In this video, portrait photographer Manny Ortiz breaks down three ways to use the [plink sku="2547" alt="Westcott 36” Beauty Dish Switch"]. The beauty dish was designed to capture both pristine beauty headshots and full-body portraits with one modifier.
Lighting Setup 1: Beauty Headshot
In his first setup, Manny is lighting headshots of his subject by placing a [plink sku="4700"] inside the white interior beauty dish in a butterfly position. He is controlling his fill light with another FJ400 in a [plink sku="2831" alt="gridded"] [plink sku="2526"] softbox. If you are looking to fill your shadows without an additional strobe, you can also mock this setup with a reflector in place of the 1x4 softbox.
Lighting Setup 2: Medium Portrait Lighting
Moving on to capture his subject from the waist up, Manny removes the fill light and demonstrates the versatility you can get with just one [plink sku="2548" alt="36-in. Beauty Dish"]. By simply changing the position of your subject and bringing them closer or further from the backdrop, you can create a variety of looks. The light will hit both your subject and background differently depending on the placement of your subject.
Setup 3: Full Body Portrait
In Manny’s third portrait lighting setup, he utilizes the Beauty Dish Switch as a diffused softbox by removing the deflector plate and adding its 36” diffusion fabric to the front. Manny is looking to achieve a soft, full-body portrait with a one-light setup. He does this by placing his modifier at a 45-degree angle off to the side of his subject and angling down.
He then brings in a second light to create a clamshell setup for his full-body shots. This gives his subject a soft hair light using the [plink sku="4740"] and grid. Adding the second light helps separate her from the background and creates a slight kicker light.
When you’re looking to achieve a wide range of looks from headshots to full-body portraits, it can be overwhelming to figure out what your lighting setup should look like. With the 36” Beauty Dish, you can achieve a variety of unique looks by making a few simple adjustments.
