Using a beauty dish in portrait photography is often misunderstood or avoided because of misconceptions around harsh lighting and challenging shadows. Yet, mastering this lighting tool can elevate your outdoor portraits significantly, creating a natural, defined look that large, soft modifiers can't replicate.
Coming to you from Kyle Cong Photo, this practical video outlines precisely how a beauty dish stands apart from common lighting modifiers like large softboxes or umbrellas. Large modifiers are popular because they provide smooth transitions from highlights to shadows, ideal for indoor portraits. But outdoors, under direct sunlight, their extremely soft output can appear artificial, clashing noticeably with harsh ambient conditions. Cong emphasizes the beauty dish as a middle-ground option, matching the bright, contrasty character of sunlight far better. Specifically, a silver beauty dish maintains skin texture with striking specular highlights, lending portraits a more realistic appearance. He notably advises against using diffusion socks, explaining they diminish the distinct qualities that make beauty dishes valuable.
Cong directly addresses the frequent complaint of harsh shadows associated with beauty dishes, explaining the problem often lies in mismanaging ambient exposure. The solution isn't to avoid the modifier, but to carefully adjust shutter speed, allowing more ambient light to balance the exposure. Faster shutter speeds darken ambient light, emphasizing harsh shadows. Slowing down the shutter allows ambient light to fill those shadows naturally. Cong also clarifies the roles of ambient and artificial light: the beauty dish should almost always serve as your key light, while ambient light becomes your fill and kicker. This careful balance ensures shadows remain soft enough to appear natural, yet defined enough to avoid a washed-out look.
Beyond technical settings, Cong stresses the importance of carefully selecting backgrounds and managing sunlight angles. Bright skies, for example, easily blow out when shutter speeds are slowed to manage shadows, so choosing darker or textured backgrounds is crucial. The angle of the sun also determines how harsh or flattering the kicker light will be; positioning subjects so the sun creates a slim rim rather than a large, overbearing highlight on the face is key. Interestingly, Cong advises against using beauty dishes on cloudy days. The evenly diffused ambient light of overcast conditions clashes sharply with the defined, punchy character of a beauty dish. Instead, he suggests switching to softboxes to better align with the softer environmental light. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Cong.
If you would like to continue learning about how to light a portrait, be sure to check out "Illuminating The Face: Lighting for Headshots and Portraits With Peter Hurley!"
