Taking your “After” Photos

It’s getting close to the end of the contest and it’s time to consider your final pictures. There are a few things that go into taking your pics and we’ll cover them in todays podcast including lighting, clothing, nutrition, and posing.

Lighting

The simplest answer for lighting is to find the spot in your house where you seem to look your best, you probably already know the one or two rooms that have lighting that hits you just right.

If you want to get a bit more creative with the lighting you can use side lighting from a window or even set up a light a few feet infront of you (hitting your body roughly a 45 degree angle compared to the camera)…you’ll likely find a sweet spot with lighting where you show up your best (this is usually standing relatively close to the light, maybe 2-3 feet away)

You can use any lamps from around the house to experiment with the look and shadow it gives off…also you can use a mirror to assess what it looks like, afterall, whatever the mirror shows is also what the camera will show.

In the end you just want to create an environment that gives you the best looking shape and curves, so spend an hour or two with it until you’ve got the look that you like best.

Clothing:

Bikini and heels is the outfit of choice for figure models, and of course Venus models! Some people have been asking (Alisha) if they can wear a new bikini for the after pictures, and the answer is of course yes. In some cases you’ll have no choice because of the changes that have happened to your body so it’s a great success if you actually need to get a new one!

Nutrition:

There has been a discussion about carb loading and water depletion etc. Keep in mind that these are advanced techniques used by pro bodybuilders who are also using powerful pharmaceuticals to help with their final look…in many cases the water depletion and carb loading strategies won’t have much of an effect for natural figure models like you.

What you can do is as follows:

Water load for 24 hours, that means drink lots and lots of water, like an annoying amount…anytime you think of it drink water…about 12 hours into your water load start a 24 hour fast…12 hours into your 24 hour fast cut the water completely so your last 12 hours of fasting are a complete fast, no water or food. Then take a round of pictures after the fast is done.

Once you’ve taken this first round of pics eat a normal meal, then monitor your look and take another round of pics within 12 hours (likely this will be the next morning sorta deal)

There is no real necessity to ‘carb’ load per se, you can just eat a normal mixed meal of various foods including carbs, protein and fats.

Offset feet and a slight twist makes a big difference in your overall look

Posing:

We will not be judging you on a specific round of poses, but the better you present yourself the easier it is to pick the winner. First off you will need to do the standard front, back and side relaxed poses (the same as the ‘before’ pics). From there you can add in various poses that are subtle changes from the standard poses but make a big difference on the overall aesthetic of the photo. Fitness models rarely stand facing the camera directly, the goal is to get multiple angles with multiple poses. One leg slightly forward, with a slight twist at the wait goes a long way for creating a great illusion for the camera so I suggest you practice this. You can also do other poses like this with varying hand positions.

One key factor is to keep your arm away from your waist so we can see the curve from your  waist to your hip. Try a few poses, take lots of pics and send in the best ones (send in your best 10-20 pics…but go ahead and take 100’s to choose from).

Long hair should be moved out of the way of your back on your back shots (throw your hair over your shoulder to the front of your body so it’s not covering your back on the back poses)

I’ve including a few examples of poses from a photoshoot I did with Becky (one of the venus models in the main manual exercise gallery).

Becky has lots of muscle and we just went through a few relaxed poses that really show off her curves. Nothing crazy, just a slight step forward, hand on hip, and a bit of a twist at the waist. Study these and take some for yourself.

Finally you can go through any serious of poses you like to further show off what you got (if you feel so inclined).

This should be a fun day for you so get your spouse, or close friends, family whoever to help out.

Try to schedule 3 days to take pics and try some of the nutrition techniques to see if they change your look.

Make sure you include a pic of the current days newspaper each time you do your pics (this can be a separate pic that you send in just for me to validate the date)

You also may want to try a round of pics after a workout…you probably already have a good idea of what your best look is so if that happens to be post workout then go for it.

John

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