Hair Style Photography tips

Ballistics

Been spending a lot of time on here!
Joined
Jun 5, 2011
Messages
3,781
Reaction score
633
My wife is in cosmetology school and they recommend that she make a portfolio of her models, and I have questions for those with experience.
When you are photographing a hairstyle, do you treat it as a regular head shot? Do you do multiple angles?
Little lost on this one.
 
I'm a noob student, but I'll try to add to this thread.

Studio class taught too much artificial spray or wax in the hair can trash or degrade the pic, shimmering with your lighting.

If the hair is blown with a fan, swung round shaken, wet, etc is may create some major drama in the pic. You may not want MOST of the pics this way, but one or few in a set may hook you up.

Watch how the hair is placed in relation to the shape of the models face. You can get very desired or undesired effects. After the hair is placed a certain way walk around and look at it, try different options, etc before getting shutter happy and it may do you justice. Watch effects of hair on the forehead. Also watch for the small wild strands of hair out of place. You can clean this in PP but try for the best shot or you may be spending ton's of time with multiple pics.
 
I'm a noob student, but I'll try to add to this thread.

Studio class taught too much artificial spray or wax in the hair can trash or degrade the pic, shimmering with your lighting.

If the hair is blown with a fan, swung round shaken, wet, etc is may create some major drama in the pic. You may not want MOST of the pics this way, but one or few in a set may hook you up.

Watch how the hair is placed in relation to the shape of the models face. You can get very desired or undesired effects. After the hair is placed a certain way walk around and look at it, try different options, etc before getting shutter happy and it may do you justice. Watch effects of hair on the forehead. Also watch for the small wild strands of hair out of place. You can clean this in PP but try for the best shot or you may be spending ton's of time with multiple pics.
Thanks for the tips.
 
The framing would depend on the do. Have a nice mix. Do some typical headshots and maybe add some shots from the back of the head if she does something that would need to be seen from that angle. For good examples look at the books they have a hair salons with people posing with different hair cuts. Something like that but not as cheesy.
 
The framing would depend on the do. Have a nice mix. Do some typical headshots and maybe add some shots from the back of the head if she does something that would need to be seen from that angle. For good examples look at the books they have a hair salons with people posing with different hair cuts. Something like that but not as cheesy.

Ok cool. Now how about backgrounds? I don't exactly have access to a studio.
 
Portfolio shots don't usually have to conform to a standard, nor do then necessarily have to be the same size/crop etc. So let the photo tell you which crop is going to be best.

Background should not distract, and should probably contrast with the hair, so that the hair stands out. Unless you want to purposely isolate part of the hair/model by letting part of it fade into the background.

So in most cases, it will probably be key that you light for separation between hair/mode and background. That probably means a back light and/or a well lit background.

Since you don't have a studio, you could probably get by just shooting them against a blank wall...or something that is not going to become a distraction.


http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/professional-gallery/161139-hair-models.html
 
Oh wow, awesome Big Mike, thanks for that link.
 
Mike can you recreate that lighting diagram? Would I be able to get away with it with just 2 speedlights?
 
Last edited:
I seem to remember that we used a large softbox as our main light, a large softbox for the fill. We also had a light on the background and at least one (maybe two) more as a hair/accent light (with grids). Sometimes we also added in a reflector.

So no, I don't think two speedlights would cut it.
 

Most reactions

New Topics

Back
Top