Shooting in hair salon for advertisement.....suggestions please!

[amydoodle]

Hello. Wondering if anyone can throw out some good suggestions or pointers in doing a photo shoot in a hair salon? This will be for my cousin who is opening her own business. She is wanting some edgy pictures to use for her advertisement and website. And also some while in action of doing hair. Her shop has wood floors, one wall yellow, one wall orange/salmon color with black trim with lots of can lights, plus large window front. I'm just worried about lighting and if I'm going to get some horrible color cast from these walls. Do you think my 430ex flash will be enough to work with, or should I bring my AB and softbox? And as far as pricing goes for something of this nature, I have no idea! I welcome anyone's input! The shoot is scheduled for this Sunday. Thanks!
Amy

[hypertech]

You need to talk price before you agree to do it .... and its your cousin. If I found myself in your situation, I'd be considering this portfolio work or just asking to cover expenses if you have to travel.

How big is the space? That might help you decide what lighting you need. You can always take the bees and and leave em in the car if you don't need them.

[Ray Marrero]

I did it once a ling time ago, with the hope that it would bring more business. It didn't. I haven't done it again.

I am considering placing a "win a free photo session" box in a salon. Customers must fill out simple cards, you know, name, address, email etc... and a winner will be picked out. That person will win a free photo session and an 8x10 print.

This will help me collect emails, for my marketing campaign. Hopefully I'll get business from them. Worth a try.

[sspellman]

Amy-

I find that it is best for emerging photographers and clients to work from samples of photos from magazines, hair books, web, etc to agree on key style, composition, and color elements before the shoot. For the "work in action" pictures, your 430 flash balanced with ambient light should do the trick. I would recomend shallow DOF pictures to limit background cluter. For the edgy fashion pictures, studio lights with softboxes and interesting backgrounds are certainly a requirement. 1 softbox would give you directional frontal lighting and the other AB can be used as a hair light. For fashion backgrounds, something with an industrial feel such as concrete, wood, fencing, etc will give it more of an edge. I would also strongly advise your client to invest in a solid makeup artist and models-great hair is only part of the image. I dont see that you have strong experience with fashion pictures in your portfolio, so this will be a good time to practice fashion styling and techniques before the shoot to get the best result, or even to collaborate with a more established fashion photographer.

As far as costs for small business commercial work like this, I charge by the hour + expenses.

Good Luck-
Scott

[jmorales]

Update...

Did you shoot that Sunday? If yes, can you post some pics?

[amydoodle]

Hello and thanks to everyone for their replies! I did do the shoot that Sunday and will be happy to post some pics. I actually DID attempt a post yesterday, but something happened and I lost the post and then the kids just got a little on the wild side, so couldn't do much.

Everything went great, better than I had thought. All three girls are very fashionable, so even though I've never done this type shoot before, everyone was very pleased with the end results. Ended up using my 430ex and one AB800 with softbox. It was lots of fun and I'll be going back later on to shoot "in action" shots. I'll post pics this evening. Thanks again to everyone!
Amy

[amydoodle]

Here are a few of the pics from the shoot. Feel free to give CC.
Amy

#1
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v176/appyglass/2269WEB.jpg

#2
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v176/appyglass/2274WEB.jpg

#3
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v176/appyglass/2278WEB.jpg

#4
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v176/appyglass/2290WEB.jpg

#5
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v176/appyglass/2296PlatinumWEB.jpg

#6
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v176/appyglass/2303ContraSoftWEB.jpg

#7
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v176/appyglass/2312MidnightWEB.jpg

#8
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v176/appyglass/2319BWWEB.jpg