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Advice for photoshoot

Stotka

Stotka

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 29, 2009
139
14
A friend of mine asked me to do a photoshoot for a calendar for his hair saloon.
And i think the accent of the shoot will be hair. I have never done something like this but i was thinking to do it like portrait shots just from odd angles to make the hair stand out. I have 1 external flash with a softbox would i need more? And what kind of background should i go for? The lenses i have are in my signature. Should i borrow other ones?

Any advice will be appreciated.
 
Stotka said:
A friend of mine asked me to do a photoshoot for a calendar for his hair saloon.
And i think the accent of the shoot will be hair. I have never done something like this but i was thinking to do it like portrait shots just from odd angles to make the hair stand out. I have 1 external flash with a softbox would i need more? And what kind of background should i go for? The lenses i have are in my signature. Should i borrow other ones?

Any advice will be appreciated.
Click to expand...

My advice:

You can certainly do an effective one light portrait, but it's going to be difficult to get something really striking with just one light.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but my guess is that a hair salon, unless its specifically catering to the "older" set, might be willing to be a little bit more experimental with the photography? If so, you might want to experiment with a few additional lights (a hair light, for instance). Experiment with gels and other light modifiers.

Your glass seems fine to me. The light will make or break this shoot (as it does for all shoots).

Have a clear picture of what you'd like to accomplish, then practice before the shoot.
 
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Thanks for the advice. I'm not charging for it because of obvious reasons :p maybe i get a beer :)
Why not ask strangers from the internet when I've seen lots of good advice before on this forum?
And from what i heard the guy before me was doing them shoots for a while with no light except his popup flash.
I was thinking about borrowing some flashes and lights from my friend and experiment a little.

Anyway thanks for the advice.

And you weren't harsh by my standards and I liked what you said :)
 
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Stotka said:
Thanks for the advice. I'm not charging for it because of obvious reasons :p maybe i get a beer :)
Why not ask strangers from the internet when I've seen lots of good advice before on this forum?
And from what i heard the guy before me was doing them shoots for a while with no light except his popup flash.
I was thinking about borrowing some flashes and lights from my friend and experiment a little.

Anyway thanks for the advice.
Click to expand...

Nothing wrong with asking for advice; I do it all the time. And it's good that it's not a paying gig; doing these kinds of things pro bono is a good way to get started, so long as expectations are managed for both parties.

You'll definitely get better results with one OCF than anything that can be done with a popup flash. That said, definitely experiment with multiple lights, hard vs. soft light, gels, modifiers, etc.
 
Does the hair salon want the images to be "conservative" or can you push the boundaries? Even if they say one thing, you can still push a little bit. Ask them to clip some photos of the kind of thing they want. Be very sure to tell them that you are not going to be duplicating those images, but you just want to get a sense of the "look and feel" and "style".

See if the salon has any budget at all for equipment rental. Renting a light with a snoot might make sense in this case. Even if all you get out of it is a beer, if they can rent you a snoot you may as well learn how to use one on someone else's dime.

Use a longer lense, and open it up to get the soft backgrounds. Then you can use their location.

Good Luck.

all of this imho of course
 
They said that they want it to be done in there salon where they have a nice white background. Good idea about the previous pics I'll see what has been done and what kind of approach they want.

Thanks
 
Why in the world would you use a white background? It seems so uninteresting. I agree, the background should be subtle, but get a muslin or something.
 
jessica. said:
Why in the world would you use a white background? It seems so uninteresting. I agree, the background should be subtle, but get a muslin or something.
Click to expand...


Muslin is ugly :p I agree that white background is dull...
I already organised for more lightening that i would change color with or something like that. Depends on the background they want to use.
 
White is only boring if you let it be.....

Richard Avedon
He didn't always use white, but note how powerful the white is for those images that use white....

Or here...

or here...

or here .... this is his father

or here....

or here
... note: not safe for work, in some repressed areas....

If you're gonna do white, do it really really bright and white, and keep the subjects either slightly over-exposed - or slightly under-exposed. Perfectly exposed will be, um, ..... uninteresting....

imho, of course...

Stotka said
"I already organised for more lightening that i would change color with or something like that. Depends on the background they want to use."

