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Show me your best beauty dish shots
Im really struggling with getting a decent image when using a beauty dish with or without a grid on, everything is looking like its purpose was to go on a passport application and generally crud  I know it can produce some great results.... I just don't know how to make it happen Thanks in advance Mar 18 12 04:16 am Link I like to use my dish without a grid or sock. Usually high on camera left, reflector or small softbox low on camera right, and often a hairlight high and in back of model.  Mar 18 12 04:21 am Link I use the dish with a sock and in this shot the light was about 3 feet camera left from the subject.  Mar 18 12 04:30 am Link Do you have an example to post and what you don't like about it? I have just got mine and it is taking some learning. There is a lot of conflicting info out on the internet. Some say 4-6ft for a mola-esque 22" dish is the 'sweet spot' and others 1-2x the dish diameter, then for more coverage do I pull back to 6ft and feather or pull it back further and shoot straight on? I'm trying all this stuff at the moment. Anyway, these were with a 22" silver bowens dish overhead pointing about 25 degrees down. No grid or sock.   Mar 18 12 04:39 am Link Probably 4/5 of my portfolio..  Mar 18 12 04:48 am Link I had a sock with the dish...... But I seem to have misplaced it somewhere, but that's another story  I was using the double diameter of the dish method to set the distance and using the position of the catchlight in the eye to set position...usually 10 or 2 o'clock Compared to the images already posted, I'm waaaaay too embarrassed to show the results I've had, but think passport and you're almost there in terms of boring flatness. Mar 18 12 04:48 am Link These were shot with a 22" white beauty dish. I typically place it about 3' from the model, sometimes with a grid and sometimes without. I have never used the sock.  In this one I used a reflector (low, in front of the model) to fill the shadows.   Mar 18 12 05:10 am Link Thanks David, your shots display a nice sense of drama and the shadow areas are striking, my shots lose all that and become rabbit in the headlight shots. Phil, that's GORGEOUS and the type of shot I'm hoping to achieve through buying the dish but missing the mark badly. Can I ask how it was lit? Mar 18 12 05:38 am Link I tend to prefer strip softboxes or a hard light these days, but here are a couple of older BD images.   Just my $0.02 Ciao Stefano www.stefanobrunesci.com Mar 18 12 05:48 am Link I use mine for more drama - I grown fond of using it with a 30deg grid: 18+ https://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/26926558 Mar 18 12 05:59 am Link bought an 18" last week, this was without anything on it (linked from fb, not sure how it'll look )  x Mar 18 12 07:11 am Link I use a 22" beauty dish often, not only for beauty and fashion, but also for product work, still life and food photography. Here's my most recent beauty set with it... Beauty dish as key for the model shots, background light for botanicals.  You can find many more images using the beauty dish in my port. About 75% of my work involves its use. Mar 18 12 07:18 am Link I have the silver Alien Bees HOBD and a 22" ephoto dish that I painted white inside. I have decided that the silver is mainly good for outdoor shots and much prefer the ephoto dish for studio work. Here's one shot with the silver HOBD that I like:  I think these two were both shot with the silver dish also (I should keep shoot notes!)   The rest are with the white dish.  This one had some fill from an octobox from camera left.  Added some hair lighting on this shot.  Mar 18 12 08:00 am Link 22" beauty dish. Now I love Elinchrom Rotalux Deep Throat, 100cm  Mar 18 12 08:11 am Link Not sure if it's my best but I really like this dramatic Rembrand-like portrait, plus, it shows the beauty dish being used not in its "standard" way. Gridded dish  Mar 18 12 08:13 am Link  Mar 18 12 08:20 am Link Brian Woods wrote: with grid: Mar 18 12 08:38 am Link  Mar 18 12 08:45 am Link Mar 18 12 08:58 am Link WOW, some seriously nice images been posted and some good advice and comments for which I thank you. I've been looking at the light fall and i'm now looking forward to giving the beauty dish another go in the hope of creating something beautiful. Mar 18 12 09:22 am Link  Mar 18 12 09:27 am Link all beauty dish shots, love working with it. i have 3 of differing sizes i use, tend to use it bare  _MG_2377 by JMD_Photography123, on Flickr  _MG_2567 by JMD_Photography123, on Flickr  _MG_2471 by JMD_Photography123, on Flickr  _MG_2667 by JMD_Photography123, on Flickr  b01 by JMD_Photography123, on Flickr  neon by JMD_Photography123, on Flickr Mar 18 12 09:30 am Link All were shot with a 20" Profoto gridded beauty dish.     Mar 18 12 09:39 am Link my guess is that your beauty dish is too far away from your subject. for headshots it works well when it is within your subject's arm's length. However, I also commonly use it from farther away to do full body shots. It may also be too low. Beauty dish works well with butterfly or loop patterns, but it is a fairly hard light (sharper edged shadows) and if it is too close to the camera position you are going to get unflattering highlights on the skin. Mar 18 12 09:53 am Link Some recent commercial work taken with white beauty dish. Remember with any lighting source there is depth of light practice this by using your modelling lamp (if you have one) and experiment with distance of your light source.  Mar 18 12 10:01 am Link This is my latest:  Mar 18 12 11:00 am Link All with the discontinued Paul Buff 22R (white interior) no grid, no sock.    Mar 18 12 11:48 am Link fun with beauty dishes  SB-600 on a 24" w/grid https://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/p … 4#20734574 18+ Mar 18 12 11:49 am Link Unretouched shot I did last week  Main light was BD with grid on. I also had two rim lights with standard reflectors with grids and a silver reflector under model to fill in shadows under the nose. Mar 18 12 11:55 am Link I rarely use just a BD, there is always something else. I think this one was just one BD and a strip behind for the wall.  Mar 18 12 11:59 am Link A lot of the ones in my main port here are with a 33" gridded deep dish (balcar diamond box). Specifically the first two of Vanessa and the ones of Gabriella, are good examples. My avatar also is. Most recent:  Mar 18 12 11:59 am Link        Actually about half of my images were shot with beauty dishes - predominantly the Mola Setti and Euro Mar 18 12 12:01 pm Link Mar 18 12 12:18 pm Link my port is pretty much all beauty dish.. Mar 18 12 12:25 pm Link Thank you all so much for adding images, there's a really diverse spread of images and lighting looks achieved with the beauty dish. I seem to be in a headshot period (as my port shows), so really loving the close up work posted. Thanks, keep em coming with as much or as little detail as you can remember of the shot. Mar 18 12 12:59 pm Link The immense majority of my pictures use a dish, a few with a softer look would be shot with an Elinchrom DT.  Mar 18 12 01:09 pm Link I just posted this in an outdoor thread, but it applies here too. One WL1600 with 20", socked beauty dish, with 1/2 CTO. Camera left, strobe about head height with model (she's 6'1"). About 10:30am in Vegas. Image is straight out of LR3 with just a few tweaks to HSL and white balance.  Mar 18 12 01:20 pm Link I love those last two shots, again these show how versatile the BD can be in the right hands. Mar 18 12 03:34 pm Link Some amazing images shot with the BD guys..... thank you for starting this thread. I'm wondering what BD the OP has compare to the other BD owners that posted their images. I'm also wondering how much post-processing is involved to end with the results shown on your images...Anyone happen to have their images straight out of the camera without post-processing and is willing to post it for comparison and educational reasons OP, my apologies in advance if you think I highjack your thread. Thanks again guys!  Mar 18 12 07:46 pm Link 18+ https://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/27096777 https://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/27096792 Just an Ebay BD with grid it was silver I decided to try it white. Mar 18 12 07:59 pm Link |
