I personally have worked with (Coach) Allison on 2 separate occasions in 2023!! First time it was for a week and then the second time it was a day and her knowledge and hard work is stellar to say the least!! If you are truly wanting to take you business to the next level I encourage you to take one of her classes!! You can thank me later!! Love you Coach!! Do Work!!

I had an amazing lighting teacher, PPofA Master photographer and instructor Monte Zucker who I apprenticed with and then assisted as 20 -21 year old back in 1972-74. Back then he didn’t use studio lights just daylight from any north facing window + reflector for formal wedding portraits - with the brilliant marketing theme - Old Master Look - which it was because Rembrandt and Monet used the same north window technique and so did all photography studios before electricity. We did a “setting the scene” ambient light shot of the Synagog during the ceremony and then by pre-arrangement with the Rabbi would bring the bridal party back to reenact the key action with Monte using dual speedlight flash: one always over lens and heads of subject on bracket for centered fill and the key light 45° from nose in front and above to create a mask of highlights on the front of the faces. Monte’s logic for always using that pattern on dark background was to make the FRONT MASK of highlights what contrasted the most to draw and hold the attention of the viewer. We used the same approach at receptions and what made it logistically simple was a ‘thinking outside the box” idea. He couldn’t find a rolling lightstand with a stable narrow base so he just hacksawed the top off a medical IV pole: four compact legs with caster made out of cast steel you could effortless move around with a free hand and aim perfectly just by standing behind it and moving it until the face was seen at 45° oblique then once the light was set walk around to face the subject (short lit full face) the opposite 45° angle (short lit oblique) or all the way around until a perfect ‘split the nose in half) profile with dramatic short lighting was seen. It was ‘slap forehead’ simple once he demonstrated it which he did to thousands of other PPofA pros at State Convention and the PPofA School in Winona. I never shot professionally after Monte because National Geographic offered me a job in its photo lab which better suited my temperament and the desire to work a M-F job with regular hours and paid vacations and wound up managing offset printing for USIA and the US State Department for 28 years. I considered doing portraiture as a post retirement thing - not for the income but to keep busy - and bought set of four Alien Bee lights and a bunch of different modifiers including their beauty dish. I had a finished basement with an 8’ ceiling and what I wound up using the beauty dish for most was centered fill above the camera because it spilled so much light off the ceiling and walls and was at the same time much more compact than a white umbrella which in the same application would work as well in a larger space. Because of my NGS technical background and reading a lot of histories about photography I know how the beauty dish came to be created. It relates to the inverse-square low and how in the 1960s very high contrast full face shots were in vogue for fashion. To get really rapid fall off Butterfly lighting in a full face shots of model the Key light must be very close to the face and above which if using a SB created a hot spot on the forehead. So what you did was aim the ‘hole in the donut’ that plate over the center creates IF THE LIGHT IS VERY CLOSE at the forehead to even out the lighting. But from beyond 18” or so that dark area in the middle fills in and it just become small source which with a lot of spill fill which is ideal in a small studio space with white ceilings and walls most non-pros have. I like to joke that ‘Space is the final frontier’ in lighting of you want precise control. Spill fill in a small room is great of you want overcast day diffuse lighting and shooting white backgrounds, but if shooting on dark backgrounds too much spill from directions you can’t control muddles the modeling the key light is producing why a beauty dish works differently and better as a key light in a dark cavernous pro studio that in your living room. For my home studio in a room 10’ wide I bought flat black sheets from Walmart and hung them over the walls on both sides of the subject because I was getting uncontrollable fill off the walls. My starting lighting pattern for a first time subject was always “butterfly” with dish above as key and med SB on the bottom just below camera to created flat very forgiving SYMMETRICAL lighting. I’d not try to pose subject just have them move around and snap photos of the action. For little kids I’d tell them to make “monster faces”. It was a strategy to 1) get them to relax and not fixate on the camera, and 2) used the centered symmetrical pattern of lighting to evaluate from the playback whether or not their face was symmetrical and looked best full face. If a face is not symmetrical that’s where the combination of an oblique view and 45° from nose key light can trick the eye of the viewer into thinking it is because of the way the human brain will “tunnel” in on the highlighted front which the lighting and pose make look much thinner and symmetrical than full face with center lights 😅

I'd love to know who makes that swivel pin that your light is mounted on.

