Valentines Day themed hair and makeup portrait, complete with multicolored hair and tiny hearts

DanOstergren · Feb 14, 2019

I collaborated recently with a girl who specializes in hair color, and another girl who specializes in cuts, and they specifically wanted a photo to post to Instagram on V-day, so here's what we have. They couldn't afford to pay for a studio rental, and I absolutely wasn't going to pay out of pocket for what they wanted, so we made due with the cheap ring lights and a constant sof-box that was available in the hair salon. It wasn't the easiest setup to use, but I tried making the most of it. I used my "new" 100mm lens because I wanted to see how well it did for hair and beauty work. I don't think it did bad, but in hindsight I wish I'd have set a narrower aperture to get the hands and hearts in focus. The drawback to the narrower aperture however would have been to really crank up the ISO and lower the shutter speed, but considering I had no sleep that day and was a little shaky, I wanted at least 1/200th sec on the shutter speed, especially with the 100mm focal length. I also wanted to avoid taking the ISO any higher, as I wanted specific detail on the hair and makeup without having to deal with excessive noise from this old camera. All in all, the lighting that was available was much less than my standard expectation, and the girls did not want to go outside to shoot in the natural light as it was rainy and cold that day, and additionally I was such a grouch that day. I'm still surprised we got useable shots to be honest.

Canon 5D (the original), Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 standard macro set to f/3.5, 1/200th sec, ISO 500.

DanOstergren · Feb 21, 2019

SquarePeg · Feb 22, 2019

You captured a great expression on her face and as usual nice processing on the skin! My eyes keep jumping to the hands though which makes it hard to really see the model. Normally I don’t care if the head is cropped this way but if this is a hair and makeup shot, I can’t really tell much about the hair in looking at this.

I don’t dislike the choice but wondering why the white balance is so warm? Hard to get an idea of the true colors of her hair and makeup.

Parker219 · Feb 22, 2019

How does it look with the correct white balance/ teeth white?

DanOstergren · Feb 22, 2019

Parker219 said:
How does it look with the correct white balance/ teeth white?

Is this supposed to be constructive criticism or are you just being passive aggressive?

DanOstergren · Feb 22, 2019

SquarePeg said:
You captured a great expression on her face and as usual nice processing on the skin! My eyes keep jumping to the hands though which makes it hard to really see the model. Normally I don’t care if the head is cropped this way but if this is a hair and makeup shot, I can’t really tell much about the hair in looking at this.

I don’t dislike the choice but wondering why the white balance is so warm? Hard to get an idea of the true colors of her hair and makeup.

There are plenty more from this shoot that were more focused on the hair and makeup; this particular shot was more geared towards having a portrait to post on Valentines day.

Warm toning was a creative choice.