Posing
Fitness posing is a small set of positions that hold tension without looking held. Everything works better under load than in imitation of it.
In short: Fitness posing is a small set of positions that hold tension without looking held. Everything works better under load than in imitation of it.
Not miming. Real weight changes posture, face and muscle in ways a pose cannot reproduce.
Stillness with tension in it.
Shows the line of the back and shoulders rather than a flat front.
The recovery frame, and the most human one in most sets.
Movement, purpose, and it fills the frame.
Jaw, neck, shoulder. Definition reads better cropped than full-length.
Start with actually lifting — the first two minutes are warm-up and the first pose should be the one that asks least of anyone. Move to hands on the bar, before the lift and turned three-quarters, weight forward once the shoulders have dropped, and keep close crop on effort for the end, when self-consciousness has gone. Shoot each one in bursts through the movement rather than holding it: the usable frames sit between the instructions, not on them.
Two metres back with the lens zoomed rather than close and wide — distance is what keeps facial proportions natural. Camera at or slightly above eye level for portraits, at chest height for full length. Below eye level enlarges whatever is nearest the lens, which is rarely what you want in frame.
The mirror flex, and any pose held long enough for the pump to fade — under gym lighting a held pose looks like a catalogue insert within about fifteen seconds.
Shooting under overhead strip lighting, which is the flattest and least flattering light in any building. Miming lifts. And photographing a busy gym, where the background is full of strangers who have not consented to appear.