Why the Beauty Dish Still Reigns Supreme in Portrait Photography

[@Blestyr]

This is the kind of education photographers need. No nonsense, directly to the point, and objective. Thank you Karl!

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Thank you.

[@josephchan4198]

Awesome videos!! I have adapted some of the product photography and Portraits. Thanks.

[@Jwitherow1964]

This is my #3 time watching this. Now I have the para 88 teacher Carl teach! Thanks

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Glad it was helpful!

[@RS-Amsterdam]

The undefeated Master of Ligthing🏆 Thanks for sharing the wisdom.

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Thanks RS

[@capturemeinpictures]

Karl, Thank you for the fantastic instructional video! Question: Many of my clients are retired seniors who want to minimize their wrinkles. For those individuals, is there still a case where a beauty dish would be preferred to a softbox? Thank you, Steve

[@VisualEducationStudio]

No problem thank you. Probably not, if we're talking retired seniors then an Octabox 150cm close to the subject will be more flattering but interestingly true parabolic modifiers such as the Para 133 fill in wrinkles really well. Take a look at this free app that we have to make comparisons: visualeducation.com/lighting-comparison-tool/

[@josephchan4198]

I always look forward to refresher courses. Thanks.

[@IkarianPictures]

Thank you Karl for your knowledge and wisdom. Also for showing examples and your set ups.

[@VisualEducationStudio]

No worries glad it was helpful. Also remember our free lighting comparison tool here visualeducation.com/lighting-comparison-tool/

[@emperor.augustus]

always a pleasure to watch and learn from you Karl.

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Thank you.

[@tommynikon2283]

FANTASTIC results, per usual. I’ve never worked around paint flying; this video explains why! Love your stuff Karl- great concepts, great post work.

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Thanks 👍

[@miguelurzua7230]

Always the best explanations! Thank you! Do you ever use the beauty dish with its grid or its diffusion sock?

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Hi, with the diffussion sock it becomes a round softbox but I never use the grid unless I was working in a really tight space and I needed to avoid light spill, the grid essentially removes most of the qualities that the beauty dish can provide.

[@Sooch900]

Excellent video packed with tons of great info! Thank you! Question if I may? Would you ever use a beauty dish on male subjects (portraits) let’s say rugged looking or older? If not what is your favorite modifier for those situations?

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Yes, absolutely male portraits no problem with a beauty dish.

[@josephchan4198]

Hope to see more classes during the fall. Thanks.

[@RalfWeyer]

What a great video with tons of useful information, explanations and examples. Thank you very much 👍. One question, would you ever use a beauty dish more from one side to get one side slightly darker for more 3 dimensionality, or doesn’t this work well?

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Hi, I use it slightly off axis occasionally for example if you want the nose and lip shadows to run slightly to one side or if the model has a slight turn to the head.

[@jaredwolfe8438]

Silver is under-utilized by most modern photographers. Most just use octaboxes or large umbrellas with diffusers. I think it just takes a little more skill to make silver modifiers look good. Without some good fill or bounce silver can be a bit harsher and more contrasty. But with proper fill silver just gives a nice extra pop to the highlights that makes things sparkle a little extra without getting your mid-tones overexposed.

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Totally agree with that.

[@siebenburguer]

Great video! Thank you for this educational video! Any comments about those foldable "beauty dish", can be considered as true beauty dish? Is there any differences?

[@VisualEducationStudio]

They aren't really beauty dishes as they don't created the same peripheral light or directional light.

[@bobtronic73]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Very educational!

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Martinmkp]

Great video Karl 👍 Beautydish is one of my favorite modifiers for fashion and beauy photography. Recently, however, I have been discovering more and more the beauty of the classic Fresnel reflector. Do you ever use Fresnel?

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Hi, yes I regularly use the fresnel, I have small ones and a big one.

[@chad.westover]

At 0:30, is that beauty dish assembled wrong? Shouldn't the light blocker plate be curved toward the flashtube instead of away from it?

[@Kropi01]

Thank you for sharing! I also like my beauty dish. However, I find the light at the edges sometimes too hard. When you look into the dish from an angle, you can directly see the bulb. So the light at the face might be soft, but lower on the hands it is direct light from the flash. Is there a work-around?

[@VisualEducationStudio]

It would be unusual for the subject to be able to see the direct light. You may have the distance or reflector setup incorrectly. The subject should never be able to see the direct light from the flash.

[@Kropi01]

@@VisualEducationStudio Thank you for your reply! Maybe I was a bit unclear: Of course, the person itself it not seeing the direct light. But when you look from the perspective of the hand (so much lower then the face) you see the direct flash. That means, the flash shines directly on the hand (with minimum modifier)... That results in very hard shadows and high contrast on the hand

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Hi check out our results in our modifier comparison app and take a look at the head shot and full length options, we can't see the same problem occuring with ours even lower down the body? Although for the full length ones the beauty dish would have been a little further away than for a head shot - visualeducation.com/lighting-comparison-tool/ but I'm not sure why you're getting that with yours, maybe the reflector is too far away from the flash tube?

[@berniemac7777]

I've seen some soft boxes with an optional disk/plate. To convert it into a beauty dish. Can you simply use a turn a softbox into a beauty dish by adding a metal plate?

