What do you need to do for your length pics?

[shikara]

Some days when I look at my length it is pretty okay, not real nice, but pk. Others it seems to 'rope' a little more than to my liking. When you take your pics, is it as easy as combing, flipping back and taking the pic, or do you need someone to fix it up a little?

[Kelikea]

I don't fix it up. I try to take my pictures on thursdays, and also on wash day. So, most of my pics are of damp or slightly damp hair. I joined the "take one photo for one month" club here: http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=35093 There should be a LOT of examples there :)

[Amber_Maiden]

I don't fix my pics. Some of them look pretty bad actually. :p

[Carolyn]

If I'm having a particularly good hair day and I think about it, I'll go take some mirror pics. I'm perfectly capable of "fixing" my hair by myself. I keep taking pictures until I get a couple I like. It might take a few tries of brushing and head flipping to get it to look the way I want it to. Yes, it's nice to have someone around to make sure the ends lay just right and take the pictures. I rarely have that luxury so I do it myself. I have one friend who I have take pics and I have my stylist take some when I get a trim and color. Otherwise it's just me and my camera. With a digital camera you can delete all the bad ones. If I'm lucky I'll get one decent pic out of 10 or 15 tries. The bad ones are deleted. I only take pics on days that I've washed my hair. I think it looks crappy if it's not freshly washed. I give it a BBB'ing and try to get it hanging straight down my back. It's not hard to reach behind and brush the ends to they lay better. I've always been in this long hair thing by myself so I've never thought I needed anyone to help out.

[Vanille_]

I want to take better length pics. I'm going to make sure my hair looks nicer and do them outside with DH taking the pics instead.

[spidermom]

I comb mine first and prefer when it's all kind of squashed together down the middle. My DD prefers it spread across my back, and when she takes the picture, she always rearranges my carefully arranged preference. Gah!

[jacqueline101]

I try to make mine look somewhat good. I wash and comb before I take a picture.

[Raiscake]

I style mine like I normally do when I wear my hair down. Usually I fan dry it after applying a coney serum. My length shots are every three months so I use that chance to wear my hair down all day.

[Lostsoule77]

I tend to take my length shot photos on wash day after the wash. I leave my hair down to air dry and then snap a shot. Sometimes I have my DH take them, sometimes I use a mirror, and sometimes I use my camera's timer. I've never had anyone "fix" my hair for me though. I just make sure it's all behind me and take the picture. :shrug:

[bna_rapunzel]

It takes me a couple head flips but I usually get the shot within just a couple takes.

I like to take the picture on wash day when my hair is fully straight and clean and pretty. I avoid messing with it (side braid, any kind of braid really.. I'm a mindless braider and forget sometimes) so it dries perfectly :)

[blondie9912]

I never do anything special to my hair. I try and take length pics on the first of every month, usually the day after washing when my hair has flattened out a little bit (it's very fluffy right upon drying). I also have to make sure I don't have intense braid waves or anything going on.

[dwell_in_safety]

I never do anything in particular. That feels like "cheating" to me haha. Then again, I've only been taking pictures of my hair for a couple months.

[Lissandria]

I don't do anything special really. My last two have just happened to been with heavily oiled hair pre wash :o , but I guess It makes it easier to see length which is the whole point of a length shot really.

[Lady Neeva]

I don't have a large mirror, so I just slap two table ones together, one for the top half and one for the bottom length. I only have one length shot, really.

[trolleypup]

Wash airdry preen/comb. Find an interesting place to take pictures. Hair is currently very nice, but I won't get to an interesting place til Monday...so there will be a few preen and comb episodes before I get the pictures.

Technical part: camera with timer, camera with remote, tripods, occasionally friends or strangers.

[the.fee.fairy]

I fingercomb, then brush through.

Then stand in my wardrobe (two-door wardrobe), which has the only full length mirror i own.

Then i do some kind of hand origami to hold a small mirror the other side of the camera (at the screen) so i can roughly see what the picture will be like, then i try to stand up straight and look straight ahead while taking the picture. The light comes from either the overhead light, or from the full length windows having their curtains opened.

Then i look at the picture, swear a bit, readjust and carry on until i have a picture i like!

The one in my avatar took about 8 tries...

For updo pictures, i put the camera over my head, use my left hand to try and straighten the lens and visualise what it's looking at, then i take a picture, realise that i've taken a picture of my ear, and try again until i get something near central.

Then i crop out any unnecessary bits (especially if its a 'head in the left half of the photo, messy desk in the right).

So...on my pictures, that shadow on the right hand side...it's my arm holding the camera in the air!

I've been seriously considering trying to train the dog to take pictures...

