Portrait session using a beauty dish
As my daughter, Janine, grew up from being a baby, it became more difficult getting photos of her. I think most parents can relate to that increased resistance by your children to having their photo taken. This is Janine, a few moths after her 16th birthday – since I have so very few recent images of her that are of professional quality, I was able to cajole her into this on this snow-bound afternoon. She loved the results: “Facebook profile photo FTW!”
I set this up in our living room, with a grey paper backdrop to create a quick home studio. The main light was the Profoto beauty dish (B&H / Amazon), using the Profoto AcuteB 600R power pack, which has since been replaced – in the studio by the Profoto D1 (affiliate), and on location by the Profoto B1 (affiliate).
I find the light with a gridded beauty dish can be too contrasty at times. I still prefer softer light – so this time I added a diffuser sock (affiliate) over the beauty dish. The sock over the beauty dish really helps with this. It spreads more light into the shadow areas – differently than the bare beauty dish. With a sock over the beauty dish you’re perhaps 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.
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 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, with a warmer tint to the B&W. I still shoot RAW though, so could always go back to the color image. But I like these rich-toned B&W images.
- 1/200 @ f10 @ 200 ISO
- Nikon D3
- Nikon 105mm f2.8 AF-S VR (affiliate)
- Profoto beauty dish (B&H / Amazon)
- diffuser sock (B&H / Amazon)
- Profoto AcuteB 600R power pack
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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..
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.
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
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!!
She really is beautiful! Love this shot
Nice pic! But where the hell you found such goggles? I’ looking for similar ones for ages! ;)
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
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.
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?
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
Derryl .. I’ll add the resizing / sharpening article tothe 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.
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