How Does Lighting Effect Hair Color in Photos?

I probably drive my sweet clients crazy always wanting to take photos of what I've done on their hair.  But they are so incredibly sweet and always try to do what I ask for them to model for me.  I took some photo's of this mermaid wave the other day, both in the salon and just outside of it.  What can I say, I like variety!  So I came home, uploaded the files to my computer so I could crop them to fit Instagram,  and I immediately noticed a huge difference in the color!  I took these photos specifically for the style, however, I also do her color, so I thought this would be a fantastic lesson on finding hair color inspiration online.  Check out the two photos side by side...

They look like two completely different hair colors, don't they?  I've seen this so often though, and I wanted to share with you which one is the more true representation of her color.  Both images I love, and ultimately, I chose to share both for Insta because hello!!  Her hair is gorgeous!  Not only that, but she's gorgeous inside and out.  One day when we have enough time to do a full photo shoot, I'll share with you this gorgeous friend of mine.  But on to the break down of the color...

This first  solo photo, there is much more warmth in her color.  This was taken inside with a window beside us as out light source.  All lights in the room were out, however, naturally since we are inside here, there's a lot of things around us to reflect and cause a change in the look of her color.  This is the more unnatural version of her actual hair color we do.  If you take this photo to your stylist and tell the you want this,  you're going to get what is considered a "warm" toned brunette color.  It is a gorgeous color!  But keep going to see what her true color is...

This is when we went outside!  The sun is positioned behind us and I'm using the shadows just barely away from the sun, to get an image of her hair.  This is what her hair looks like in person.  A cooler toned brown with very subtle highlights.  Originally, I did take these photos to specifically show off those waves,  but this is such a great representation of how lighting changes the look of hair color in a photo, that I knew it needed to be shared!  So next time you find a fantastic color on Pinterest, make sure you really talk to your stylist first before diving in.  Ask them if the particular photo looks warm verses cool and which looks better with your skin tone.  Talk to them about the lighting in the photo and work together to see if you can figure out if the photo is a true read of the color.  Also, be careful about photo shopped photos!  A lot of photos are gorgeous colors, but you can find the original photo and see that the color had been photo shopped!  

I hope you found this helpful!  I'd love to know what you enjoy reading about and seeing on the blog, so please be sure to leave me a comment letting me know what you'd like to see on a future post!  Have a lovely weekend!

With love and hair,
​Megan