Photography News Issue 42

Photography News | Issue 42 | absolutephoto.com

Technique 56

Lighting Academy Dishof theday Giving a soft but sculpted look somewhere between a regular reflector and a softbox, beauty dishes are beloved by portrait photographers. Here we’ll take a look at them, as well as feathering techniques

Words & pictures by Kingsley Singleton

So far in these Lighting Academy techniques we’ve looked at lots of ways in which using different modifiers can create beautifully lit portraits.Andwe’ve lookedat howtheposition and power of your lights can create different looks. This time, we’ll combine the two, using a beauty dish and feathering techniques, to create a stylish image. They don’t come as standard accessories, like the softboxes and brollies supplied with most flash kits, but beauty dishes are an indispensable upgrade for portrait photographers, creating a refined, soft and sculpted look that’s beloved by pros and enthusiasts alike. Like all modifiers, this comes from the shape and materials used in their construction. What is a beauty dish? A beauty dish is like a regular reflector but shallower in shape, and within the middle sits a deflector. Thanks to the latter, light from the bulb reflects off the deflector into the parabolic dish, at once diffusing and focusing it. The light creates deeper shadows than a softbox, but with a soft transition, so it’s great for sophisticated low-keyportraits and fashion work. The deflector in the construction also means that you can use a beauty dish closer to the subject than a softbox without getting overexposed highlights. The shape gives distinctive catchlights, too. Setting up To start off, we found a simple but interesting backdrop (a slightly reflective, striped curtain) and positioned Emma in front of it, but not too close, allowing some greater control of the fall off of light behind. Next I set up a single Elinchrom BRX 500 light on a stand directly in front of her, and angled it down by about 30°, so it was directed squarely at her face. The light was then fitted with an Elinchrom 44cm Softlite reflector beauty dish. This comes with a deflector set, allowing you to change the deflector in the middle and modify the colour

Dish with grid and fill light

and softness of the light, and I chose the white deflector for the softest look. Metering the light, at f/11, ISO 100 gave me a power setting of 2.5, which on the BRX 500 heads is a little over 1/16. After a few test shots to assess the effect though, it was obvious that the lighting was too broad for what I wanted. Feathering the beauty dish At this point you can either switch to a modifier that will restrict the light further or use feathering to control what parts of the scene or subject are lit by it. Rather than switch straight away, I tried the former, angling the light downwards so that less of it would fall on the backdrop.

There was an immediate improvement, but it’s important to remember, too, that you’ll need to check the power of the light (or your exposure) after moving it. After re-metering, the power needed to be increased very slightly to deal with some fall off of light at the edges of the beauty dish’s circle of light. However, the lighting was still a bit too broad. Adding a grid To get a much more restricted look to the light, I switched the 44cm Softlite reflector for Elinchrom’s 44cm Square reflector and Grid set (you canget a grid to fit the Softlite reflector, too). This reflector has a removable grid on the front, so it serves two purposes; without

You can either switch to a modifier that’ll restrict the light further or use feathering

Beauty dishes and grids

In the pictures on the right you’ll see how adding a grid to the beauty dish lessens the throw of light onto the background, and, compared to the main image, how the shadows benefit from using a low-powered fill light. In the far-right pic, you can clearly see the effect that using a beauty dish has on the catchlights in Emma’s eyes.

Above The culmination of this shoot saw us using an Elinchrom 44cm Square Reflector and Grid Set. Thanks to its internal deflector, this offers a similar look to a regular beauty dish, and the removable grid easily let us control the spread of light onto the curtained background.

Dish with no grid or fill light

Beauty dish catchlights

Dish with grid, no fill light

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