A Look at Three Common Beauty Photography Lighting Modifiers

Beauty lighting is a genre full of a range of nuance and subtlety, and one of the best ways to explore that is through the use of lighting modifiers. This excellent video will show the differences between a reflector, beauty dish, and scrim, along with a wide variety of sample images showing their uses.

Coming to you from Lindsay Adler Photography, this fantastic video details her three favorite lighting modifiers for beauty work: the Magnum reflector, a white beauty dish, and a scrim. A reflector produces some of the hardest light of any modifier, giving crisp lighting and hard edges, often akin to sunlight. Meanwhile, a beauty dish tends to produce softer light while still providing decently punchy contrast. Many photographers love beauty dishes and will frequently add a grid to control spill; it is probably my favorite modifier as well. Lastly, a scrim will produce the softest light of the three. Scrims simply turn a light into a large, diffuse source, creating soft transitions and a particularly flattering light. Each of these modifiers has their own purpose, and it is important to understand how they render a subject to achieve the results you desire. Check out the video above for the full rundown. 

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.

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10 Comments

Does anyone else sometimes feel like these videos start to just bombard you with the same information over and over at a certain point? Is there really that little to talk about in photography?

As far as the technical aspects go I think there really is only so much to say.

If you check out my youtube channel my photo deconstructions are probably more up your alley-- they are definitely different. Also, people learn from different instructors in different ways so there is always room for repeat.

Thanks and yeah, people do learn from different instructors differently so I get why multiple people cover the same thing. It might just be the particular bubble of websites that I live in where it feels like Groundhog Day in terms of information. Sometimes it's easy for me to forget that everyday people are discovering these sites for the first time so there's also a basic need to keep fresh content coming with the same information for those people.

Thank you, Alex. I found this vid nice and informative. Beauty dish with controlled spill gives awesome light.

Amazing style you are sharing with your followers. ofw pinoy channel also daily share lot of stuff about Entertainment and News of ABS-CBN Network which you will be got on https://ofwpinoychannels.com

Some videos can be infomercials. This is a quick look at three tools for three separate looks. I don't feel like I'm being sold on something, so much as a quick look for those breaking into portrait / fashion.

That's because I really wanted to help. ;d xoxoxoxo

Yep, Lindsay. And help these can be ;)

I have been using my soft box for quite some time, which among the three should I go next? Looking to venture into portrait and product (food) photography. I know they have different effects.