To get the most out of lighting with a beauty dish, place the dish close to
the subject, but remember that the light will fall off quickly around the subject
when used in this manner. Too many photographers have a tendency to place
the dish too far away from their subject and, as a result, the light is too harsh
and specular.Most photographers (myself in-
cluded) avoid photographing models
outdoors during the brightest part of
the day. In this case, however, I set
up a Hensel Integra 500 Pro Plus
monolight fitted with a beauty dish
to help overpower the sun. I also did
my best to position Brittney under-
neath the shade of a tree; although
the tree had sparse foliage, it pro-
vided just enough sunlight to bleed
through and accent the model’s hair.
I also used a longer focal length at
this location to help compress and
blur the background; I knew my
aperture would be small, thus creat-
ing more depth of field that I nor-
mally like. In glamour photography,
the background should only accentu-
ate the model and/or help tell the
story. The palm trees in this image
add tropical flare and their move-
ment helps create some action in the
image. (CAMERA:Canon EOS 5D fitted
with a Canon 70–200mm f/2.8L IS
USM. SETTINGS:148mm effective focal
length,^1 / 200 second shutter speed,
f/16, white balance at 6000K, ISO
100)
TRICKS OF THE TRADE
When photographing women,
opt for a beauty dish with a
white interior. It is much better
than the less forgiving light re-
flected by a silver-lined dish.
Many photographers will also
place a “sock” or white diffused
material over a beauty dish to
soften its more contrasty qual-
ity of light.