Lessons

Lesson Info

Shoot: Beauty Dish

and we have a beauty this year and what is it with you it's the pro photo and I want I want you to toe look out the side view of this thing my stringy things going down the weird part of my back your microphone my mic cable um it's flat back here then it curves than it has this little lip this lip is really important for beauty dish it's what confines the light at the edge um they were originally called pan lights back in the day on movie sets they would actually be looked looked like a giant frying pan and what it was designed for was to present a very flat wide round light in close for the shots of the starlets that bring those things in very close and can you imagine a five thousand watt light in a frying pan this close to the models or the stars wow I mean that was making movies was it was hard work I can guarantee you when I fired up my five k's in the studio it would raise the temperature really you could put him on and twenty minutes later you could turn the heater off in the wi...

ntertime they would heat the place up it's amazing we have a grid in this beauty dish and I won't swing it around so the guys and get a shot of the grid the grid is going to keep the light more focused it doesn't let the light spill out so much and it's just something that I've recently started playing with his are the grids always use my beauty dishes without grids I own six beauty dishes yes I'm a beauty dish junkie right I have a norman beauty dish which was the very first one I ever bought I love it because it's very long and flat I have a uh uh pro photo beauty dish I have what I'm going to forget the name of it mola mola thank you have a mole beauty dish I have a photo photo die ox beauty dish which is a silver on the inside real bright silver I don't use it with the silver actually put a sock on it it becomes a round soft box at that point I really really liked the light and then I bought another dish photo dioxin spray paint the inside of it matt white so I could go back to my white I think the silver's to speculate early for my my face is so this this's a grid and I've just got a grid for the mullahs and the and the pro photo so I've got this this the same one here that's only two grades I have but I kind of liked the grid because it focuses the light keeps the light from spreading out so if I was here without the grid I'd be lit with here I'm lit because I've got to go right through that grid so let's bring that right straight over her this causes a great deal of fall off light falls off a lot all right beauty dish is not only the tool it's the look beauty dish is the look and the look is a semi sharp shadow right under the chin and a little one under the nose that's a beaut dish look that's why when someone says can I do the same thing with silver umbrella no because you'll wrap it under the nose what can I do the same thing with an umbrella inverted so shoot through no because then you have a hot spot lights falling away a beauty dish gives a specific beauty dish look to it and when I talk about beauty dish I'm talking aboutthe look more than I'm talking about the tool okay so that is oh eight eight maybe around sixteen right what I'm gonna do something bring that down until it's just above her head here nice and bright huh sixteen shots you can't see for a week down just a little bit more little bit more that perfect I want this down as low as possible I'm sculpting a little shadow under her nose and a little shadow under her chin on dh since my batteries back up okay and eleven some is good you can see what this beauty dish now just like I did with the over and under clamshell I'm not going to side like this we will bring those two cards up guys so we can see what it looks like with but I'm not going to side light it because I want this like to present like a beauty dish beautiful that's presenting like a beauty dish beautifully good right there all right check it out now you're going to say wait a minute don't what happened why is the background not lit up we created this there's no light from this job hitting that background member when you were using soft boxes and and umbrellas there was light getting to that background this light's coming out of this grid it's hitting and gone nothing hitting that wall if I stand back to the wall here like this and I look this way I can't even see the light of a beauty dish because the grid hides it from me take the grid off get a little spilled we'll do it afterwards yes do it afterwards we'll get a little spill but with the grid we've controlled it what do you think of that fun isn't it have you seen that shot before fashion magazines beauty magazines sure you have that's your grits that's your your beauty this shot right there come this way the bit with the face right there okay now rule number two no I talk I talk about there are no rules we don't need no stinkin rules right there is a kind of a rule of the beauty dish kind of a rule number one I have rarely seen any photographer used a beauty dish for a beauty dish not for a light okay and there's a difference I go to the beach I'm gonna take this beauty dish to the beach because it's steel it's not going to invert in the wind it's not going to blow away down steal but I might be using it all the way over there because at that point I'm just using a light I just need a light ah beauty dishes