First portraits with DIY beauty dish

[Equilibrium8]

I made myself a beauty dish (about 45cm) over the weekend. Here are some photos taken with it. The BD was on camera right slightly tilted. There is a second bare flash on the wall, but not working at full power at this point.

How do these look to you?

[Mark von Kanel]

The first image seems a little soft on the focus Kenny, and the light being a beauty dish is harder and more contrasty than a box or shoot through and personally i think it doesnt work very well on such a young subject.

I would try the modifier on an older subject in their teens to twenties and see what you get, be careful with your exposure though no 2 is a little bright maybe?

how about a nice soft box on you beautiful little girl?

[Loose Canon]

Is it just me Kenny or is the color tint a little toward the magenta side in the skin tones?

[Andrew76]

Hey Kenny - congrats on the new toy!!

I would have to agree with the above. I'm no expert on beauty dishes, but from what I've seen, tried, and read about, young children don't respond very well to harsher light.

The poses are great! The focus is a little soft, and you may want to consider a grey card to help out with those skin tones, they do look a little off on my monitor too.

I really do like the composition, and crops though - nice job!

[Colin Southern]

Hi Kenny,

To be honest, I think you'll probably get a better result with a shoot-through umbrella, along with a reflector to get some light up under the chin (similar to the photo below) (look at the difference in the shadow areas under the chin).

A lot of "beauty" lighting often tends to be very flat "surrounding" light. I normally only use my beauty dish as a hair light.

[Equilibrium8]

The first image seems a little soft on the focus Kenny, and the light being a beauty dish is harder and more contrasty than a box or shoot through and personally i think it doesnt work very well on such a young subject.

I would try the modifier on an older subject in their teens to twenties and see what you get, be careful with your exposure though no 2 is a little bright maybe?

how about a nice soft box on you beautiful little girl?

Thanks for the feedback. I have taken plenty of photos of her using softboxes. This was purely to test the BD, and she was the nearest volunteer!

Is that exposure too bright? I was using it on E-TTL, and this looked close to how I see fashion shots.

[Equilibrium8]

Is it just me Kenny or is the color tint a little toward the magenta side in the skin tones?

I think you are right. I didn't do any color correction.

[Equilibrium8]

Hey Kenny - congrats on the new toy!!

I would have to agree with the above. I'm no expert on beauty dishes, but from what I've seen, tried, and read about, young children don't respond very well to harsher light.

The poses are great! The focus is a little soft, and you may want to consider a grey card to help out with those skin tones, they do look a little off on my monitor too.

I really do like the composition, and crops though - nice job!

Thanks. I just started using a gray card last week and finding it very helpful. I didn't use it for these shots. These were very hurried test shots.

[Equilibrium8]

Hi Kenny,

To be honest, I think you'll probably get a better result with a shoot-through umbrella, along with a reflector to get some light up under the chin (similar to the photo below) (look at the difference in the shadow areas under the chin).

A lot of "beauty" lighting often tends to be very flat "surrounding" light. I normally only use my beauty dish as a hair light.

Thanks! Great example! I will experiment with it as a hair light.