Water Mist Enhances Appearance of Musculature

How to produce sweat beads on muscles for photos

Spraying on a light mist of water with a spray bottle adds a slight sheen to muscles that gives male models a mild sweaty look - as if the model just did some chin-ups.

A crew member stands near a model and sprays water on the model's body using a spray bottle. The crew member avoids spraying water on a model's face. Water only looks appealing on the body. Because water evaporates quickly on a hot day outdoors, water must be reapplied frequently. Surprisingly a 24 ounce water bottle may need to be refilled multiple times during a photo shoot.

Water Can Distract Models

Baby oil, makeup and water can feel uncomfortable. With body make-up and baby oil applied to their bodies, models can feel like they are covered head to toe in a film of grime. They are eager to take a shower after the shoot.

Water can also be distracting to a model. Posing can become difficult for a model who is distracted by water rolling down his back, collecting near his armpits or inside his underwear and butt crack.

Water can feel ice cold on skin in a studio or outdoors during the early morning. A crew member should fill the spray bottle with hot water, not cold water. Whenever a crew member mistakenly filled a spray bottle with cold water in the past, it shocked the model. Downright cold!

A model is concerned with flexing his muscles and should not need to suddenly experience the shock of cold water hitting his skin and shivering from being cold, such as occurred at this photo shoot held by Los Angeles Photographer. An assistant sprayed water on the face of model and captured this unusual expression.

Photo by Jenn Hoffman. Model: Neil Koehler.

Wet Underwear

If a model is posing in underwear, moistening his underwear can make it cling to his body and better show off his package. Spraying on water backfired for one photo shoot in which a male model wore very thin white shorts. The model's penis became very visible through the thin wet fabric. To make the his penis less visible in the photo, the photographer blurred the crotch in the image.

You can read more of our advice on how to prepare for a photo shoot or review our preparation checklist.