Portrait Photography Help!!! Please

[Designguy91]

Hello I am not new to photography but new to DSLR and more advanced photography. I have a friend that owns a professional mixed martial arts gym and wants me to test my skills. I have posted a link to a search on Flickr. The 1st page shows some of the effect I'm trying to achieve.

mixed martial arts portraits - Flickr: Search

I have a few questions.

1.) Is this created in post processing or do I need to set my camera to a certain setting to do it?

2.) Should I try to go with natural light or some extra lighting. The gym is somewhat dark but has some windows high near the ceiling.

Any advice would be extremly helpful

thanks,

Ken

[bmaher]

I think the "ring girls" are right on!

[RexK_Cozumel]

what effect are you talking about? You posted a link with a lot of different images that have a lot of different styles and lighting effects as well as post processing effects. You will need to be more specific if you want any help.

[MSidPhoto]

I agree with RexK_Cozumel there are lots of different types...which ones are you referring to, please be specific.

I am not a professional photographer but i can somewhat answer your queries

1) Your camera is definitely used to take these kind off pictures but post processing is done in most and i believe Post Processing would be neccessary to adjust brightness, white balance, contrast etc. Only if you can take perfect photographs then you MIGHT not need Post Processing.

2) I think you should go with extra lighting....since you say that the gym is dark. But be assured if you are planning to take photos like those you have linked then you should have several lights, flashes hitting from different angles. And you will need diffusers on the flash to stop "harsh" light.

Hope that somewhat answers your questions

[Designguy91]

I'm sorry I mean that I want dark and dingy looking photos. I want clear but not overly bright by fake light.


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2174/...18ddac30ab.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2509/...504415aeda.jpg

I really like these 2.

[RexK_Cozumel]

The first shot is a three light setup. One camera left slightly behind model one camera right slightly behind model and one camera left in front of model head high. All three light are hard light sources. Now here is the tricky part. The gym stuff in the background was either photographed separately and the model photoshopped into the background or there was enough distance between the model and the background to light the gear separately.

What led me to that conclusion is the fact that 1: there is no shadow cast on the bar by his hand which should be there since his body would block the main light from hitting the bar. and 2: If you look at the highlights on the metal surfaces you can see that a large light source was used to light however if you look at the shadows on the model they are hard shadows which means a small light source.

For photo number two you can do it with 1 light above the models head slightly in front of them aiming at the wall above model using spill to light the rest. If you find that you don't like how deep the shadows are then add an on axis fill to bring out some of the shadow detail.

any others you want broken down?

[candleman]

Rex broke it down nicely..

you'll notice both are fairly harsh, and along the surface as opposed to being 90degrees amd flat onto the body.
this will make more shadow = more dramatic = bigger looking muscles.

[Designguy91]

Thank you very much for your pointers.