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SWEETPEA’S GUIDE TO TAKING GREAT HAIR PHOTOS
Hey y’all! I decided to write a guide on some best practices for taking great hair photos. I’m into photography, and I’m familiar with a variety of cameras, from the high end models to the smaller point-and-shoot cameras and camera phones. If you are wondering where my fotki album is, don’t worry, it’s a work in progress. I used to have one, then I let it go, but it might make a comeback.
Anywho - this guide is for anyone who wants to take splendiferous hair photos (yes, splendiferous!) If you’ve had blurry photos, fuzzy (or noisy) photos, too much flash, photos are too big when posted etc, this is the guide for you.
Let’s get started!
Photo blur:
Photos appear blurry mainly because:
1. Too much movement (or camera shake) when the picture was taken, and/or,
2. Not enough light was available in the room and the flash did not go off
The easiest way to correct this problem is to increase the light by going to a well-lit room or if not enough light is available, turn on the camera’s flash. Hair photos that are taken during the day in a well-lit room or outside are a best practice for non-blurry results.
Too much flash:
We’ve all taken photos where the flash went off, and there was a huge flash mark in the picture (when doing a self-portrait and the reflection in the mirror was captured). The easiest way around this is to have someone take a quick snapshot for you, that way you don’t need to use a mirror. If the only option available is to use a mirror, try turning off the flash to see what result you get. If not enough light is available, the photo will come out blurry. Play around with moving the camera around – above your head, to your side, etc and take multiple pictures to see what works best for you. That way, the flash mark will appear elsewhere in the photo and it won’t block that beautiful head of hair!!
Fuzz or noise:
Fuzz, noise, grain…it’s all the same. This happens when the picture becomes pixilated and you can see many of the dots of color in a photo. This occurs most often with camera phones because the quality of the camera is not very high. The best way to maximize the picture quality is to use a different camera if you have one, or use good, natural light when taking pictures. Go outside during the day or go to a well-lit room to reduce the amount of noise the photo.
Reduce clutter:
A good rule of thumb when taking hair photos is to take a look around the room to see what will also get captured in the photo. Are you sure you want that beer can in the picture? LOL. What about the messy and cluttered bathroom counter? (I’m guilty of this one myself). For nice, clean photos, it’s a good idea to survey the area and remove anything you don’t want in the picture so that your hair remains the focal point.
Large photo size in post:
If you’ve posted your photos to the forum and they were bigger than you would’ve like, that’s because the photo needs to be resized prior to being uploaded on the web. Right off of the camera, the photo sizes somewhat big (depending on the camera), so to make the image smaller, you need to use a photo-editing program to reduce the size.
If you are using Microsoft Windows, you have a program called Paint that you can use to resize the photo. Go to your Start menu →All Programs → Accessories → Paint. Click File → Open and browse to your photo. Once your photo is opened, go to Image → Stretch/Skew and a box opens up for you to enter values in the horizontal and vertical areas. This is a percentage, and a good percent to start with for both values is 50%. Play around with the % values until you get the size you want.
Here’s a Youtube video that shows you these steps in Paint: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2irT_QlrqDc&feature=related
Once you’ve resized your photo, save it and upload it to the web.
**Photography is mostly about lighting, and good lighting will usually cure most of the issues we encounter with our hair photos. If I haven’t covered something you’ve been dying to know more about, or if you have specific questions, feel free to hit me up and I’ll do my best to help you out!
Hey y’all! I decided to write a guide on some best practices for taking great hair photos. I’m into photography, and I’m familiar with a variety of cameras, from the high end models to the smaller point-and-shoot cameras and camera phones. If you are wondering where my fotki album is, don’t worry, it’s a work in progress. I used to have one, then I let it go, but it might make a comeback.
Anywho - this guide is for anyone who wants to take splendiferous hair photos (yes, splendiferous!) If you’ve had blurry photos, fuzzy (or noisy) photos, too much flash, photos are too big when posted etc, this is the guide for you.
Let’s get started!
Photo blur:
Photos appear blurry mainly because:
1. Too much movement (or camera shake) when the picture was taken, and/or,
2. Not enough light was available in the room and the flash did not go off
The easiest way to correct this problem is to increase the light by going to a well-lit room or if not enough light is available, turn on the camera’s flash. Hair photos that are taken during the day in a well-lit room or outside are a best practice for non-blurry results.
Too much flash:
We’ve all taken photos where the flash went off, and there was a huge flash mark in the picture (when doing a self-portrait and the reflection in the mirror was captured). The easiest way around this is to have someone take a quick snapshot for you, that way you don’t need to use a mirror. If the only option available is to use a mirror, try turning off the flash to see what result you get. If not enough light is available, the photo will come out blurry. Play around with moving the camera around – above your head, to your side, etc and take multiple pictures to see what works best for you. That way, the flash mark will appear elsewhere in the photo and it won’t block that beautiful head of hair!!
Fuzz or noise:
Fuzz, noise, grain…it’s all the same. This happens when the picture becomes pixilated and you can see many of the dots of color in a photo. This occurs most often with camera phones because the quality of the camera is not very high. The best way to maximize the picture quality is to use a different camera if you have one, or use good, natural light when taking pictures. Go outside during the day or go to a well-lit room to reduce the amount of noise the photo.
Reduce clutter:
A good rule of thumb when taking hair photos is to take a look around the room to see what will also get captured in the photo. Are you sure you want that beer can in the picture? LOL. What about the messy and cluttered bathroom counter? (I’m guilty of this one myself). For nice, clean photos, it’s a good idea to survey the area and remove anything you don’t want in the picture so that your hair remains the focal point.
Large photo size in post:
If you’ve posted your photos to the forum and they were bigger than you would’ve like, that’s because the photo needs to be resized prior to being uploaded on the web. Right off of the camera, the photo sizes somewhat big (depending on the camera), so to make the image smaller, you need to use a photo-editing program to reduce the size.
If you are using Microsoft Windows, you have a program called Paint that you can use to resize the photo. Go to your Start menu →All Programs → Accessories → Paint. Click File → Open and browse to your photo. Once your photo is opened, go to Image → Stretch/Skew and a box opens up for you to enter values in the horizontal and vertical areas. This is a percentage, and a good percent to start with for both values is 50%. Play around with the % values until you get the size you want.
Here’s a Youtube video that shows you these steps in Paint: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2irT_QlrqDc&feature=related
Once you’ve resized your photo, save it and upload it to the web.
**Photography is mostly about lighting, and good lighting will usually cure most of the issues we encounter with our hair photos. If I haven’t covered something you’ve been dying to know more about, or if you have specific questions, feel free to hit me up and I’ll do my best to help you out!
I definitely needed that class.
Thanks for posting Sweetpea!! 5 stars
