Comp card photography for Chicago Fitness Model Matthew Cuff

The image above was shot with a Elinchrom Rotalux 39″ Deep Octa with a Photoek Softlighter II for fill on a Gravity Backdrop.

The first time I worked with fitness model and personal trainer Matthew Cuff it was to help him develop his first comp card and I’m pretty sure he was about 21 at the time. Cuff, now in his late 20’s, is an Asics sponsored full time personal trainer, working all over the US, and hes looking to update his comp card.

A group of fitness models pose for Chicago comp card photographer John Gress

I recently acquired a 16 sided deep parabolic type softbox from Cheetah Stands called a RiceBowl RB-120. Which as photographer I was excited to buy, because the samples I saw showed that it could produce extremely hard light and extremely soft light just by changing the baffles or zooming the head with their optional Chop Stick accessory. So far the results have been amazing!

A Cheetah Stands Ricebowl RB-120 with their Chopstick accessory.

Chicago fitness comp card photographer

We needed to capture some body pics and headshots for Matthew’s comp card. So For these white background portraits, I placed the Chopstick in the medium position so the light was hard, but not too hard, which I knew would be both flattering for the models face, while still showing off his fitness physique. Then I had Matthew pose in front of a 4.5×6′ softbox.

New head shot for fitness model Matthew Cuff Chicago comp card photographer John Gress

Comp card photography of fitness model Matthew Cuff by Chicago photographer John Gress

Fitness model Matthew Cuff strikes a heroic pose while posing for Chicago Photographer John Gress

This was also my first time using my new Canon EOS 1DX Mark II camera. I have to say i was extremely impressed! I actually exposed for the sky in the photo below and then pulled up the shadows to reveal Matthew’s face, which was so under exposed in the original RAW file that the photo looked like a silhouette.

Available light portrait of Chicago fitness model Matthew Cuff by comp card photographer John Gress

Matt wanted to add as many different sports looks to his comp card portfolio as possible.

Football portrait of personal Trainer Matthew Cuff by Chicago photographer John Gress

As the setting sun neared the horizon we used the long and sharp shadows it created to create these action looks for the fitness model’s comp card. I was really impressed at how solid the camera felt and how every frame was tack sharp

Action photo for Matthew Cuff’s comp card by Chicago Photographer John Gress

I also used the Rice Bowl with the Chopstick to create the harder light in this photo and then filled the image with a second light in a Photek Softlighter II Umbrella.

I also used the Rice Bowl with the Chopstick to create the harder light in this photo and then added a 1×6′ Profoto strip light on the left. There was a white wall behind me which acted as a passive fill.

John 03/03/2017

Fitness-photography / Portrait