Beauty lighting

[Ken Minehan]

I've been watching some shampoo commercials recently. I am wondering how yuou get that very shiny almost silvery shine on the hair. I have shot Hair commerials before but the hair light i create doesn't seem as shiny. I have been reading other threads on this topic, but i'm still quite baffled as to how to get that kind of shine. So far i have always used HMI lights diffused on to the hair or sometimes bounced. Are there any other kinds of light that is used for this kind of shoot.

 

Please see the link below for an example of the kind of hair lighting i'm talking about.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlIl-EZ6NVA

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ok8FUeS__A

 

regards

Ken Minehan

[Bobby Shore]

I think you're on the right track with the bounce lighting... this works especially well with dark hair (which you'll notice is generally used in those slo-mo hair blowing in the wind close-up's like in the youtube link you provided)... a big soft source will basically reflect in dark shiny hair (the same way you light cars, with giant bounce sources to provide modeling through reflectivity)... you'll notice that shiny, silver quality in the hair when the angle of incidence matches exactly the angle of reflection, so to maximize this, you generally want to have the bounce source as close to the lens axis as possible... also, you might want to try a highly reflective bounce source (like a 12 by lamé)...however, this can fosuc the light onto the subject, so make sure if you're ising a more refelctive bounce surface, you diffuse the light hitting it...

 

hope some of this helps.

 

Bobby Shore

LA/Montreal

[Jonathan Bowerbank]

You can definitely tell in the reflections of Zang's hair that there's a giant white source reflecting off of her shimmering mane.

 

Could be giant cards or I was thinking possibly a giant 12x12' silk evenly backlight to also double as a nice diffused source.

 

I'd be interested to see some "behind the scene" stuff of one of these beauty shots.

[Ken Minehan]

OK thanks guys for your answers.

Would i be right in assuming that the bounced source or hair light is coming from several angles ie, from above, and left and right of talent?

I remember an earlier thread talking about a strobe light? How does that work?

 

How much post work is involved in hair lighting do you think. I remember a colourist back in Australia telling me that a lot of extra shines and shimmers are added in TC. Is that right?

 

Ken Minehan

[James Steven Beverly]

I've been watching some shampoo commercials recently. I am wondering how yuou get that very shiny almost silvery shine on the hair. I have shot Hair commerials before but the hair light i create doesn't seem as shiny. I have been reading other threads on this topic, but i'm still quite baffled as to how to get that kind of shine. So far i have always used HMI lights diffused on to the hair or sometimes bounced. Are there any other kinds of light that is used for this kind of shoot.

 

Please see the link below for an example of the kind of hair lighting i'm talking about.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlIl-EZ6NVA

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ok8FUeS__A

 

regards

Ken Minehan

 

I also would discount something put into the subject's hair to give it a bit of reflectivity, oil, gel something like that. B)

[Satsuki Murashige]

You can definitely tell in the reflections of Zang's hair that there's a giant white source reflecting off of her shimmering mane.

"Her shimmering mane"? Yowza. Reminds me of the DP's commentary track on Kodak's Vision2 stock presentation featuring Mandy Moore -- "Look at her skin. Oh, Mandy!" :lol:

 

Seriously, do you think lighting through silk would create a reflection of that star-shaped hotspot in her hair? Wouldn't a large Chimera work just as well?

[Adam Frisch FSF]

You light hair in the same way you light most shiny objects - you reflect lit sources into them.

 

For hair this normally means a dominant front light that tapers off and extends around the hair. To give some shape to it one can add some negative fill

at the top of it, for instance, but generally this is often just done by limiting the source's shape and height.

 

Hair in hair commercials is never backlit since this makes it look frizzy and unkept.

[Kevin Zanit]

Big old Briese light does the trick nicely ;)

[Jonathan Bowerbank]

Seriously, do you think lighting through silk would create a reflection of that star-shaped hotspot in her hair? Wouldn't a large Chimera work just as well?

 

I wasn't talking about any star-shaped hotspots. Look at when she lets her hair drop, for a frame or two the entire length of her hair is reflecting back a very white, probably broad source like a giant silk or card.

 

Go ahead and try the Chimera and let me know if that works as well :)

[Stephen Whitehead]

you'll notice that shiny, silver quality in the hair when the angle of incidence matches exactly the angle of reflection, so to maximize this, you generally want to have the bounce source as close to the lens axis as possible...

 

What exactly do you mean by the angle of incidence matching the angle of reflection?

 

Cheers,

 

Steve