The Difference Between White and Silver Beauty Dishes

You might not think there is a huge difference between the way a white and silver beauty dish will render your subject, but they can make quite distinct looks in your portraits, and it is important to know which look you want before you choose one to use. This great video explores the differences between the two. 

Coming to you from Lindsay Adler Photography, this helpful video discusses the differences between white and silver beauty dishes. Beauty dishes are a popular choice for many portrait and fashion photographers, and depending on whether you use white or silver and choose to use diffusion or not, you can get a wide variance in the results. A white beauty dish will tend to produce a softer, less contrasty light, while a silver dish will create a light with more contrast that shows more detail and tends to be brighter than a white dish at the same settings. It's important to consider these details when you're deciding whether you want a more dramatic light or one that's a bit more flattering for the subject. Check out the video above for more. 

And if you really want to learn more about lighting people, check out "Illuminating The Face: Lighting for Headshots and Portraits!"

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

Log in or register to post comments
8 Comments

I love the look of the silver beauty dish when it works, but outside of professional models or something, it's so difficult to find subjects that it really works on. :(

Light is light....learn how to use it.

I've gone for silver exclusively for about 10 years. Especially for shooting food/drinks/products...the sock is an easy way to change it's properties on the fly though.

I guess my question would be if you're going to diffuse the silver dish with a sock, why not just use a white dish from the start?

I know this is practically 2 years later but it's not the same quality of light, even though in theory that's what one might reasonably think. They are slightly different. The silver would still have more punch and contrast but with tempered highlights while the white is softer right out the gate and if you put the sock on it it will be significantly softer than the diffused silver beauty dish.

This is also true of white vs silver umbrellas. Silver is more specular with higher contrast. I have both and use them accordingly. I usually go for a softer more ptainterly look and so I tend to use white. But for some actor headshots the silver adds a nice punch.