3 Tips for Fitness Photography
The fitness world is saturated with new gyms and businesses all trying to stand out and attract people to their companies. Whether it’s a large commercialized gym or a smaller private studio, all of these business need photography. Knowing how to best approach this type of photography will help you grow your own photography business.
1. Reach the Business’s Needs
Even though workout studios and gyms all have similar goals in mind, they each have unique missions that need to be considered. Understanding what to expect in a photo shoot and how to best meet the needs of your clients is very important. It isn’t enough to just shoot pictures of people working out in a gym, because the pictures need to reflect the marketing needs of your client. Get to know your client and ask questions about what they are hoping to achieve through their photo shoot. Knowing how to best reach these needs will help you to create a mood and style through your images that accurately portrays each particular business. For instance, a private yoga studio will require a much different approach than a boxing gym. Each business attracts different types of people and each will want to convey a different message through their photography.
2. Consider Range of Motion
One unique thing to consider with fitness photography is motion. Shooting for other business might simply involve inanimate objects or still portraits, but fitness photography will often require you to capture people in motion. Doing this correctly demands good timing. When watching the exercise being performed, whether it is someone running on a treadmill or a class of people doing cardio exercises or plyometrics, watch the full range of motion. This is important because you want your images to appear natural and not forced. Wait for the right moment to capture the movement so the exercise doesn’t appear awkward. Often, images caught only halfway through a movement will appear awkward. Study the movement first and watch for the moments that feel the most natural and photogenic to avoid those forced or overly exaggerated pictures.
3. Watch Your Angles
You can use angles and perspective to your advantage in fitness photography by highlighting the best features of your subject. Are you trying to feature the high end equipment and cleanliness of the gym? Focus on that as your main subject and draw viewers attention to the equipment using leading lines, the rule of thirds, or other perspective tricks. Are you featuring body builders and trying to draw your crowd to strength training classes? Highlight this in your images. Draw your viewers eye to the people you are featuring in your shoot and emphasize the muscle definition through lighting. Remember that you have lots of power in how you use perspective, so don’t take your angles lightly.
There are many facets of fitness photography, but I hope these three tips will help you to break into the world of fitness photography and improve your photography skills. These three pointers will help you to focus on areas that are more unique to fitness photography. Remember that no matter what you are taking pictures of, to always address your client’s needs first and help them accomplish their photography goals.
