The Lighting Mistake that Ruin Everything

Even when shooting athletes, beauty matter big time. Most of what I see going wrong in fitness photos is shadow in the wrong place. It is worse the closer an athlete gets to a show, because by then the face is already drawn and hollowed out from prep. Put a hard shadow under that cheek line and you are not adding drama, you are adding ten pounds of exhaustion to someone who just spent sixteen weeks earning the opposite. This whole shoot runs on one rule: when the model moves, the light moves. I ran four or five poses here and the only light I kept adjusting was my key, because the key is the face and the face is the shot. You will also watch me get it wrong, notice it on camera, and fix it. And near the end there is a separation problem worth studying, where a dark subject sits against a dark pad and the shape disappears unless you put light between the two. Shooting with Nicole Zenobia Graham, IFBB Figure Pro and Olympian, filmed in the days leading up to Olympia weekend in Las Vegas. She is also a prep and posing coach, and she works with perimenopausal and menopausal women, which she gets into between sets. 📸 Shot, lit and directed by Deron. Fotos by Dron, Las Vegas Book a fitness shoot in Las Vegas: www.fotosbydron.com/contact Instagram: [@fotos.by.dron] Featuring Zenobia [@worldofzenobia] Shot at Cult Fitness, Las Vega [‪@CultFitnessLV‬ CHAPTERS 0:00 Why your faces look jacked up 0:33 Meet Zenobia 0:46 Setting the key before anything else 3:55 Move the model, move the light 4:07 Forget Rembrandt, go flat 6:17 Prioritizing the back over the hair 7:47 Four poses, one light moved 9:19 When the rim light is too much 10:51 I almost made a liar of myself 14:35 Separating a dark subject from a dark pad Fitness photography lighting, posing direction and on set breakdowns from a Las Vegas fitness photographer. New shoots posted regularly. #fitnessphotography #lightingtutorial #ifbbpro #figureolympia #keylight #photographylighting #lasvegasphotographer #fitnessphotographer