Anyone can take a photo, but let's talk GOOD photos. 

But first why on Earth does taking good photos relate to being a lash tech? And how could it create more business for you?  

Well we can look at any field of expertise or really any kind of service. Say you want to get your makeup professionally done. You visit the artists Insta/Fb page or website and the photos are too dark or over-filtered and maybe even grainy because of the quality of camera and lack of natural light. The makeup artist might be INCREDIBLE but you're only seeing what you're seeing so it leaves with with a 'uuuuh nah' response, no matter the price. 

Another example is Cafes & Restaurants. The natural colours and aesthetics in food are incredible and an owner who invests money and time in getting proper photos of the meals provided on his menu is expanding his business right then and there. 

Think about whenever you go online shopping and suss out good coffee, when you get online, you immediately have a certain standard. The higher quality it looks, the more you're interested in it. 

Same goes with lashes!

Alright, enough talking, let's get straight into it! 
Here's our key tips to taking the high quality photos that WILL create a huge difference on your overall social media feed and take the professionalism of your career to the next level!

LIGHT (and lighting)

Photography is light! A photo doesn’t exist without light so getting it right is your number 1 most important aspect of good photography!

With lash photos you want lots of even light. If that means moving the lash bed closer to a window for natural light or investing in a good light, DO IT! Your Instagram and FB feed will thank you for it! Remember your photos are advertisements for your work and your business!

Get a light that can go nice and bright but is also diffused. You also want to avoid using a flash as it can make the person look shinier and cast shadows.

If you don’t have enough light your photo will be whats called “underexposed”. Most phone cameras will try and compensate this in 2 ways;

1. Opening the camera shutter for longer. 

By doing this, the phone/camera lets in more light but because it is open for longer it can start to develop trails or just be blurry. See below example for trails:

 

The solution? MORE LIGHT!

2. Or your camera will do a trick by turning up a setting called “ISO” to compensate for not having enough light. When it does this it will artificially make the photo brighter. The problem with this is it makes the photo look fuzzy and patchy: 

The solution? MORE LIGHT!

You can also have too much light which will make the photo come out very bright and washed out. This will be fixed by moving the light further away or going a setting dimmer. To be honest this is not a problem you will encounter a lot.

Example of underexposed photo. Makes it look drab and unappealing.

 

 

Example of an over exposed photo. Photo is washed out and lacks contrast. Is also just hard to look at.

Example of nicely exposed photo. 

COMPOSITION!

(and what's in the photo)

The next thing to think about is what is actually in the photo, and how its arranged. The key here is getting unappealing elements out of the photo and drawing the viewers eye to what you want them to see. In the below photo there is a lot of clutter in the background which draws the eye away from the subject and it’s also unnecessary for the photo. It makes it look messy and clutter.

Also the subject of the photo isn’t properly in the shot and is partially cut off in an unappealing way. 

Also comparing the photo from above see the difference between a photo with some unneeded parts in the composition and the same photo with minimal clutter in the photo. It just helps draw the eye to the subject and makes the overall photo much cleaner and appealing.

The next part is what the subject actually looks like. Its not uncommon for the subject to a little sweaty etc after a session. Doing a few little things to make the subject look better goes a long way in making the photo look better overall. Swiping wiping their face a little to take the shine of it can make a big difference.

ALSO:

Some other things to think about:

• Cameras, including your phone, have a ‘minimum focussing distance’. Basically this means they wont be able to focus very close up. If you are trying to get a close up you may be better to go back to where it can focus and then crop the image to make it closer up.

• Modern phone cameras are great but also consider getting a DSLR camera. Having a DSLR with the right lens can take your photo game to the next level! Allowing you to do macro shots and also doing photos with a defocused background. It also gives you a LOT more to go on in terms of editing photos. DSLR camera photos contains a lot more ‘information’ in the photo so editing them is a lot easier and gives better results. 

- There is a LOT we could go over when it comes to photography! But we are limited to how much we can fit in one blog. The best thing for photography is just practice practice practice! Trial and error! See what works for you and see what doesn’t!