A rant on lighting
OK - A pet peeve of mine - poor lighting. Some call it moody, others call it catastrophic. Honestly I think it's because most people don't know what good lighting is to begin with, or should I say appropriate lighting.
I'll take it from the POV I see it from, or at least, most recently. Bodybuilding shows.
Two friends recently went to compete in the Mr. Georgia but do to some crazy scheduling I wasn't able to see them compete this year. I did have the opportunity to go several years in the past and can basically generalize - it's the same show every year but with different players. You can take a look at the poor lighting choice they made in the picture above (left side). I guess it isn't "inappropriate" per se, but it's not ideal for photography nor video! I took literally hundreds of pictures that year and the majority of them were junk because of the lighting (that and the odd timing of multiple flashes from multiple angles. Needless to say I was greatly disappointed by the lack of quality shots I was able to get - but I got what i could even with the disagreeable lighting (see photo to the right and below).
In contrast let's look at the photo on the right side of the top photo. I did a quick search and found a photo from another event I was at the Jr. Nationals. Now I didn't take this photo but another individual did. Notice the insane number of white light flooding the stage? If you were there you would have noticed an entirely second row of lights raining down from the front. IMHO a perfect setup for photography or video. Why? Well with such a strong primary light, the effect from secondary flashes is greatly reduced as well as with such hot lights you don't have to worry about shooting at a high ISO to get a sharp picture (thus creating also a grainy picture). Alas - that was the exact result of the Mr. GA's in 2007. I had to shoot at such as high ISO since the lens I had didn't have the greatest apertures.
Lighting makes all the difference.
It might just be the mentality of the show's organizers. The Mr. Georgia is a state competition so it's audience is inevitably the people pf the state. Granted, while GA is probably one of the more competitive states out there, I think competitors would approve of hotter lights. Why? Simple, if they're in great condition then the better lighting will just enhance their physique. On the flip side - if they're in poor condition or they use too much oil they'll look terrible. Or maybe it's the deer in headlight predicament. By not using as hot of lights as say a national show they're trying to break people into the sport. I could see that. There's nothing scarier than walking onto stage in a thong but to have bright lights shining at you, illuminating every flaw can be terrorizing. Or it could be a more simpler reason - they're in a venue that won't allow additional lighting. I kinda find that a cheat as many of the cans were filled with color lights to create ambiance and could have easily been converted to create a white flood.
Anywho - I think I'm just spoiled now that I've been to a national level show. The enhanced lighting - the more professional backend and the higher caliber competitors gives me a new perspective and maybe I'm beating up the Mr. Georgia for no real good reason since honestly, I thought it was a pretty decent show (minus the obvious lack of organization). I just know they can do so much more.