[@VisualEducationStudio]

No as a true beauty dish conforms to a specific shape (a small portion of a full parobola). That shape reflects light from a point in a specific way (this only works on a shiny silver surface too). The beauty dish I was showing here also creates (as they all should) a peripheral lighting edge that wouldn't be achieved with any softbox that I'm aware of. It's worth noting that a beauty dish, although very sculpting as a lighting modifier it is not as effective a true full parabolic reflector as also shown in this video.

[@berniemac7777]

@@VisualEducationStudio thanks for sharing. A lot of people are being fooled by marketing gimmicks. A fellow photographer told me he had a beauty dish but it looked more like a softbox. He said it was beauty dish because of the metal plate, which was hidden behind the diffusion layers. I was a bit confused.

[@alanvandever9683]

Always a pleasure.

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Thanks!

[@totoosarts]

As always, very helpful and insightful, as always, very grateful for your kindness and sharing what you have gained through the years and that you are so generous to share for free :) bless your heart, may the Lord give you more power and all the beautiful things you desire :)

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Thank you but health and happiness is all I think we should wish for!

[@totoosarts]

@@VisualEducationStudio any beautiful thing your heart desires, health and joy is the least I pray and hope for you. The Lord is kind and loving to the loving and kind people like you, dear sir. Bless your heart 🥂

[@mrgreen6221]

Very very educational. Thank you

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Very welcome

[@kenlor71]

Now I'm inspired to add the silver 70cm to my 55cm in white.

[@cjk1943]

❤ great video

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Thank you.

[@CC-wr7zo]

Is it much better to a silver ambrella ? Thank you.

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Yes

[@Santafefashionweek]

Great information

[@66xtopher]

The problem with beauty dishes, they do leave specula highlights on the cheeks and forehead. Maybe this is why soft boxes are more popular? They do have a flatter look, but they tend to eliminate these hotspots. I think a good make up, artist can also help by using a matte face primer.

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Hi, yes good make up can help tremendously but the key reason why people have issues with specular highlights from beauty dishes or even softboxes is because they are placing them too far from the subject. Specular highlights are image forming reflections of the light source itself, the reflectivity exposure remains the same whereas diffused reflection exposure change based on the distance of the light source. Therefore as you move the light closer and have to reduce the exposure in camera then the specular reflections are reduced significantly. The effect can be most clearly seen in the highlight reflection in the subjects eye, if you use a softbox at a distance and have the correct exposure on the skin the highlight in the eye will be bright, if you repeat the same but with the softbox just 10cm from the subject and obtain the correct exposure for the skin then the catchlight/highlight in the eye will be barely visible. We cover this strategy in depth on our platform and on this page you can see the effects of the highlight in the eye being greatly reduced, the same physics apply to any glossy object including glossy skin: visualeducation.com/class/studio-lighting-setups-portraits-one-light-setup-21/

[@66xtopher]

@@VisualEducationStudio thank you for the explanation. I had viewed the video in your example, but I had forgotten the information and now is a lot more relevant.However, does this mean that with full lengths portraits where the lights are at some distance from the subject then there’s going to be more chance of specula highlights? I have however, found a technique, the solid colour adjustment layer and splitting the sliders to help out with the highlights blending in with skin tone. I noticed from your recent re-touch live that you suggested a more natural look is now acceptable, and some highlights or hair can remain, which is interesting and I guess personal choice on which ones you want to remove or keep? Despite what people say about frequency separation, I think it’s still a good technique to even out the skin tones.

[@VisualEducationStudio]

If you watched the part one on the retouch of a members image then you will be very interested in part 2 where I further work on the frequency seperation layers and reduce contrast on the high frequency layer alone with curves and then mask - very effective for reducing 'texture' shine look.

[@66xtopher]

@@VisualEducationStudio I was awaiting Part 2.

[@AdurianJ]

i don't like the beauty dish but i love the Elinchrom 41cm maxilite with a hammered interior surface.

[@piotrgorajek1289]

'can get white beauty dishes too' I've always heard that BD is only white and if silver it's just called a reflector

[@Bob4golf1]

thx!

[@loozerid]

These are all static lights not flash?

[@VisualEducationStudio]

These are all studio lights the flash is part of the studio light

[@kapamk]

А можно вопрос? ... на 10:37 минуте: зачем у рыжеволосой девушки в зеленом платье эти яркие белые блики на левом и правом плечах? Очень контрастный и яркий свет!!! Смысл?

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Hi that is from the hair light shining from above to light the top of the hair. If you preferred it not to be on the shoulders then you could choose a tight honeycomb grid to restrict the lighting just to the hair.

[@Jwitherow1964]

I am pissed off at KZbin, I have been watching photography videos now for 5 years, and KZbin has just now shown me your channel?

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Yes we find that equally frustrating and of course wish that we'd get more exposure. Some of our videos we put a huge amount of work into too like this one: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iaSvm4B8a9N9q9Usi=mHSyZFM2rh9h_Mpz

[@deathbyvideo1620]

Right?! Same here!

[@dexteroiio]

You are wrong, this is Wok pan

[@nicocastillo2099]

Some 2000-era work here.