How to take good hair pictures by yourself

[TatsuOni]

I originally posted this as an article on my Swedish forum. Then I translated it for my blog, but thought that the tips could be useful here too. It's long and many pictures, so I'll have to continue in the comments.



Timer & positioning the camera

There's a timer on most phones and it is your best friend! If your to take pictures from a distance you need a timer. I usually put mine on 10 seconds.

Then you need to have the phone or camera positioned in a good way.
I have a phone case, that makes it possible to place my phone in a standing position. It makes things easier while out and not finding anything to lean the phone against.


My new case is harder and sturdier, making it better for taking pictures.

At home, one can be creative! Just lean the phone agains your soap pump, some books or perhaps a glass.

The hight you place your camera on, also makes a difference. If you for example, want a picture on all of your hair and most/all of your body, you shouldn't place the camera too high. If at home, I usually place mine on the kitchen table or the sink. Outside I use the garden table, a stone, a fallen tree or I just put it on the ground.


Left - phone on the ground. Right - on the kitchen table.

For pictures of shorter hair or an updo, you should place the phone higher up (unless you want to crouch down infront of the camera).

Preferably find a good shelf, get a phone holder for a mirror or a phone stand. You can also be creative and staple books, use a box or something else.

You also need to find a good distance. As long as you get visible details in your photo, it's better to stand too far, than too close to the camera. It's easy to "cut away" the extra backround on your phone.



Holding the phone in your hand

For buns and similar, you can hold the phone in your hand, behind the head if you have the mobility. It's a bit tricky at first angling the camera, but it gets easier with practice. Think about not holding the phone or stand, in a such a way that it places a shadow on your hair.


I prefer to use the volume button to take pictures this way.

Many pictures

Take many pictures! That way, you should get some good ones and can delete the rest.



Light

The light is one of the most important things, for how your hair will look in the picture! When you look at picures of really glossy hair, they're usually taken in good light! (Many are of course also edited)

Sunlight is the best! Regular outdoor ligh is also often better than your regular indoor light.

But if there's no daylight? If you're taking a close up, flash is great!

Some examples down below.


Sunlight


Left - regular indoor light. Right - flash

If you feel really serious, you can invest in a ring light or something similar. I got a not expesive one, for YouTube videos and pictures. There's obviously a wide range of lamps that will work, but it's for the best, if you can change the brightness and if it have a more wide spread of the light.


Here I've hung the ring light on my camera/phone holder, on the bathroom mirror.


Notice the difference in shine where the ring light hits, compared to higher up, where just my regular lamps reaches.

Continued in comment #4...

[paulownia]

Wow Tatsu, that's a lot of useful information!
Thanks for sharing

[WednesdayAddams]

OMG...this is GREAT. I always wonder how people get such great pics of the backs of their heads. I've been having my kids do mine. I'm going to try some of these tips.

[TatsuOni]

Background

The background is also important! Chose a more neutral background, without anything that will look "weird". If you're outside you need to, for example watch out for having a branch in the middle of your head. (The pictures below will make this more clear)

For light hair, a darker bakground can make your hair pop out more. For darker hair, a light background can be better. Although thin hair will appear thicker, if you wear clothes in a similar colour, to your hair.


To the left it would have looked better without the blue barrel in the background. Luckily in this case. I could just cut it away. To the right, it would have looked better without the flower pot behind my bun.

But what about when you don't have acces to a nice background? That example, should be my constanly messy hallway. Here I chose to cut away as much as possible, and perhaps "blur" the background a little bit in my editing program on my phone.



Focus

When you're taking pictures and can't see the motive, it's usually easier to set the phone on auto focus.

Sometimes the phone doesn't really want to focus on your hair.

A few things that you can do then, is to have good light and background. For example, my phone doesn't want to focus on my black hair against a dark background or if the light is too bad.

Antoher trick is to move further away from the camera (or sometimes closer).

New phones usually have better auto focus than older ones.

Length pictures

This is a cathegory on it's own. Partly because you have to get a "fair" angle. If you for example, take the picture from the same level as your head, it will look longer than it actually is (unless it's head lenght). If you want a truly accurate picture, you need to place the camera at the same hight as your ends.


Taken at the same level as my ends.

If you're to take pictures on a regular basis, to follow the growth. You need to have exactly the same placement of the camera and stand in the same spot every time. I usually place my phone on the sink and stand infront of the bathroom door.


Almost the same placement. The camera is a bit higher than my ends, but gives a pretty accurate picture of the length every year.

Also remember to look straight forward! If you look up or down, you wont get an accurate picture.

Preferably use the same clothes or mark with your hand, where for exaple your waist is, to make it even more clear where you're at.


Here I was marking my waist with my hand and I always used the same striped shirt for length pictures, when my hair was shorter.

Hair in motion

These are fun pictures! But also among the hardest one to take by yourself.

If you want to take pictures, it's once again the timer that you need to use. Preferably put it so that it will beep when it's time, or count in your head, when it's time to move the hair.

If you have a setting for taking several pictures in a row, that's great!


Taken with a timer

But the easiest method is actually if you can film in good quality. Then you just have to shoot a film and pick out pictures from it.


The editing program in my phone, gives me the opportunity to export pictures from films. If yours don't, you can pause the film and take a print screen.


Taken from a film and then edited a bit to hide the slighly less good colour quality.

Selfies

Sometimes one will take picture in selfie format. It's tempting to use the front came, also called selfie camera. Sure it will work, but the front camera is usually of less quality, so it's best if you stick to the regular camera.


I just take a few picture from different angles, when I can't see the screen

Also avoid taking pictures of yourself in the mirror if you can. If you're already standing infront of a mirror, you can use it to watch the screen while taking pictures.

Good luck and may you take great hair pictures!

And I hope that you found some of these tips helpful!

[TatsuOni]

Wow Tatsu, that's a lot of useful information!
Thanks for sharing

OMG...this is GREAT. I always wonder how people get such great pics of the backs of their heads. I've been having my kids do mine. I'm going to try some of these tips.

Thank you! But you both posted before I was done, so there's more in comment #4

[BVU]

Very nice! Hopefully this will help some of the less tech-savvy people here

[_Melly_]

Your hair is always epic, great advice too!

[TatsuOni]

Very nice! Hopefully this will help some of the less tech-savvy people here

Your hair is always epic, great advice too!

Thank you!

[Bri-Chan]

Thank you so much! Hope to learn something, I'm usually terrible with pictures.

[TatsuOni]

Thank you so much! Hope to learn something, I'm usually terrible with pictures.

Good luck with the pictures