How Harsh Sunlight Can Actually Flatter a Fitness Portrait
A wide range of characters pass through our studio, and often there’s a local flavour – as was the case when I was asked to shoot a fitness portrait in harsh sunlight of the gym’s very own founder. One of our connections in Haddenham is Steve Gregory, founder of Fitlife – an incredible local boutique gym. When I say gym, that barely scratches the surface. Fitlife is a brand built around establishing health, both mental and physical, through exercise.
I don’t know how you create an atmosphere where people genuinely flock to get sweaty and change their lives, but Steve and the team have absolutely nailed it. We’ve had a connection since Fitlife opened – we even documented the transformation from rubble and bricks to the pristine place it is now. I’m a regular visitor, both as a photographer and a customer, and I genuinely love working there.
Every couple of months we update portraits of the trainers and their clients, giving Steve a fresh portfolio of marketing images. The timings are tricky – most staff are in back-to-back one-to-one sessions, so finding gaps in their diaries usually means around 20 minutes per trainer. And it’s not just their time: the gym is in constant use, so I have to avoid accidentally including clients who’d rather not be photographed mid-workout. The various rooms run spin classes, interval training, boxing fitness, yoga and Pilates throughout the day. Being quick and agile matters just as much as being creative.
The Session
Fitlife is a funky brand, and the images have to match that. The rooms are dark – black walls, dark floors, LED strip lighting and nightclub-style spotlights picking out areas in punchy colours. It’s beautiful, but not straightforward. Like all gyms, it’s full of mirrors, so I’m constantly checking I haven’t captured my own reflection and that light isn’t bouncing somewhere unwanted.
I carry a bag of off-camera flash – Profoto B1s – with small umbrellas, softboxes, grids and colour gels, all packed so I can carry it in alone without clients tripping over it. Or me tripping over it, which happens with alarming regularity.
A selection of fitness portrait photography from various client sessions, each shot in a gym or studio environment. The variety shows how consistent, professional lighting transforms different subjects and spaces into polished, confident portraits.
This session covered four people – three trainers and Steve, who regularly updates his images for social media and his podcast. With each trainer we were after two things: a headshot for Instagram and a set of pictures tied to their specialist skill. The spin bike room has fantastic club-style spotlights, and I loved the blue they cast across the bikes and the trainer. I used strobes with colour gels to intensify that further. It’s usually better to augment the existing light rather than override it – it looks more natural and keeps the photography in keeping with the brand Steve and his team have built.
Shooting a Fitness Portrait in Harsh Sunlight
The main gym area has high south-facing windows, and on a sunny day shafts of light pierce the space. I knew I wouldn’t need the strobes for Steve’s portraits – shooting a fitness portrait in harsh sunlight like this would give an incredible effect if I found the right spot. The hardest part was patience: waiting for a patch of floor to become free without disturbing someone mid-exercise.
Once the space opened up, finding the angle wasn’t too tricky. I wanted a blurred background and, of course, I wanted Steve to look fantastic – which wasn’t difficult. He has strong cheekbones, and with light bouncing off mirrors and steelwork I knew I could pick them out with hard shadow. That’s the joy and the challenge of direct sunlight in fitness portrait photography: it’s brutal, high contrast, with hard shadow edges that reveal every detail. But it’s massively rewarding once you get the hang of it.
More often than not you need to underexpose to control the highlights. You run the risk of blocking up the shadows, but bright spots are the priority – you can usually recover shadow detail and add de-noising to dark areas if grain becomes noticeable. Blow out the highlights in skin, though, and the image will never look right.
I spent a while finding the angle where Steve’s jawline looked strong and the background held interesting shapes – notice the shaft of sunlight picking out the gym equipment behind him. I also made sure I hadn’t caught myself in a mirror. Once I found the spot, Steve looked like a stage actor under theatrical lighting: full of drama, strength and intrigue.
I often look a bit odd on location – standing still, holding out my hand and rotating slowly until the light falling across my fingers looks right. Here, I found my light and decided to use the mirror in the distance, including Steve’s reflection in the background. I tried two versions: one with Steve sharp in the foreground, and one where his mirror-image was in focus while he was soft in the foreground. All Steve had to do was fold his arms, turn slightly so the Fitlife logos on his t-shirt were visible, and turn his face toward the light.
Look carefully and you’ll see the light isn’t a single shaft but numerous thin vertical patterns – note the shadow falling across his nose. I thought it added to the drama rather than detracting from it, though it took some adjustment to get it exactly where I wanted. Asking someone to look strong while staying relaxed and precisely positioned isn’t as easy as it sounds.
Lighting Diagram
A 3D render showing the planned gym layout before the fitness portrait photography session took place. Visualising the space in advance helps identify where harsh sunlight and equipment placement will affect the shoot.
Camera Settings
Post-Production
Post-production was relatively straightforward. Ideally I’d have placed Steve further right in the frame, with the sunlight patterns raking across the gym machines behind him – but I was squashed between running machines with no room to manoeuvre. Instead, I cloned some of the light patterns across the image in Photoshop, then used Nik Color Efex 2 to add a little pop to the colours.
Tips for Photographing in Harsh Sunlight
- Visualise the final image first. I knew roughly how I wanted this fitness portrait to look – a shaft of harsh sunlight crossing the entire frame – but couldn’t capture it in-camera. Shooting carefully and planning ahead let me get the composition I was after in post.
- Harsh sunlight is great fun to work with – and it sets you apart, because it takes practice. Make sure the light strikes the face from a flattering angle (not too high), then adjust exposure to retain the highlights. Those hard shadow edges are what sculpt features like Steve’s cheekbones.