Linwood had been seriously working out for a few years now and he wanted some professional fitness shots taken. I decided to go into full studio mode for this shoot, environmental portraits of him in the gym etc would be great but require much more planning and setup than we had time for. With studio shooting I can control everything and really showcase his hard work.
I had shot similar style photos before but not full length. That would require some large strip soft boxes. I quickly ordered two and started testing them as soon as they arrived. I typically like to plan out every detail of my shoots ahead of time so I know exactly what I need to do and I can focus on the model and not the gear. I setup 4-5 different looks and took test shots with my wife and I was thrilled with the initial results.
Originally I planned to shoot for about 2 hours with Linwood. After multiple wardrobe changes and looks we ended up shooting for almost 5 hours, definitely one of my longer shoots but the results were worth it. Because of Linwood’s physique I was able to hit him with some really hard light to shape and contour his body. I don’t get to use this style of lighting often as soft light tends to flatter most people better than hard light.
At the end I was able to sneak in a few unplanned and more artistic shots. This was my first fitness style shoot and it was a lot of fun. Linwood was a natural at posing and now I’m going to have to think of some future projects to use him in.
