Creative lighting boxing photoshoot with fitness model
The last time I had worked with fitness model, Shay Medal, we were both young in our careers. Since then, we had both become more and more busy, with less ability to align our schedules for shoot... After more than 3 years, we finally made it happen.
Shay had become a brand ambassador for SobeKick boxing gym in South Beach, FL and mentioned we could use their awesome space. My creative wheels immediately began turning. Not only did Shay look great in front of a camera, she was also an accomplished athlete. How many models do you know with a martial arts blackbelt and who is an expert with nun-chucks?! Yes, don't mess with Shay. She'll Bruce Lee yo' ass.
The two things I wanted to do with this shoot were convey motion and experiment with color. These things are tricky to get right and I'd found it important to not experiment while working on paid client shoots.
Blue and orange color gels provided the ambience, while a technique known as "shutter dragging" was used to show the motion... How does this work exactly?
Shutter Dragging
This is a process of carefully combining ambient light and flash. The ambient light and a slow shutter speed highlight the movement of a fast moving item or body part (in this case, Shay's arm throwing a punch). The flash captures the end of the movement by freezing it in place and often exposing it slightly higher than the ambient light (this is optional and really just to make it stand out more).
With a little help in post, the shot turned out pretty close to how I had envisioned.
After accomplishing the initial shot, we went on for some good ol' fashioned action and poses.
You can follow Shay on Instagram at
@shay_medal
and SobeKick Miami Beach at
@sobekickgym
Don't forget to follow me at
@jameswoodleyphoto