Hair photography can be a pain to shoot. Having a good hair stylist is incredibly important to make sure you don’t end up spending more time than you should behind the desk for the retouching. When it comes to hair, you’ll already have to spend more time than you’ll like.
When shooting hair, it’s always a good idea to shoot it against a plain background. This helps the hair stand out more and also makes it easier during the retouching process when getting rid of hair sticking too far out. Lighter-colored hair is also easier to photograph as you can see the details of the hairstyle much more clearly.
Equipment List
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1 white board
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1 black board
Lighting Setup
The main light here was a silver umbrella on the right of the model. There was another silver umbrella directly behind and on top of her for her hair. On the left was a fill light made by a light hitting a white board so it was softer. A strip light was placed on the side as a rim light that hit her shoulder in the image. There was also one placed on the left of the model to give her a just little more shadow.
Closing
There are of course many ways and lighting setups you can use to photograph hair. I’ve done quite a few different ones in my photography journey. This is just one of the many. I hope you find it helpful!
Sorry, I did not get it. What is so unique or unusual about this photo, or the way it was shoot? The background could have been cleaned - there are visible black spots on it. And the hair looks gray on top of it, probably this was due to a lighting setup?
Great shot Shavonne
Still a lot of loose strands of hair flying around. Wella wouldn't approve...
True, I would have liked to have seen the model in place with the lighting set up to go OR be given a diagram. To be fair, though, this is as advertised: how I shot it.
On a personal note, I was stuck in a week long episode of PTSD when I came across this article. The image of the model with her eyes closed spoke to me. I saw the potential to take this raw image and PS it to a work of art. The final image, I believe, pulled me out of my episode. Not many photos touch me like this one did. For me, I'd rather shoot a cathartic, soul-moving statement than a text-book perfect image any day. Thank you, Shavonne.