two times the diameter of the dish that's it you move it back up here it's just the light okay rule number one rule number two I've never seen it being used as a beauty dish anywhere but access when you start taking it off access you've got a whole different shot I'm gonna move to one side and take a different shot you're not gonna like it and she's got such a great face he'll probably turn out fine and I'll stand here looking like an idiot but okay I'm an idiot all right so we'll deal with that now it looks it looks pretty good but I let's put it this way doesn't look like a beauty dish anymore not to make it looks more like a like a fairly hard light when you present the light right straight to the face back to me right here right there that's it right right there you come right straight to the face then it presents to me like a beauty dish I love having it right over access to the camera that's shadow under the chin that's the present yeah I'm seeing that light is a little bit forward instead of it hitting dead center on her face it looks like this might be one of those situations where the feathering is coming into I'm actually putting the centre of it right in the center is because I wanted if I don't want it to be blasting on her forehead or on her face and then it would fall off too much on the chest so I need to keep her lip right in here the beauty dish doesn't have a hot spot in the middle okay so if this was a regular light the hot spot would be in here but there is no hot spot on the beauty dish that's why the design of it is that the whole thing is even if I took a reading across the fun of this dish they would be even so it's like a big round flat light by the called him pan lights back in the day all right just a few shots and we will just just for me come back to me right here right there it's beautiful guys let's put the cards up so they can see what the cards do you see how the light presents on the face the face drops off right gives us modeling right we can see that the face is got texture and dimension to it not maybe not texture dimension that's a beautiful look there beautiful look all right let's bring those up and kind of scoop a mental a bit closer to her right there it's a great addition might make might not tell you it makes a bit of a difference right there thank you all right you can see what the what these do they're going to kind of get rid of that kerb off of fact and we end up with a bit of a flatter face and yes I'm over exposing this a little bit because I want to bring her face up want that that uh yeah you see what it's doing to the years little bit more edge light down those than before I prefer the beauty dish only that's my preference okay guys let me get a couple more shots of her and we'll let you know okay dear you gonna hang around him with us through afterwards alright good beautiful shut up a little bit twist away from me just a little with her right there thank you just a little more they're beautiful right there and part the lips thank you thank you very much wasn't she great thank you so much all right and briana wow let's light up these two guys were gonna do a three point lighting such shot here on briana will be wrapped with the shooting spring you out okay we're gonna put briana and the same beauty dish light right here right come forward a bit right there and then we're gonna bring these guys in in we're gonna three point lighter where we don't have any light on the sides of eliza she's going back and isn't that pretty by the way that lovely the black the texture and her face and you notice how that grated spot has just given us a little bit on the bottom there look behind her arm it's got a little bit of stuff uh guys was probably gonna have to come in because I want these the's a stop brighter than this you want to okay yeah I want to stop brighter than this sorry back up just a little bit right there breathe just maybe have stepped back good and brett that way let's see yeah who you guys are good yes um absolutely absolutely I'm gonna take this down about we're on somehow I moved to five six I'm going to take it down to eight to one more test shot that's what I want right there ok what we've done now is we brought bring the one on the left john in towards me a little bit more and more edged onto her more edge it on to her let me more right there same thing on this side and edged on her great what we're doing now is what a three point lighting system basically one to the front to from back on the sides so we get this sort of kind of kind of fun uh edge to the light on the sides of her and we still have the beauty dish presentation to the face so even though there's light everywhere we still have the face presented with shadow ok wait right there and you've seen this kind of lighting before is well now you notice where we have these two umbrellas if I come to the side a bri look right straight forward like like you're shooting african decide obree this one is behind bree that one can go back just about six inches john thank you yeah it's still not forward a cousin of problems yeah I don't want this umbrella to be up here because I don't want this umbrella to light up our nose she's got to be in front of that enough to not lie to her nose question khun b well can I use soft boxes they're absolutely can you use strip lights they're absolutely it's anything you want I like be