I have heard it said often in the photography industry that retouching hair could be used as a form of punishment, but when the opportunity arose this summer to shoot my very first hair campaign for Haringtons Soho, I was really looking forward to it. Venturing away from the normal vintage hair rolls and finger waves, it gave me the opportunity to get creative with a variety of different styles, colours and textures that wouldn’t normally feature in my regular lingerie or boudoir commissions.

The shoot took place over two days at one of the location recommendations from my location #LustList, Paradise By Way Of Kensal Green. A stunning venue in North London, every room is decorated differently, with distressed walls, original wood features and beautiful vintage furniture. Setting up in one of the upstairs bars with plenty of natural light, the Haringtons Soho styling team transformed the hair of 12 models into photo ready works of art, with the help of Celine Nonon providing make up and Aiden Connor providing styling in Ghanem Couture.

It was a packed schedule, covering 16 looks over the course of the two days. Utilising the hall and the stairs with their original wooden floorboards, distressed paintwork and giant tarnished mirrors, we really did cover every inch of the available space. One of the key factors that I had to take into consideration was the unpredictable British weather, which varied greatly over the two long days from bright midday sunshine to torrential downpours. It was important to make sure the lighting on set was controlled so that the final images would sit well together as a collection, and with this in mind I had my Elinchrom Quadras on hand, which could move easily around the staircases and narrow hall ways without needing to worry about wires and electrical points, especially considering how little access to power we had in that hallway. Using these to counter balance the natural light source from the skylight above, I shot tethered to my MacBook Pro to keep a eye on the images and ensure continuity throughout.

After the shoot, I held a consultation session with Haringtons to confirm the final selections and make retouching notes to take back to the the studio. The images were treated to my signature style of high end retouching, including colour correction, upright transformations, background clean up and skin retouching, before a secondary bespoke retouching process, with a specific focus on the hair, to remove any distracting wisps or stray strands.

Whilst the final collection of images were close ups of the hair for an awards entry, I also made sure to shoot a range of landscape and portrait shots at a variety of focal lengths to allow for multiple uses in the future – going above and beyond as you never know what the client may want from the images at a later date! As it happened, some of these wider shots were later featured in large print format the salon. Here are a few of my favourite images of the female models from both days.