SHOOT 7 - SHOW DAY

FINAL SHOOT - SHOW DAY

This shoot was the most successful by far for many reasons. To improve on the last few progress shoots, I used a professional studio with lighting that could be moved/changed specifically to my preference. This was also very successful because of the shape that Josh was in. Because it was show day he had prepared to look his best and had worked 14 weeks to look that way.

To start in the studio, I stood josh on a green screen background and floor intending to change the background colour or make it black and white. This was simply so I could get a full image of Josh in one background however the lighting in general was nowhere near as effective as the lighting on the plain white screen background. I used two lights either side of Josh (but not in front to avoid obvious body-shaped shadows) and the results were fantastic as it highlighted the definition in his muscles. I wanted to edit the shoots to show definition - as this is what is so important in bodybuilding. When editing the photos, I chose colour images and black and white images shown below.

These are the colour edits of the final shoot of Josh's progress. For these images, I increased contrast and brightness to highlight the light and shadows that show the definition in his muscles and veins. I feel these images are very successful as they are well focused, well composed and well edited. I believe overall this is my most successful shoot. The only thing I could have done to improve these images was perhaps a brighter light - when editing making the images brighter by increasing brightness or exposure made them look quite unnatural and grainy on screen.

These two images are not necessarily the most successful in terms of how good the body looks in muscular or vascular terms however I find the lighting in these two images and the contrast of tones to be the most interesting. This shoot was al about showing definition and the best way of doing this is to highlight the light and shadows that are shown on the body.

The First Image: This image works so well because of the highlights and shadows showing definition on Josh. I also find the gradient from dark to light (left to right) in the background effective. For this image I placed two lights either side of Josh but Josh stood closer to one than the other (the right). This created light on the right side of his body but blocked the light reaching the left. To me the middle of the back draws the attention. Although the light is coming from the right and the shadowed area is the left - the back shows the opposite and this shows the definition and size of the muscles using lighting - I find this effective because the shadowed area and lit area have essentially swapped sides - a very contrasting effect.

The Second Image: I set up two lights either side of Josh however instead of taking the image facing the model directly I took it on an approx. 45-degree angle. This altered the view of lighting and shadows on Josh's body. What I find so interesting about this image is the contrast in tones. Highlights and Shadows against each other gives a very defining effect on the body and making these areas of highlights stand out massively. Josh's hands held out in front of him are pointing towards the light but with the view of my camera is in front of shadows - the contrast between the light contouring his hands and the veins in his hands on top of the shadow in the background gives an intense feel as if this area is what the viewer needs to focus on - the contrast between the highlights and shadows on josh’s hand itself shows this too. I feel this is effective for the theme giving an interpretation of strength and power, not only physically in Josh's body but also powerful enough for the viewer to be drawn into the contrast.

These are the black and white edits of the shoot. Although they show good examples of contrast within the body to show definition - I believe the background is too grey and doesn't contrast with the body as well as what colour did, simply becase they are of similar tones whereas colour Josh looks a lot darker. Although the contrast still remains inthe body, the background makes the image look bland and not as outstanding.

I believe these two images overall were the most sucessfull because of the attention to detail. The high contrast of the images complement the contours on the body and bring out a larger range of tones. I believe these images also show the most progress. In terms of physique ad bodyform these two images show to most successful image of Josh's body and show vascualr and muscular power.