umbrellas cause I like the way they present to the side good beautiful chin up a little bit right there come down all right and we got it simple too right what you guys to do one other thing that we're gonna be done block off these these umbrellas from the wall with the two black cards please flag him off since lighten up my wall we're gonna flag those off and not let him hit the wall all right that's good breath see brett go go toward your own grow a little bit brett right there good you can appeal but bring right with your right there good thanks guys you could see what we've done we've hidden that light from the wall see the set that we're working with it's our set we control where that light goes when I hear someone so umbrellas spill light everywhere only if you let him only if you don't do anything they were spelling light we took care of the spilling light moved it up now it's a very modern kind of look you like that can we do it was speed lights sure absolutely maybe have to bump the s a little bit maybe have tto do whatever I think it's west got that makes a couple of little small strip lights for speed lights that work out very well it's absolutely great so you go with it alright that's beauty dish thank you bree very good all right let's have a seat over here you want to show you yeah that's good idea probably little this's why we call it a grid is this it's a honey comb and because if it's ah it's honey comb if I look straight through you I see you but if I looked to the side it starts getting dark over there right that's the same way with the light passes right through the middle but as it gets to the side it starts getting darker because it's happened go sideways through the grids so it creates us a pool of light that soft on the break up different than like a snoot would do yeah you dish still work without the greater is that oh yeah I use it I use it without the grid as well as I've always used it without the grid grid something new for me I've just started playing with that really in the last year year and a half and my norman I don't shoot with the grid I don't shoot my moola with grit so way good I'm sorry I don't shoot my forward acts with the great white told you it wasn't a sitting around workshop didn't I thank you tomorrow tomorrow we will have you you guys be shooting we're going to make sure everybody gets a shot eh so I can work with you is one thing I really love about my workshops I always keep really small amounts of people we limited to ten people to a workshop so that I get a chance to work with you and you make the shots I become your sort of first assistant helping you make the shot so be ready for that tomorrow any questions on what we did just now uh question from snapped hurdle even if you don't show it can you explain the quote unquote wall of light the wall of a light that was the three that's the three or four umbrellas right around the camera that we did yes um the whole idea of the wall of the there we go I need to get back to beginning here holding this I can only do one thing and one time my brain only just you know um the idea of the wall of light is we bring the light right from the camera it kind of came about you know you think about a ring light which is the light right around the lens and what we did was we provided a larger amount of light around the lands uh with the three umbrellas I've done it with three and I've done it with four the fourth umbrella goes where under so now you have four there are some fun little quirky videos that lighting essentials dot com fighting dash essential dot com that'll show you it in use as well as as of course we did it today um but the idea is to present a very cohesive set of light coming right from the camera thank you one more question for months to wings uh would you use the beauty dish style of lighting for men I have um I have you know I have been only shooting men now for about a year I shot women for thirty five years and I have recently I don't have expanded but um I have no desire to go out and take pictures of girls on some suits anymore don I want rather shoot real people doing real people things so maybe it's just an evolution in my career but um I have not shot a big addition on a man not because I wouldn't but I haven't yet so for men I'm probably soft box umbrellas and strip lights lately I've been doing a lot of strip lights on guys I like that you saw the shot oven audi with the two strip lights to the side really like that look on guys and a question from a br photo I noticed that don seems to shoot mainly with this last situation at pretty small apertures like faa in eleven can you explain why you weren't using wider ones like two point because those pro photos don't get on that low right yeah I would have I would love to shoot it two point eight but the's strobes don't go down that low and we were using too much light too much life yeah we're really at about the point with that duty edition that close uh is john around wait for brett you were pretty much down as low as we go on those pro photos so that was it so as low as it went with that beauty dish taking that strobe light at the distance I like the beauty dish and remember that's the the trade off right yeah I can done two point eight if I put the beauty dish way over here then it's not a beauty dish anymore so to keep it that that's exactly why we were as low as we go