Use an ugly colour for the background if you are going to change it. There is a reason that they use a "green screen". The barf ugly green is never worn by anybody, worn as a hair colour, etc etc.... you can replace the green with any background you want just by sampling the green. The mark of a professional is not that they can accomplish a particular effect.... it's that they can do it easily and quickly.

There is an old saying.... "Give a difficult task to a lazy person, and they will find the easiest way to do it.".... It applies to professionals as well.

Good Luck.
 
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snberk103 said:
White is only boring if you let it be.....

Richard Avedon
He didn't always use white, but note how powerful the white is for those images that use white....

Or here...

or here...

or here .... this is his father

or here....

or here
... note: not safe for work, in some repressed areas....

If you're gonna do white, do it really really bright and white, and keep the subjects either slightly over-exposed - or slightly under-exposed. Perfectly exposed will be, um, ..... uninteresting....

imho, of course...

Stotka said
"I already organised for more lightening that i would change color with or something like that. Depends on the background they want to use."

Use an ugly colour for the background if you are going to change it. There is a reason that they use a "green screen". The barf ugly green is never worn by anybody, worn as a hair colour, etc etc.... you can replace the green with any background you want just by sampling the green. The mark of a professional is not that they can accomplish a particular effect.... it's that they can do it easily and quickly.

There is an old saying.... "Give a difficult task to a lazy person, and they will find the easiest way to do it.".... It applies to professionals as well.

Good Luck.
Click to expand...

I know you said at the bottom it's NSFW, but I can't stress enough that you need to put it in big bold writing right at the top of your post, BEFORE the links.
 
Stotka said:
Muslin is ugly :p I agree that white background is dull...
I already organised for more lightening that i would change color with or something like that. Depends on the background they want to use.
Click to expand...

Do you have any clue what a Muslin is? You're saying the fabric, any color/texture is ugly?
Muslins

I'd rather sit a model in front of that with good lighting than stick them in front of a white wall reminiscent of a passport photo. Your portrait has to be rather strong to pull off an all white background.
 
Stotka said:
A friend of mine asked me to do a photoshoot for a calendar for his hair saloon.
And i think the accent of the shoot will be hair. I have never done something like this but i was thinking to do it like portrait shots just from odd angles to make the hair stand out. I have 1 external flash with a softbox would i need more? And what kind of background should i go for? The lenses i have are in my signature. Should i borrow other ones?

Any advice will be appreciated.
Click to expand...

Read Light: Science and Magic. Study up on posing- "odd angles" aren't going to automatically produce anything anyone wants to look at. Study up on lighting, especially Hollywood lighting. A flash with an appropriately-sized softbox is fine as a key, but you'll want fill, background and probably hair lights as well as a grid for the hair. Muslins are the easiest backgrounds to handle and if you have enough subject->background distance, then they look just fine. Make sure you have good model releases AND good insurance- like it or not, it's commercial work and that puts you into a place where you can be sued. It doesn't happen too often, but if it happens to you, you'll be glad you had it- no matter if it's an equipment malfunction causing injury or a fire, a model getting upset at the images used, or someone tripping over a cord. Make sure you also have a contract with the salon which covers usage, liability, etc.

I'd also suggest negotiating a rate- if your work is good enough to go on the wall, it's good enough to get paid for, and unless you never want to get paid, establishing yourself as the "freebie" won't help you progress, and will put you in the bargain category, which is difficult to climb out of.

Paul
 
compuwar said:
...

I'd also suggest negotiating a rate- if your work is good enough to go on the wall, it's good enough to get paid for, and unless you never want to get paid, establishing yourself as the "freebie" won't help you progress, and will put you in the bargain category, which is difficult to climb out of.

Paul
Click to expand...

Absolutely Agree! People will value your work more if you get paid. Even if the Salon pays you in free haircuts, make sure you and they put a dollar value on it. They will value your work more, and you will get more satisfaction from doing it. Plus some haircuts.
 
Thanks for the advice.
As for muslins i thought that it was 1 kind of background color, didn't know there where different types.
As for sue-ing that won't happen here in my country. Contracts are also not that widespread here. I hate that system. But thats life.
I will have fill lights so the white background is not a problem.
I am even thinking about tagging a friend thats been in the business for a while just for some tips.
 
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