processing

I am a big advocate of using Photoshop, and with fitness photos it gives you the ability to play with nearly every aspect of the lighting and contrast, which is really important. Here are the major aspects of my post processing for these types of photos:

• Contrast: I really love tonal contrast filters, and the grittiness you can get from them. You will almost for sure want to add contrast to the photo, my only suggestion is to watch out for adding too much in the face, it can make wrinkles and baggy eyes stand out.
• Saturation: I really like adding a layer of the photo with zero saturation, and then playing with it’s opacity until the photo looks good. Generally speaking, I prefer a less saturated look for intense photos, but may choose to pump up the vibrance for a girl model, or livelier photo.
• Sharpness: If your contrast still isn’t enough, trying using an un-sharp mask, or basic sharpening. Sharpening can lose details though, so don’t go too far.
• Masks, Painting: I use a lot of masks. I tend to use a screen mask for whitening eyes and general brightening, a levels mask for creating more contrast in eyes, and a multiply mask for darkening and vignetting.

This photo is nearly all natural light, with the exception of some small fill flash using a shoe-mounted Canon 420EX at 1/64 power. It is really not doing much, just adding a slight “pop” of light to the model’s body.

Tricks of the Trade

My first trick is to use some type of posing oil for the model. You don’t want them looking shiny, but you want some “glean” to them- it makes for better lighting. I have used a mixture of bronzer, olive oil, baby oil, and water. Just layer it on 2-3 times, and you are all set.

Second, decide if the photo is sweaty or not, and stick with it. Your model might be doing pushups and small workouts to keep their pump going, but make sure to wipe off beads of sweat if your going for a model/fashion look. If you are going for post-workout sweaty, use a spray bottle with water to get the sweating effect.

Lastly, become friends with the model. Ask them what feels natural, what they would like to do, and remember that they will become drained from holding these poses. Don’t hesitate to take control and show them how to stand, but if doesn’t feel natural to them, it probably wont look natural on a camera.

Be Ready to Improvise

It doesn’t matter how many blogs or books you read, nothing will prepare you for the particular situations you will get in to. Lights will break, equipment will fail, and you will have to improvise. However, if you know the essentials of lighting, and keep a cool head, you will be able to walk away with some great photos no matter what. Have fun!