I always loved dirty and weathered gyms. The one used by Dresda Boxing School is a well known gym to me. A friend of mine used to pull weights in that particular gym when he was a discus thrower. The decay reminded me gyms and in general the mood of certain boxing or martial arts movies except for the high amount of lycra that was around.
A couple of months ago some friends of mine became passionate about boxing and decided to attend the Dresda boxing school. When they told me that the gym was the one used once by my discus throwing friend and that the gym was in the same conditions of decay I decided to stick with them and realize a portrait set of those boxeurs. So I joined the school, I was pretty ridicule and I convinced them to pose for me.
To work easily I went with a two lights setup. Two speedlights used with white and silver umbrellas, a setup I use very often. I placed the lights at models’ left and right, slightly behind them in order to create a rim effect. I didn’t need a reflecting panel to bounce some light into their face because the walls were doing that job finely. When the model was a woman or a kid I changed the scheme leaving the strobe with silver umbrella at model’s left behind her/him and moving the white translucent one to camera right pointing at model’s face. That gave me great consistency and freedom. Hope you enjoy!
