Fit­ness Pho­tog­ra­phy

Fit­ness Model Lisa Robins

Work­ing hard to break your way into the female fit­ness model indus­try is not that much dif­fer­ent from try­ing to make it as a fash­ion model. There are sub­tle dif­fer­ences how­ever so it’s impor­tant to pre­pare your­self prop­erly. You will need to work hard and be extremely ded­i­cated to make it as a fit­ness model but the work is extremely fun and exciting!

First and fore­most, you will need to get in the best shape you can when try­ing to become a fit­ness model. Start­ing your own exer­cise pro­gram is a great start but for truly pro­fes­sional results, look up a per­sonal trainer that can tell you exactly what you will need to work on and what you will need to show off your assets in fit­ness model pho­tos. You will specif­i­cally want to work on becom­ing toned and slim and while you will want some mus­cle def­i­n­i­tion, avoid over­do­ing it. Fit­ness mod­els and female fit­ness mod­els in par­tic­u­lar, still need to add some pret­ti­ness and sweet­ness to their look.

The next pro­fes­sional you will want to hire in your quest to becom­ing a fit­ness model is a pro­fes­sional pho­tog­ra­pher who spe­cial­izes in fit­ness pho­tog­ra­phy. These pho­tog­ra­phers will take many pho­tos, focus­ing on the theme of sports and fit­ness although they will also take shots includ­ing glam­our and swimwear shots. Ari­zona fit­ness pho­tog­ra­phers Char & Tony Man­darich are highly expe­ri­enced with putting together port­fo­lios and own­ing one is an impor­tant part of becom­ing part of the fit­ness model industry.

Fit­ness Model Mimi Dew

You will need this port­fo­lio when you begin call­ing around to agents, which is your next step. Look around at fit­ness mod­el­ing agen­cies in your area and ask if they are tak­ing on new clients. They will ask you for your port­fo­lio and how much expe­ri­ence you have had. They will also ask you to come to the office so they may meet you face to face. When you go to that meet­ing, it’s impor­tant that you bring along your port­fo­lio. If they like your port­fo­lio, they will most likely decide to do a test shot so they can see how you work with their prod­uct and staff.

Once you find an agent, they will start to sched­ule you for go-sees. These are sim­ply inter­views with a poten­tial client that you will be fit­ness mod­el­ing for. You want to look your best when you attend a go-see and make sure to be on time. Remem­ber while you are there that you need to leave them impressed so they remem­ber you and call you to become their new fit­ness model!

Fit­ness Modeling

For a vari­ety of rea­sons, pho­tograph­ing fit­ness mod­els is a big part of our busi­ness at Man­darich Mod­els. Since Tony Man­darich, a for­mer NFL player, was on the cover of Sports Illus­trated, fit­ness mod­els just seems to grav­i­tate towards us. We still spend a lot of time at the gym as well, and we’re in con­stant con­tact with peo­ple in the fit­ness pro­fes­sion (as well as with fit­ness mod­els). There­fore, fit­ness model pho­tog­ra­phy has grown to be a sig­nif­i­cant divi­sion of Man­darich Media Group.

Fit­ness Photography

Often, fit­ness pho­tog­ra­phy involves clients that aren’t pro­fes­sional mod­els, so extra time and atten­tion must be spent prepar­ing these clients for the shoot. When shoot­ing with a client who is expe­ri­enced in fit­ness com­pe­ti­tions but not in mod­el­ing, it is impor­tant to dis­cuss the dif­fer­ences between being on stage in a com­pe­ti­tion, ver­sus being in front of a cam­era. Dur­ing a fit­ness or fig­ure com­pe­ti­tion, mod­els are often spray-tanned, slathered in baby oil, dehy­drated and caked in overly-dramatic makeup. In front of the cam­era, the same per­son needs to have a nice nat­ural tan, pro­fes­sional hair and makeup (not over­done!), and be well-hydrated so as to be able to spend 2–4 hours in front of the cam­era. Women should have a man­i­cure and pedi­cure, and men should pay atten­tion to their hands and feet as well. Since fit­ness pho­tog­ra­phy often focuses on spe­cific body parts, atten­tion to the small details can be more help­ful to a fit­ness model than it is to many other types of models.

Another impor­tant part of plan­ning a fit­ness model shoot is the theme and wardrobe. Often such a client has a stage wardrobe that they use for their com­pe­ti­tions, which may or may not be effec­tive in front of the cam­era. I sug­gest hav­ing the client bring sev­eral out­fits that we can go over together, and decide which is going to work best con­sid­er­ing the type of final prod­uct we are seek­ing. Loud col­ors and bright pat­terns should gen­er­ally be avoided, as well as any other cloth­ing or acces­sories that detract from the fit body being pho­tographed. Unless you’re shoot­ing a fash­ion client, the motto for wardrobe and back­ground should be “K.I.S.S” (keep it sim­ple, stupid!).

Fit­ness Model

If you’re not shoot­ing in stu­dio, a fit­ness client may want shots that empha­size their level of activ­ity. Be pre­pared to hike, bicy­cle, or swim to ‘get the shot’ for a fit­ness model. If you have access to a gym before or after hours, they will often be inter­ested in let­ting you use the gym as a set if you’re will­ing to pro­vide fin­ished images in trade. Be pre­pared, though, to show your lia­bil­ity insur­ance! If you don’t have access to a gym, con­sider hav­ing an assis­tant drive you as you shoot out of a mov­ing vehi­cle as the model runs, cycles, or roller blades… not many pho­tog­ra­phers are will­ing to lit­er­ally ‘go the extra mile’, and your fit­ness client will be thrilled that you under­stand what is impor­tant to them.

When shoot­ing in stu­dio, we like to use dra­matic light­ing with fit­ness mod­els. One strobe, posi­tioned at a dra­matic angle, can really make the mus­cles on a fit­ness client ‘pop’. One of my favorite shots that I’ve ever taken was with a male fit­ness client, using only one strobe, posi­tioned slightly in front and above the model. The def­i­n­i­tion in his abdom­i­nal mus­cles was high­lighted by the deep shad­ows cre­ated by the direc­tion of the light. This image also adheres to the K.I.S.S. phi­los­o­phy; sim­ple back­ground, sim­ple wardrobe, one light… and an amaz­ing fin­ished image!