It's interesting all this negative feedback when all the social media stars that all of you (probably) follow and anyone who has an instagram feed that a mass amount of people follow whether you do or not, all in fact edit and retouch their photos. I think you just need to have some integrity in what you are doing. Sometimes lighting needs to be adjusted because camera's pick up lighting different. For example, these two photos from my last color of the day yesterday (12/31/15), that I have yet to post on insta.
These two photos are of the exact same color, screen shots off my phone, with no filtering or editing taken a few moments apart from each other. The one on the left reads super copper root/golden blond ends, even overly yellow skin and yellow grout in the brick, the one on the right reads more balanced (or more true to what it actually looked like in real life). I was depositing over platinum blonde hair, so for those who know understand, there is no way to get that much richness in overly bleached out, platinum blonde hair when depositing over it. Her root (the first 4 inches or so, is her ashy natural), so again, the photo on the left is incorrect in showing that I blended her platinum blonde back in to her ashy natural, so why would I post a photo that has a coppery/auburn base? That would be a false representation of my color (yet it's an unedited, unretouched photograph).
The fact is, that camera's don't read lighting correctly. Photographers know how to manipulate their camera's settings to balance out the warmth (yellowness or blueness) of photographs before the photo is taken. Phones try to auto balance it out, and most of the time get it right, but sometimes can tip the scale on either too yellow of lighting or too blue/cold of lighting, depending on what is going on. You can even tell moreso by looking through the door in the background. My entire salon is crisp bright white floor to ceiling, chairs and everything, yet here the camera makes it seem as though the salon is so yellow. It's lite with incandescent lights (yellow/warm lighting), so their should be a slight warm glow, but not a saturated yellow floor. Get real. Not "real life".
100% of the time, the social media hairdressers that all of you look up to and follow, light balance their photos before they post them. Most also retouch their clients/models skin prior to posting too. Because people like to look and pretty and pleasant photos. Do they go in and add highlights and lowlights? I doubt it. Their not changing their technique and placements (generally). To do so would require a very talented photoshop beauty retoucher. Not happening.
So use your best judgement on presenting your work. Ultimately, if your always posting photos of hair that has been filtered and balanced to the point that it no longer looks the way it does in real life, your clients will figure that out because you won't be able to actually color their hair how they think you can. In the end, like the way my client's hair is falling in the left photo, so I'd want to post that one, but with the warmth of the overall photo balanced to how it actually looks in real life. Not the "fake" coppery/golden one. Adjustment made below:
Hope this helps
@Leahukhairstylist, and hope this enlightens everyone else's perspective on lighting and cameras and hair.
Steven Robertson
www.stevenrobertsonhair.com
Insta: @stevenrobertsonhair
