If you've had a chance to look through my portfolio, you may have noticed that I frequently use a 3-light setup-especially when shooting for composites. Reason #1 - It's Essential to My Standard 3-light Setup It wasn't always this way, but through lots of experimentation over the years shooting bands & musicians, I've come to the conclusion that a beauty dish is often the best tool for the job. This is because moving this beauty dish any distance from your subject will result in really hard light that you might find unflattering to most subjects.Of all the light modifiers in my toolbox, the one I reach for most frequently (by far) is a beauty dish. However, if you want to increase it, you are better off with a larger modifier. If you want to reduce light fall off as much as possible, this size is definitely the way to go. The harder light source also provides clearly defined edges between shadows and highlights but in a flattering manner. This beauty dish clearly lights and defines your subject’s eyes. You can see in the images just how battered and well-used it is.īecause it is quite small, it is easy to control and great to bring in really close to your subject. This is the size that I have used the most ever since I bought it well over a decade ago. This last beauty dish is 16-inches in diameter. You’ll also note the light wraps around the subject less and results in darker shadows toward the back of the subject’s head. The 20″ beauty dish also provides good, soft light but the edges of the transitions from shadow to highlight are more defined. As the beauty dish isn’t a great deal bigger than your average subject’s head (from an appropriate distance), you also have good control over the light fall off, and you have even more control when you introduce a grid. Instead, opt for large softboxes and umbrellas. It is great for male and female subjects, though for flattering portraits of older people you may want to consider not using a beauty dish. Placed a few feet (1-4) away from your subject, the qualities of light it produces are great for all sorts of portraiture and for a wide variety of subjects. This is pretty close to what may be considered a standard size for a beauty dish (if there is such a thing). The second beauty dish we’re going to discuss comes in at 20 inches. It is also harder to control the light fall off (without a grid) as the bigger source will cast more light behind your subject. If you want bright, clear eyes, a smaller beauty dish may be the way to go. The bigger the light source is in relation to your subject, the less bright your subject’s eyes are going to be. There are a couple of disadvantages to a beauty dish this big. Pay attention to the shadow and highlight transitions as well as to how the light wraps around the subject.
The 27″ beauty dish provides really soft light when placed in close. This beauty dish would also be great for lighting multiple people, whereas smaller dishes might struggle. It also provides large catchlights in your subject’s eyes.īecause of its size, it’s easy to bring the light further away from your subject to achieve a similar effect to that of smaller beauty dishes, while giving you more room to work. When it’s in close, the light it provides is really soft and is comparable to a medium-sized softbox, but with a bit more contrast to it. 27″Īt 27-inch in diameter, this beauty dish is at the upper reaches of what you can expect to find in terms of size. These are a 27″, 20″ and 16″.Īll three beauty dishes were positioned the same distance from the subject to clearly demonstrate the differences in the effect they provide. This article compares three sizes that fall more into the normal sized category. You can find tiny beauty dishes that are only a few inches across that are designed for flashguns and you can find massive beauty dishes that would be ideal for lighting groups of people. Any search for a beauty dish should reveal a huge amount of results these days.