[ all images: Nikon D3; Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 AF-S VR; Profoto beauty dish ]
During these icy winter months it’s just too much to go outside for portrait photography, so it’s a good time to play around indoors with some lighting gear – in this case, a recently acquired Profoto AcuteB 600R lighting kit (B&H) and the Profoto beauty dish (B&H).
I wanted a lighting setup that could deliver more power than the Q-flashes that I mainly use, and the Profoto AcuteB 600R setup appears to be a great choice – reliable high-quality equipment. This specific battery-powered flash pack delivers a very respectable 600 W/s which would be enough juice to overpower sunlight, even when using a large softbox. And that’s the reason I bought this – to use for on-location photography where I need a good amount of flash power in a very portable setup.
I was also curious about using a beauty dish- a much praised piece of lighting gear, which provides a distinctive light. So here is a first foray into using the beauty dish for some simple headshots of my model, Kathy. (The third image here had a 25′ honeycomb grid in front of the beauty dish for more directional light.)
My initial impression is that the beauty dish is less flexible than say a softbox, requiring fairly specific positioning of the light in relation to the model. Or conversely, specific positioning of the model in relation to the light. The light from the beauty dish has a certain quality – fairly soft but with a dramatic drop-off to the shadow side. This, for my first attempt felt like I had less ‘play’ in positioning the light than if I had used a larger softbox. But these are early days still, and there’s much more to learn with these new toys.
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very beautiful model you have…
Comment by Kelvin — January 22, 2009 @ 5:43 pm
[...] With a previous shoot using the Profoto AcuteB 600R lighting kit and the Profoto beauty dish beauty dish, I found the grid on the beauty dish gave me lighting which was too hard for my liking, when using the beauty dish as my single light. The image above was taken with just the beauty dish. A Q-flash provided the highlight on the grey backdrop. [...]
Pingback by planet neil - tangents » model - Seregon — January 22, 2009 @ 7:47 pm
Comment by Neil — January 25, 2009 @ 6:54 pm
How do you like the Profoto? I’ve been thinking to get one myself.
Comment by Kristian Tjong — January 25, 2009 @ 6:31 pm
[...] in the first few times I tried the beauty dish, (with Seregon and Kathy as my models), I felt that the beauty dish was too specialised .. a niche lighting tool. But I [...]
Pingback by planet neil - tangents » more beauty dish (model - Seregon) — March 13, 2009 @ 12:06 am
Neil I have been reading all of your beauty dish posts – very helpful!
Comment by Tony Sale — October 11, 2011 @ 4:06 pm