Portrait photography tip: Adding a hair light

Wednesday 24 August 2022, 16:16 by Elja Trum | 3,012 views | 0 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

It has been so sunny in the Netherlands over the past few weeks that you usually head straight for the shade during a portrait shoot. Not just because of the heat. The light is also best in the shade. But you do miss that summery sunbeam on the hair.

Maud - f/2.8, 1/160s, 100 ISO @ 65mm
Fortunately, you can easily add this with the help of a flash. You do need to take it off your camera first, and control it with a radio trigger.

To prevent the flash from also shining into your lens and causing lens flare, you can put a small grid on your flash. This directs the light specifically towards the back of your model's head.

That creates the sunny look. As if some sunlight is falling on your model from behind.

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About the author

Elja Trum is the founder of Photofacts and online photography course website Photofacts Academy. He has been writing about photography since 2006. Elja is also the author of (Dutch) books on composition, black-and-white photography, flash photography and portrait photography.

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