What do you use for hair light?

[elaine marie]

I am looking to add a hair light to my studio set up. What do you

use and how is it placed? thanks Elaine

[jonathan_brewer1]

I use anything from my Vivitar 285HV, a Chinese made(I think) Britek strobe w/a small softbox, to one of my portable Armato strobes, to a small slave w/a modeling light that's so old, it gives out a very faint light that I can use very close to whatever I'm shooting. I tend to not want to use a hairlight unless I really feel that it will do something important for the shot.

 

My thinking behind this is that I've been 'burned' before using multiple lights, you 'sweat out' figuring just the right placement, just the right ratio/intensity to your other lighting, and if everything else gives you a good effect, but the hairlight is somehow out of whack, your shot can be ruined.

 

I have a shot on my website called 'KwaZulu Dreams', if you're interested in checking out the shot, go2 www.imageandartifact.bz then 'galleries', then 'And More', the inspiration for this shot is a daydream I had about my African heritage, I wanted a connection to our families African heritage in the shot, in the form a hat that my Daughter is wearing, it's called an 'Isicholo' hat created by Zulu women/Artisans in the KwaZulu-Netal region of South Africa, it's individually handmade, and a geometrical masterpiece, it was very difficult organizing this 4 light shot, and most difficult was using a 'hairlight' on this magnificent 'headpiece', and keeping it off the black background.

 

When I finally got through w/getting everything for the shot, through w/tests, I made over 125 exposures when I shot this project, about three came out because if my Daughter shifted slightly, some light somewhere was out of position, and I had to readjust, plus if I didn't wait between exposures, I would get a partial flash,.......I'm saying all this to say that everytime you add a light you complicate matters, two lights instead of one is not just twice as hard to use, it's several times harder and so forth as you increase the number of lights you use.

 

I like your shot, a lot of energy with this great looking kid and his 'friend', looks like my kids 'buddies', it's all up to you where you place your hairlight, I would suggest starting out, bracketing your shots in the sense of shooting one frame @ one exposure w/o the 'hairlight' and one frame at the same exposure with the hairlight on, and comparing the difference, because this childs 'friend' is turned a little to the side, a hairlight is not a bad proposition.

 

How 'hot' or how prominent you want your hairlight is up to you as is the placement, you've got the 'dramatic license' of establishing the hairlight coming from a 'window' or 'lamp' anywhere else in the location. The consideration is that even though some folks think of a hairlight/kicker as 'icing on the cake', it is another lightsource and is as important as any other light in the shot, it will help or ruin your shot.

 

Some folks place the hairlight coming from the opposite side from the direction of your key to pay 'lipservice' to the idea of balance, some folks put it where they think/feel it 'looks right', but it's just not placement, it's intensity also, and the idea of using a hairlight to effect some seperation between your foreground subject matter and in this instance, your black background.

 

I would suggest getting an inexpensive and very low powered slave w/a modeling light(some of these are sold w/'itty bitt' softlights) which can go for $20-$40 bucks new, and for a few bucks used on e-bay, and start experimenting on this shot and/or on your other shots, experimenting in placement/intensity/harshness/softness, a consideration for you will be the handling of spill. Buy some 'cinefoil', it's black aluminum foil that's stiff enough(you can use wire coathangers to bend into framing for barn doors or flags) to make into flags and 'lips' to control spill from your hairlight if you need to(and any of your lights).

 

Good luck and Happy Holidays.

 

www.imageandartifact.bz

[brooks short]

I use a small soft box (2'x3')with a recessed front screen to control some of the spill. In the studio I use a ceiling rail system, on location a stand and boom.

 

I use a softbox for a hairlight because a broader, softer source creates smoother specular highlights on hair.<div></div>

[leonard_forte1]

I am looking to use a hairlight as well but not sure what to use. I read that a mini apollo softbox is useful as a hairlight. Does anyone use the mini apollo? What kind of strobe can be attached to it since it is quite small (16" x 16" I think.)

[john_murphy1]

Using a hairlight when shooting kids is difficult since the slightest move can cause spill onto the face and a "split lighting" effect. Furthermore, you have to rig up a strobe above their heads which is a little risky. I use lighter backgrounds or carefully placed background lighting to separate my kids' heads from the background.</p>

As far as what to use, a small (Apollo) softbox is fine; <a href="http://www.montezucker.com/content.html?page=7">Monte Zucker</a> is a proponent of this method. Alternatively, you could use a fine grid.

[jmf]

I've recently read (but haven't tried) that a strip light style softbox is good. Check out "Master Lighting Guide for Portrait Photographers". The argument being that the striplight limits spill on to the face but is wide enough to give you some latitude to either side. In the past, I've used a grid or snoot to limit spill. Going the other way, you can light the background to add some separation when you have a dark haired subject on a dark background

[ellis_vener_photography]

I use matches , sometimes a bic butane.

[joemig]

It's interesting that you ask this now. I used a hairlight for the first time last week. I did my first portrait shoot since getting a Nikon SB800, and I used it as a slave to my Alien Bees softbox. Holy God what a difference!! I now wish I had gotten this years ago.

[jmf]

Ellis,

Didn't Michael Jackson use that technique one time back in the 80's while shooting a Pepsi commericial?

[bill c.]

Elaine-- Another quick and dirty approach that can sometimes be used with excellent results is to shoot a flash head into the ceiling. There are several considerations with this. For one, light has to be fairly close to the ceiling--within a few inches-- so that the reflector shuts out most of the light. That means that the ceiling has to be accessable. The main problem with this is, if you get it too close, you can end up with a burned spot on the ceiling. I've noticed that since the light ends up soft and not too powerful, it's amazingly tolerant of placement.

 

Other than that, I've used a strip softbox, a grid spot (nice but extremely hard to aim), and a little hot-shoe flash with a 3x5 card held on by a rubber band and fastened to the crossbeam of the background stand with a clamp. My current fave is a strip softbox with a fabric gridspot.

 

If you're setting things up on the fly, I find it's better to simply go for a little bit of separation rather than perfect balance. Sometimes all that is really required is a rim of light along the hair separating it from the backdrop.

 

Happy shooting. -BC-