Lighting for guys: revealing, tone, texture and form

Actually lighting for guys isn't that much different than for girls when it comes to revealing the body form. I suppose the one big difference is that in general you are trying to soften the skin for girls, but reveal all the texture for guys.

The first and crucial thing is to position either one or two lights to the side of the subject,

The light should skim the surface you are shooting, allowing the natural peaks and troughs of the body to be revealed - not by the light - but by the shadows.

The trick is to rotate the subjects body in the light until you find exactly the right sweet spot.

It will be obvious once you see it because the anatomy of the subject will be most perfectly revealed.

You can also look at lighting for the texture of the guys skin too.

Again using the same trick of rotating the body slightly you can see how the hair is showing dark against the light, and more importantly, light against the dark.

As a side note, look at the reflected light on the inside of the fella's arm - a reminder of just how reflective skin really is.