Same hair, two different ways of capturing. For years, Hannah Menor, a San Diego-based colorist and stylist, exclusively used her iPhone to capture images of clients for posting on her @hannahdisconnected Instagram page.

“For the longest time I thought they were amazing, until I received my Canon Rebel T6ias an early Christmas gift!” says Menor, a member of our Artist Connective and a MODERN SALON 100. “Mind blown,  life changing. Everything I thought was perfect about my images before suddenly became a game of comparing between the two.” 

Menor, who uses Pulp Riot colors in bright fashion-forward tones, says it’s been difficult to truly capture the essence of her multidimensional color techniques, but with the Canon, versus iPhone, she’s been able to adjust the focal point of the images much better.

“Using my iPhone I always found it extremely hard to capture and focus on color,” Menor says. “Sometimes my iPhone camera captures an almost-blue tint in photos because it isn’t able to focus on how bright the color actually is. Or it can’t handle sun exposure with the actual colors in the hair. My Canon accurately captures color, for the most part—there are times I’ve noticed it cools down the color just a little bit. But it does a much better job capturing the color, detail and softness.” 

Sarai Speer, @theplatinumgiraffe a colorist and educator out of Kansas City, Missouri, agrees! She posted this photo of a group of stylists, two iPhones and a Samsung, and they're all vastly different (she captured this pic with a Canon Rebel T6i, just like Menor uses). "In a 'lighting is everything' world, so is what you shoot your pics on!" she wrote in her Instagram posttalking about this issue. "I am a firm believer that a professional camera shows detail that a phone doesn’t. There are good cameras that don't cost an arm and a leg that are user-friendly."

Speer says she doesn't know "the first thing" about photography but is conquering the camera easily. "I’m not saying you  have to invest in a fancy camera, but for me the devil is in the details and I just can’t capture that on a phone."

PRO TIP: Menor says she always uses her Canon camera in a vertical angle and positions her clients so the hair lays flat to properly the placement and colors. “There are SO many different cameras out there and each does its own thing. I did research and asked numerous stylists what camera they used and how they liked it and how they chose between all of them. I also went to a local store and was the crazy person turning on all the display cameras and playing with them to make sure I made the right purchase. The Canon Rebel T6i is definitely a camera I would recommend. They released a T7i, which captures more pixels, but the T6i does just the trick for me!”

“With the camera, it captures every strand and you can see that it actually looks like hair, so much so that you want to reach out and touch it,” she says. “Keep in mind: Whether you use a cellphone or a camera, you’ll want to get true-to-tone color through appropriate lighting. My favorite source is indirect outdoor natural light.”