When you’re introduced to a photography studio, you’re often shown soft boxes and basic lights with silver dishes.  This equipment is common to every studio and offers the artist the flexibility to create endless varieties of beautiful photographs.  In fact, many stunning portraits and/or fashion images are created with just one light source--often a soft box.  However, it’s time to introduce another great modifier for lighting an image with a single tool—the beauty dish.

 

Beauty dishes help the photographer achieve a variety of “beauty lighting” techniques.  The light is relatively hard and somewhat wide (so it can shape the face).  Another great aspect of this tool is that there is a nice fall-off in light.  The center of the light is brightest, but it falls off at the edges (is less bright).  This feature creates beautiful shadows to sculpt facial features.

 

Beauty dishes are used frequently in fashion photography.  One way to identify their use is to check the catch lights in the eyes of the photographic subject.  With traditional dishes, the highlight will be round with a small darker dot in the center (that’s the source of the light that bounces back into the dish).  It’s possible to put diffusion material on a beauty dish so the light is softer--therefore, you won’t see the dark center but a circular highlight instead.

 

Here are some examples of completed fashion model photographs, along with the lighting set ups for each of the shoots.

 

Copyright © Lindsay Adler

Technical: Canon 5D, Canon 85mm 1.8 lens, f/16 at 1/160, ISO 100 Background Color: White Background Light: One silver dish strobe Distance to Background: 10 feet Hair Light: none Beauty Dish Distance to Subject: 4 feet, centered and angled downward Other tools used: none

 

Copyright © Lindsay Adler

Technical: Canon 5D, Canon 85mm 1.8 lens, f/14 at 1/100, ISO 100   Background Color: Grey Background Light: none Distance to Background: 10 feet Hair Light: none Beauty Dish Distance to Subject: 2 feet, centered and angled downward Other tools used: none  Other notes: This type of light is often referred to as “butterfly lighting,” due to the shadows under the nose and lips.

 

Copyright © Lindsay Adler

Technical: Canon 5D, Canon 85mm 1.8 lens, f/11 at 1/100, ISO 100   Background Color: White Background Light: Two silver dish strobes Distance to Background: 10 feet Hair Light: none Beauty Dish Distance to Subject: 4 feet, centered and eye-level Other tools used: Three white reflectors (foam core) held very close to the face (one on the left, one on the right, and one sitting in the lap of the model). Other notes: This “beauty box” effect is often used in cosmetic ads and is good for softening or eliminating shadows. The closer the reflector boards are to the face, the softer and less apparent the shadows become.

 

 

If you are planning on getting serious about becoming a model photographer or just want to create astounding photos in your own studio, beauty dishes should be added to your equipment list.  Then try the various techniques to enhance and "bring to light" the best features of your subjects.
 

~~~~~~~~~
 

Lindsay Adler is a professional photographer and photo lecturer living in New York and London.  She teaches workshops and classes through her business, Adler Photo Workshops (www.adlerphotoworkshops.com).

She enjoys all types of photography, including fashion, travel, nature, and photojournalism.

 

 

To find other articles by Lindsay, just type her name in the Search Box.

	Apogee Photo Magazine

To Apogee Photo Home Page