Why I Stick to Natural Lighting in Photography
Sexy eyebrow photos are the bread and butter of a PMU artist’s marketing. A beautiful portfolio will speak louder than any amount of words used to convince potential clients. When it comes to Instagram, you have 7 seconds to make an impression on your audience before they decide whether or not they care about your business. The key to taking good photos is intentional lighting; when you have consistent lighting, you’ll have a consistent photo style. Slap a logo on there and that’s basically all you need to brand a PMU business!
Permanent makeup photography utilizes artificial lighting, such as ring lamps and other vanity lights, natural lighting, or a combination of both. The best option is just what speaks to you as an artist. Though it is quite a passive decision when taking the photo, lighting plays a big role in how you choose for your work to be displayed.
Although I own ring lights, I don’t actually use them for photos or even while I’m tattooing! For procedures, I use a bright white LED lamp that’s attached to my head because it’s brighter and there are no shadows casted when I’m tattooing. After I’m done, I turn off my head lamp and take the photo right then and there without getting out a ring light. Simply put, I don’t use the ring light for photography because I’m too lazy!
Like I mentioned before, this passive decision of not getting out a ring light to take my photos affects my brand immensely. When I take before and after photos on the same day, the color values are often way different due to the lower angle of light around sunset.
Not controlling my lighting for photos means that they’re also at the mercy of the weather on any given day, luckily my studio is in sunny Southern California and my large south facing windows are always providing illumination. Too much direct light and exposure, though, can stimulate cringe caused by the patriarchal society’s ingraining of fear of aging into women’s psychology.
Even though there are inconsistencies, I resonate with my photographs because they feel like the inside of my studio; they feel like the dynamism of a face in real life, skin texture and all . The same way you might look in the mirror in the afternoon and think “my pores were less noticeable this morning,” is the same frustration I assume sometimes when editing photos because I feel like I have to compete in our culture of Instagram capitalism. Ultimately, I return to my stance of laziness on this subject because the satisfaction of my clients is more important than my Instagram. As long as the photos of my work align with my ideals of beauty- unfiltered, radiant, and sincere, I feel good at the end of the day.