[Kizuna]

I usually brush my hair and then I let my sister in law to take a photo of it. We don't have any large mirrors that I can use to take the photo myself so I always need assistance. :P

[jojo]

I comb mine first and prefer when it's all kind of squashed together down the middle. My DD prefers it spread across my back, and when she takes the picture, she always rearranges my carefully arranged preference. Gah!

exact same here! my daughter sometimes grudgingly will oblige and these photos are normally my best ones or I set the timer and take a million photos, though they never really reflect my hair in a nice way!

[ArienEllariel]

Oh, I have plenty of hair pics that show just how bad my hair can look. I do try and take decent pics when I can though. Just depends on how the hair is behaving that day.

[julliams]

I wash and condition as normal, airdry until it's completely dry and then take a photo. As a result my curl pattern looks it's best. I use a timer and usually take about 5 photos and compare them for length. I choose the picture that's in the middle - ie, not the longest and not the shortest.

If for some reason my hair looks particulary yucky, I might wait until next wash day and try again. But not often - I really don't care that much.

[MasCat]

I joined the "one photo per month" so my length photos are always on the 2nd day of the month. I don't do anything, just brush and go, although I bought a dress for length photos :D so now it will require me to change before taking pics.

if it's just before wash day - it's oily. So what ;) it's a length reference pic so it doesn't need to look all neat and fluffy. I take the pictures myself posing the camera on a book ad always take them in the same place so I have reference.

As for nice pictures - my hair is quite photogenic. I used to say "oh I wish my hair looked the way it does on photographs! I will have some nice hair-action shots from a horror-photo session yesterday and I will post them here :D

[MonaLisa]

I just fix it a bit with my fingers so it lays straight and on the back.
But I usually take pics on good hair days of course, or when there's something to show - like henna, or coconut oil failure :)

[Lostsoule77]

I fingercomb, then brush through.

Then stand in my wardrobe (two-door wardrobe), which has the only full length mirror i own.

Then i do some kind of hand origami to hold a small mirror the other side of the camera (at the screen) so i can roughly see what the picture will be like, then i try to stand up straight and look straight ahead while taking the picture. The light comes from either the overhead light, or from the full length windows having their curtains opened.

Then i look at the picture, swear a bit, readjust and carry on until i have a picture i like!

The one in my avatar took about 8 tries...

For updo pictures, i put the camera over my head, use my left hand to try and straighten the lens and visualise what it's looking at, then i take a picture, realise that i've taken a picture of my ear, and try again until i get something near central.

Then i crop out any unnecessary bits (especially if its a 'head in the left half of the photo, messy desk in the right).

So...on my pictures, that shadow on the right hand side...it's my arm holding the camera in the air!

I've been seriously considering trying to train the dog to take pictures...
I don't think anything on here has ever made want a like button more!
So when I said I take them in a mirror, this is really what I meant! :D Except even in the hair do photos I use a smaller mirror to see the camera screen.

[Vanille_]

I use the delay button on my camera (10 seconds) for length shots. It takes a bunch of tries to get a good one.

[habioku]

I take my length pics at my washing day. I let it dry, comb it and arrange it myself. I use a self-timer and a neutral background. It definitely needs some tries to take the right picture ;). I'm perfectionist with that :lol:.

[xoxophelia]

Most of the time if I take a picture it is just because I had the time to bother. I don't have all that many hair pics..

If I wanted my hair to look nice though I would be careful not to touch it while it dries.

[see_turtle]

I coerce my fiance into taking them. I make him take 10 or so shots usually before there's one that's "right".

[hipiji]

I use to take a picture on wash day and just comb it before I take it

[princessp]

It really depends with me. I try to take them a day or two after I've washed my hair. My hair also tends to be curliest then. For instance I haven't washed my hair in a week and my hair is more wurly right now than curly (but it is also longer than it was earlier in the week). I'd love to take a picture of it like this because it shows how close I am to classic (in fact prompted by this post, I just might do that).

When it comes to pictures, the place is more of a concern for me than my hair. I haven't found the best place to shoot it (solid color background with decent contrast against my hair and good light). I usually have to shoot it myself with a timer. Sometimes I blur the background of my shots. But to answer your question I don't do anything special to my hair before shooting it- so what you see is what I got. Admittedly, I'm not great about taking a lot of pictures though.

ETA: I wish I had a long hair buddy around me that liked taking pictures because I hate asking DH to shoot my hair. He doesn't understand to not crop "markers" (he'll shoot my hair and leave out where classic is, so you can't really see where I need to go. You know things that only LHCers are concerned with-lol). And while he's patient I hate asking him to just shoot a few more because he's usually very busy.

[Long_hair_bear]

I brush mine back abit as it tends to like falling over my shoulders. :) in order to see all of it, of course, in a back pic.

[Jessykins]

its not my hair i have a problem taking a picture of, its my face. if im taking it from the front, i normally just brush it and take a pic from a angle my face is chopped off lol. my hair normally looks the same unless i braid it over night

[Ligeia_13]

I usually take my monthly photo on the night of the week that I wash it. Then when its all dry, I just brush it so the hemline looks ok and snap away.