Tangents

Janine vN – using a beauty dish

December 20, 2009

My daughter, Janine. She turned 16 in September, and I have so very few recent images of her. None of which are of professional quality. So I cajoled her into this, since we’re snowed in this afternoon .. and she loved the results. “Facebook profile photo FTW!”

portrait session, using a beauty dish

The image is straight out of camera, aside from healing brush on a few skin blemishes. This is how I had set up my B&W images to look in my Nikon D3 bodies. I still shoot RAW though, so could always go back to the color image. But I like these rich-toned B&W images.

A little more about the lighting:
The main light was with the Profoto beauty dish (B&H), using the Profoto AcuteB 600R power pack (B&H). I used a diffuser sock (B&H) over the beauty dish. The light on the grey backdrop is a Quantum flash, with the usual Q-flash diffuser disc over it .. pointed directly at the backdrop.

The sock over the beauty dish really helps me. It brings in more light into the shadow areas in how it disperses the light differently from the open beauty dish. I’ve read elsewhere that with a sock over the beauty dish you’re essentially no better off than using a softbox of the same size … but I still prefer the look of the ‘socked’ beauty dish over the ‘unsocked’ beauty dish.

1/200 @ f10 @ 200 ISO
Nikon D3; Nikon 105mm f2.8 AF-S VR (B&H)

photography books by Neil vN

Amazon USA

Amazon UK

newsletter / forum / workshops & seminars

Stay informed of new articles via the monthly newsletter.
Also join us on the Tangents forum for further discussions.

If you need more direct help or instruction on flash photography,
I do present workshops & seminars and also offer individual tutoring sessions.

If you find these articles interesting and of value, then you can help by
using these affiliate links to order equipment & other goodies. Thank you!

20 Comments »

As you said, the equip you used is premium to get the result you want. Under 1/200 @ f10 did you swtich off the VR? Is it affecting the image quality ?
Interesting part is nobody (photographers)taking their family photos at all. my wife always figting for it but no use..

Comment by rafiayub — December 20, 2009 @ 11:26 pm
rafiyub, no, I kept the VR on. I can’t imagine the image being any sharper, so don’t think keeping the VR on had any adverse effect.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil — December 20, 2009 @ 11:52 pm
So is your daughter a fan of “Dr. Horrible’s Song-along Blog” by chance? ;-)

I do try and take family photos, though the formal everyone smile for the camera was a lost cause long ago. I do attempt the “I’ll bring the camera along for the interesting activity event we are going to”, and this usually works out a lot better.

Comment by Niels — December 21, 2009 @ 4:55 am
Yup, and a huge fan of How I Met Your Mother as well – specifically Barney Stinson.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil — December 21, 2009 @ 6:01 am
Found your site last week. Fantastic photos and amazing advice. Possibly one of the best sites I’ve come across for willingness to explain and the easy to understand way you do it. Love the photo of your daughter.

Can I ask 2 questions. If you turn up at a brides house for example and the walls are painted red or blue or orange, etc, what do you do. Do you just use bounce flash anyway and fix any colour cast on the computer, or do you have someone with an umbrella or softbox? Is the colour cast actually as big an issue as some people suggest. Secondly, I just bought a Canon 7D and 580EX. Is there a different technique when using the wireless TTL with off camera flash, or can the camera still determine the flash output correctly. I haven’t come across you mentioning this at all. Any advice much appreciated. Just off to order your book now…cheers Roddy

Comment by Roddy Cameron — December 21, 2009 @ 7:15 am
Roddy .. that’s a topic I haven’t covered in depth yet, and is worthy of a seperate article here. So check back in the next few weeks.

Re wireless TTL flash, in theory you shouldn’t have to adjust the FEC differently than if you had just on-camera flash .. but in practice there might be a difference. I know that with the Nikon wireless TTL system, I have to push the FEC a bit to get the same exposure. It’s one of those check-and-adjust things though.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil — December 21, 2009 @ 8:05 am
Love this shot! So much character!! Ohhhh I can relate to kids not wanting to pose. My kids hate it – especially my 17 son. Your daughter makes a great model! Love her expression, beautiful complexion and great hair!!

