Transformation photography shoots are some of our favourite types of fitness photography; they allow us an insight into the hard work and dedication that has gone into a person’s journey so far and give us an opportunity to really emphasise that for our clients in their photography results.

Andy, the owner of FE26 Coaching in Sheffield, is one of our clients who brought us in to help with transformation photography of three of his male clients. We all ventured to Steel Physique gym in Sheffield that Andy had hired out, giving us exclusive and unfettered access to the entire gym for our shoot, which was very exciting for the models.

The objective of the 3-hour photography shoot was to capture the results of Andy’s clients hard work by capturing everybody in their best light whilst working out, and with some amazing poses. To maximise the time we had available, we captured all our photography in one area of the gym, before moving onto a new area to capture different types of images for the models, which worked well. We’ve done work in Steel Physique gym before, so we’re aware of how large it is, and were well prepared, with plenty of extension cables for the lighting set-up.

To provide a serious amount of choice for the models, we switched the colour of the background lighting, and captured the subjects from as many angles as possible to show the full effects of their transformation.

With transformation shoots, it’s quite often the first time a subject has been photographed in this way, so there were some challenges in terms of managing the nerves and expectations of the clients. However, we have a great video guide to posing for gym photography that we like to send out ahead of time, to provide the subjects with some ideas of what to expect and how to get the best out of a shoot. Andy’s clients all agreed that the video helped to settle their nerves and make the day run more smoothly.

It was very cold on the day of the shoot, having been snowing, so our photographer Collette pulled on her experience to ensure that everybody wore warm clothing and kept moving, to retain body heat, and kept everybody snacking and drinking to keep their energy levels high ahead of their time in front of the cameras.

After the shoot, Andy’s clients told us how enjoyable the session had been and were clearly delighted with the results of their photography session. They said that they were feeling a lot more confident about themselves for the experience, which is always a wonderful thing to hear from somebody on a physical transformation journey.