1920's Style Photograph

We were asked recently to produce an image with a very different kind of feel. The brief was for a 1920's style, with an up to date, fresh feel. The hairstylist producing the hair and headpiece was Louise Chrystal. She layered up the floral head pieces and created a shape similar to that of a traditional synchronised swimming cap, typical of the era we were aiming for. The different size and texture of the hair pieces added great shape and tonal value to the over all feel. We initially began setting up the studio as you would for a standard white background shoot.

Red gels were added on either side of the back lights. Initially these created a deep red, not what we were looking for, but it made for a funny test shot - this is Kyle at his best!

After a few tweaks we matched the tone nicely with the models skin tone and generated a lovely peachy/pink tone. The background could have been dropped in later in post production, but when working on a shoot like this, we aim to get the photographs as close to the brief as possible in camera.

Traditionally, make-up of this era was quite heavy and chalky. We asked the Make Up Artist Margaret-Anne to use an old English rose colour palette but with a fresher dewy finish instead. The rose pink cheeks and pale undertones work really well with the over all style of the image. Everything came together nicely.
I converted the file and only did a very small amount of post production. Whilst initially we were happy with the way the image was shot in camera, when I had processed it, I thought that perhaps it would look better desaturated to produce a more vintage tone.

The Saturated Image

This is the original photograph as it was shot to let you see the lighting techniques and the balance between the  background and the model.

The Final Image

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Hairdressing Photography with Louise Chrystal

The first time Louise Chrystal and I worked together was years ago, on a shoot for a make up artist. Louise was styling the hair to compliment the make up looks. I instantly saw that she had an eye for what would and wouldn't work in camera. Since then we have kept in touch and finally we got the opportunity to plan a shoot.

Louise currently works freelance and was looking to produce some new images to use as promotional material to show a more creative side of her work. When we asked about the planning behind her shoot, she told us she was looking for photographers who specialise in hair photography, rather than general photographers who 'give it a go' with little knowledge of the hair industry or how to create a professional hair photograph.

Knowing that Louise had an early passion for architecture, I expected nothing less than a structured avant garde look. She delivered exactly that, and produced fantastic looking hair that I couldn't wait to wrap my lights around. This particular look was inspired by retro 80's pop culture with a contemporary up to date feel. The make up (by Margaret-Anne McKay) complimented this look perfectly with this seasons metallic hues.

Although the model has dark hair, we decided to photograph her against a dark charcoal background. Having worked with many hair models over the years, we know that lighter tones of backgrounds can wash out depth of colour within hair and can dull down highlights.

The model was shot against a charcoal wall in our studio. We placed a background light on the wall down low, creating a gradient effect from light to dark, we then used a blue gel over the top to tone the wall with a blue tint. We placed a snoot in from the left hand side of the shot. A blue gel was used on the snoot to create a highlight down the neck of the model, and to throw some blue highlights into the hair itself. This again, was to add to the 80's pop feel - the technique was used a lot in old school music videos as well as stills. A second snoot was positioned in from the right hand side to give the band of shine around the hair. These concentrated lighting techniques show off the over all structure of the hair style, and define the face from the background. The warmth from Nicole's natural skin tone was toned down in post production as a cooler skin tone worked better with the cold blue lighting effects.

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If you would like to book your next hair shoot with us, please get in touch and follow this blog for up to date information and more creative photography blogs.