I had the opportunity to meet and photograph former WBE World Champion, Charles "Showboat" Davis for the Old School Gym.
The main theme of the OSG photo shoot was to show dark and moody images with an empowering "this could be you" for the prospective gym client. I didn't want to obscure the championship and toughness with too much individual personality.
This image was very simple. I opposed two lights and stood him just in front of them. It created this tough looking portrait with a dark, moody feel.
In this image, I chose to break out the beauty dish. I love the beauty dish for its non-standard lighting. With the dark spot in the middle, it has a unique fall-off characteristic with a smoothness you don't get in other light modifiers.
This image was shot with a simple overhead beauty dish, notice the catchlight in the eyes and hot spot on the head. The dish was just out of view and close in to Charles. I wanted an old-school boxing look to this image that made the viewer feel as though we are in the ring. The overhead light is intended to be reminiscent of the dimly lit old boxing rings with a single lamp over the center of the ring. Reminiscent, but not identical. The beauty dish is a softer light than a bulb with reflector, but I wanted the slightly softer and smoother shadow lines.
My beauty dish is one of my favorite modifiers -- and I don't shoot much 'beauty' work. Don't let the name of the modifier deter you or make you feel as though you must use it based on what you shoot -- it's a great light modifier that has its own unique lighting style. Experiment with one and see what you think... hit me up in the comments with your own experiences.
Mitt work with Coach Valdez. I wanted to get some classic looking workout images, so I set up two lights opposed to eachother and asked them to progress with their workout. As they circled, I would shoot as the lighting angles were right and the action was exciting. Yes, I had a low success rate, but was able to capture a number of intense sparring images like this one.