I really enjoyed this episode. Thank you:)

Great video as always! I’ve noticed several of the usual KZbin photographer presenters are now sponsored by PPA. What’s up with this???

Well done. I often use a beauty dish when photographing children (Older than infants).

What a clear and useful demo. Plan on using for myself and my high school students.

Great presentation, D, M and S. Focused, undistracted Daniel is welcomed from time to time. Earned a subscriber and a like.

I've been enjoying these podcast.

Thank you Daniel. I started watching you during the pandemic, I ate up every video I could find. I feel so much more confident because I learned the fundamentals from you. You are an incredible teacher and photographer. People like yourself and Seth are truly great resources in an era of a lot of gimmicks. Shout out to Marisa who's an amazing professional. Keep these videos coming please. Thanks PPA!

Great info, thank you!

Thank you Marissa, Daniel, Seth Miranda, beatyfull Marissa❣🫵✌🙌

Am I mistaken or is the trend toward collapsible or at least soft beauty dishes. Which do you prefer?

Daniel, you are very lucky having Marisa as a model. She is really very photogenic elegant and has a mysterious beauty. Well done !!! 👍

I learned a lot. Very clear and excellent. Thank you

Good luck doing all that in a real wedding day. I could shoot f1.8 because i can. Oppps over expose. lols!

Yeah Beauty Dish, imma let you finish but Softboxes are the greatest modifier of all time!! Lol all jokes aside, excellent video! Great pacing as well!

Thanks Daniel and Marisa! Always good content. 🇨🇦

Yes this has been very helpful 🙏🏿💪🏿🎉

Great information. Thanks for sharing.

So I was thinking a large softbox for older women who have crows feet and smile lines. The beauty dish is a bit toohard and would highlight those lines, no?

Found you, your studio is new York was fun watching you, I've learned a lot thank you

I love how the fundamentals stays the same. So good for newcomers - for more details move further away and for softness and defused, move it closer. Thanks 🫶🏽

How is it getting double defussed if the light doesn't shoot through both materials?

Always good tutorials. Thanks. Oh, and Marisa is gorgeous.

Love to see you over here, Daniel! Great info, thank you

Marisa is such an inspiring model!

This is so good for PPA. Every portrait photographer should be watching Daniel. He is a master!

White is much more natural and more to MY liking. Thanks for the comparison.

DAN!!!! Good to see you here. Let’s goo!!!!

What software was he using for live capture and photos?

PPA? What happened to Adorama?

First Seth and now also Daniel on PPA videos! Life is good!

Daniel is such a great dude, love how he explains the nuances and the why's of why a light goes somewhere here vs there.

Very cool of PPA to have Daniel do a video. I hope to see more from him.

Beautiful images and studio!

I'm from Trinidad in the West Indies, collecting that data to know those numbers, hhhhmmm, I have never been able to do that to this day, thanks so much for sharing,

Thanks very much for the helpful video. Would you be able to talk through your reasons for using the Camranger 2 and its image transmission to the Ipad. Surely the Canon Connect app should be able to do the same job?

Super awesome images. Thanks for sharing learned alot. Love love love your work ❤❤❤

great interaction and communicating, loved the attention to detail by always recognising the hair positioning, thanks for sharing,

That’s another awesome tutorial Seth (and Ashley of course)! Thanks man!! And yup, love the activation too! 😂

Thanks, you answered all my questions and I find the speedlight worked serprisingly well with the soft box considering the strong ambient light.

WOW!!! THIS WAS DEFENITLEY A THING, you just got my SUB, im sure Tim is a real life Santa, moonlighting as a PPA photographer, im almost lost for words, I have to watch this over and over again, its just so much to take in, thanks for sharing,

Hi Vanessa! Tell me where do you put your microphone? It's not obvious that you have it, but when I hear you, it's obvious that you have it. But where?

wow wow wow again, another eye opener on the many prospects of using one genre to capataise and incorporating another genre, totally awesome perspective, thanks for sharing,

Hey once I found some black card stock and cut like the Batman logo. I tried to do that image to look on the background but it didn’t work. Anya ideas?

This has helped to solve (I think) an issue I have been having and can't wait to try this out with my sports portrait work!!

Simple and inspiring!

Amazing video

I love how Pro Photo just puts their name on every other chinese modifier.