Comment by Kathy Marciante — December 21, 2009 @ 9:15 am
She really is beautiful! Love this shot

Comment by Jeanette — December 21, 2009 @ 10:56 am
Neil,
Is your daughter a fan of steampunk? That genre has been gaining popularity recently.

–Stephen

Comment by Stephen — December 21, 2009 @ 11:20 am
Nice pic! But where the hell you found such goggles? I’ looking for similar ones for ages! ;)

Comment by Jack — December 21, 2009 @ 1:37 pm
Stephen .. yup, my daughter loves the steampunk genre, but also much of the Sci-Fi and Fantasy genre. And of course, she is a huge Anime fan. Her haircut is based on that of one of her favourite anime character – Ritsuka.

Jack .. she bought the goggles at an Anime convention. Someone who had a stall there were selling these hand-made goggles. When you look closely at the pair in your hands, you can clearly see that it was sturdily hand-made and not mass-produced. Unfortunately she didn’t keep a business card of the vendor.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil — December 21, 2009 @ 3:09 pm
Hi Neil
Thanks for the post. I have been looking around for info about beauty dish but there is so much random info all over.
Can you please provide more info if possible such as – Why beauty dish over softbox, Do we have to use the same light heads as the brand of the dish (eg profoto in this case.)Do we need to use grid with this dish.

Thanks in advance.
-MP

Comment by Mohanpreet Singh — December 21, 2009 @ 5:17 pm
Mohanpreet .. this article (and the others) are part of me still exploring the use of a beauty dish, and the look that it gives. So you can expect more articles in the coming months, including a comparison between a beauty dish and a softbox.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil — December 21, 2009 @ 10:13 pm
She has such beautiful eyes. Everything in the photo is about her eye, very fine! The lighting is quite perfect for the photo.

I’m enjoying your book.

Comment by Corinne — December 22, 2009 @ 12:46 am
Thank you everyone for the lovely compliments about my daughter, and this photograph. : )

Neil vN

Comment by Neil — December 22, 2009 @ 10:14 pm
Outstanding work Neil. Nothing like a new fallen snow to bring the family together. For me, the background work makes this picture really sing. The hard transition from light to dark makes her really pop.

As an aside — Where do the years go?

Comment by Ty M — December 22, 2009 @ 11:08 pm
Neil,
it would be great if you could post an article on resizing/sharpening images for the web. It may be a very short post..but would be very useful.
Also, since you are the only photographer i know who uses both Canon and Nikon actively, a post detailing your preferences between the two systems would be great as well..I’ve noticed that you use the Nikon system a lot during weddings..any particular reason?

Thanks

Comment by Derryl — December 23, 2009 @ 11:33 am
Derryl .. I’ll add the resizing / sharpening article to the growing list of future articles here. : )

As for Canon vs Nikon, it’s a topic I really want to steer clear of for the most part, since it is a divisive topic, and the majority of the material on this website is meant to be system non-specific. I want the material to be accessible to anyone with a D-SLR.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil — December 24, 2009 @ 12:23 pm
First of all, let me just say I love this shot! The dramatic lighting works so well with that teenage attitude. Second I am very impressed with the quality of your B&W image straight off the camera. I have never tried shooting directly to B&W on my D700, I always convert to B&W later in Photoshop. After seeing how good this image looks I am definitely going to play with those camera settings this weekend. Thank you for sharing this shot and the details of how you took it!

Thanks,

Laura

Comment by Laura — December 24, 2009 @ 1:35 pm
Laura,

To get this nice crisp contrasty B&W with my my NikonD3, I set:
– Picture Control to Monochrome,
– Contrast to the 2nd block above the zero,
– Brightness to + (which is the block above the zero),
– Filter Effects to ‘Orange’, and
– Toning to Sepia, 1.

It should work the same way on the Nikon D700, and probably the same on the Nikon D300.

As mentioned though, I still shoot in RAW mode, so that I have the leeway to change my mind afterwards.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil — December 24, 2009 @ 9:30 pm