Bodybuilder photography using basic equipment

dhdev

dhdev

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Oli
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Hi. A friend of mine, who will be competing in June, has asked me to take a series of shots of him posing, prior to the competition. I have never done any photography like this and only have basic equipment (EOS 1000D, 18-55 and a tripod)
Will I be able to get decent results without the need for extra flashes etc? Does anybody have any tips or advice to help me make the best of the shoot (settings etc)?

All help/advice is welcome.
Thanks, Oli.
 
Hi I used to photograph bodybuilders.
If by "before competition" you mean a day or two before then ouside in good light will do fine without flash, try to get the light about three quarters on to him. even a cheap flash on camera will help noend though. does not need to be dedicated or powerful and these are cheap as chips. If you mean on the day of the competition when he is really ripped and inside you will need a couple of good flashes at least. I used to use one bigish flash in a softbox to one side and a weaker direct flash on camera as a portable outfit.
On the other hand why not shoot him on stage. There is always tons of light put down at these competitions and as most of these comps are amateur a word with the organisers will usually get you a ringside seat, they nearly always a nice set of guys.
Beware of the colour of the lights though they really can put down some weird combinations. I used to do this with 35mm and I have ended up with some very funny colour casts.
If you are anything like decent with a camera I would be very surprised if you don't get asked for prints. these guys are very eager for good shots.
 
Thanks for the tips guys.
I've checked out reflectors and looked at some diy diffusers etc, so will play around with the lighting.
The comp isn't until the start of June, i think he is keen to see progress in picture form for comparison purposes and to aid any last minute improvements. I'd imagine the shoot will be carried out indoors at his house so I'm unsure of space and available light.
Although I've never played with any PP before, I think my best bet will be to shoot in RAW and at least then I have more options to correct lighting afterwards I think?
 
I took some fight shots recently.
I did use a bounce flash off of an umbrella

for body building I always thought you should use semi direct lighting, or from the side
otherwise you white out all those abs...
look at men's health and see if you can see where the light is coming from

you can get a difuser I think for camera mount flash heads..
 
In the images i've seen of bodybuilders the lighting has always been fairly harsh casting strong shadows to emphasise the muscle definition they have. An off-camera flash would definitely help with this but I'm sure with some consideration it could be done through more modest means such as window light or a reflector.
 
Dark background, baby oil and rimlighting with an off-camera flash. Also, IIRC there was cool shot in Joe McNally's The Moment It Clicks where he got a cool pic of an athlete doing stretches or squats out on a grassy slop with the sun setting behind him. Looked pretty cool and there was no additional lighting involved.
 
We used a friends lounge in the end, the walls were nice and plain white, however the lighting was terrible virtually no natural light and the interior lights were halogen spotlights in the ceiling, we tried some desk lamps, but if anything it got worse. My camera has quite poor high ISO performance, so that didn't help with the bad lighting, added to the fact that I'm a bit rubbish. Definately gonna need a rethink for next week! Thanks for all the help though!

Here's one from today (Please excuse the very very very crude disguising of the face, he doesn't want the competition seeing how he's looking ;) )

Upload.jpg
 
Im no expert however I think experimenting with lighting will be the key here, to get the shot that shows the muscles off to the best, as has been mentioned you need some contrast to show the curvature and definition, try to avoid shadows across the muscles such as the one from his chin as it spoils the line for the eye if that makes sense

Phil
 
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