Krista, Part II - At the gym

[tirediron]

Today was part two of my shoot with Krista. She is part of the team from Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt participating in this years Invictus Games, and her primary event is weight-lifting. As part of that, we did a session in the gym. Capturing a moving weight-lifter is a real challenge, both from the point of view of getting the right moment, as well as lighting. Anyway, after an hour (and by count about 3.4 tons of weight lifted) we got a couple that I was reasonably happy with. As always, comments, critique and suggestions appreciated;

This is the lighting for the first shot: 22" gridded beauty dish as key, second M11 with 30 deg grid camera left for fill, M90 as rim light and MW3 as hair light.

 

[Rick50]

Love the pose in #1 but not the reflection off the right bell. Lighting on #2 is good. In both I like the choice of a dark background.

 

[tirediron]

Thanks Rick... I should have barn door'd the backlight...

 

[jcdeboever]

She may just be able to beat my *ss..... Cool set, never seen such a thing.

 

[Derrel]

What's going on with the tape on the floor? Is that something you do?

 

[tirediron]

She may just be able to beat my *ss..... Cool set, never seen such a thing.

Dude, she could bench-press you and I together! The weights on the bar are nowhere near her normal 'working weight' but we dialed it back to make it easier.

What's going on with the tape on the floor? Is that something you do?

The light green tape in the middle is mine, an 'X' to mark the spot and longer strip in front to indicate the axis for the weight bar. Because the key & fill were both tightly gridded even moving a little bit messed things up. The heavy, darker green tape is.... gym stuff.

 

[FITBMX]

I used to know a lady at the YMCA that was a powerlifter. She would do chin ups to warm up, then she chained 90 pounds around her waist and start doing more chin ups. She also maxed out the leg press machine all the time, which was over 1,000 pounds! There wasn't a man there that came even close to her strength!

Great set!

 

[zombiesniper]

Very nice.
The first one is my favourite.

Is that the dockyard gym? If so they really changed it around.

 

[tirediron]

I used to know a lady at the YMCA that was a powerlifter. She would do chin ups to warm up, then she chained 90 pounds around her waist and start doing more chin ups. She also maxed out the leg press machine all the time, which was over 1,000 pounds! There wasn't a man there that came even close to her strength!

Great set!

Cool! Thanks!

Very nice.
The first one is my favourite.

Is that the dockyard gym? If so they really changed it around.

Cheer! Mine too. Yep, Good old Dockyard Gym... It's packed in there now; the corner I'm shooting in is the ONLY open space in the whole place.

 

[DanOstergren]

I think the exposure on the surroundings could be a bit brighter, that way the equipment doesn't blend in so much and the viewer gets a sense of the location.

 

[tirediron]

I think the exposure on the surroundings could be a bit brighter, that way the equipment doesn't blend in so much and the viewer gets a sense of the location.

You think? Here's the version without the background adjustment layer. My thinking was that the background was too busy and distracting...

and the darker version for easy comparison...

 

[DanOstergren]

I think the exposure on the surroundings could be a bit brighter, that way the equipment doesn't blend in so much and the viewer gets a sense of the location.

You think? Here's the version without the background adjustment layer. My thinking was that the background was too busy and distracting...

and the darker version for easy comparison...

Perhaps from a different angle you might be able to incorporate a less distracting part of the gym. In general I feel like the photos are too dark; the dark areas of the photo cause a lot of details to get lost and they bleed into each other. An example is that if she were wearing just black leggings, she might look like she were floating.

 

[tirediron]

Perhaps from a different angle you might be able to incorporate a less distracting part of the gym. In general I feel like the photos are too dark; the dark areas of the photo cause a lot of details to get lost and they bleed into each other. An example is that if she were wearing just black leggings, she might look like she were floating.

I wish; if you look at the set photo, that is the only open space in the whole gym; the rest is packed with machines, weight racks, etc, AND most of the other walls are mirrored on top of it. I felt too that with the white stripes on the leggings, the white shoes and the bit of spill on the floor it 'anchored' her and avoided that 'disembodied subject' look.

 

[frommrstomommy]

Really cool seeing the set up photo!