What type of modifier is used for these shots? Beautydish?

I like the punchy/contrasty lighting. I'm guessing its a beautydish, silver perhaps? - but wanted confirmation:

http://www.flickr.com …5/sizes/z/in/ph​otostream/

http://www.flickr.com …5/sizes/z/in/ph​otostream/

http://www.flickr.com …5/sizes/z/in/ph​otostream/

also, any idea how to get the shadows so dark? i'm guessing underexposing the ambient a little?

I really like this type of lighting, I just have no idea how to even begin with it

Thanks, I did use a beauty dish. I built it myself, but it's about 16" in diameter, and does have a silver interior (metallic silver spray paint). Using this beauty dish for half length shots gives the deeper shadows/higher contrast (from a faster light fall off), versus a 22" beauty dish that gives more even lighting. I got your message on flickr and will show you the beauty dish I modeled my design off of, they're pretty inexpensive...

There's not really any "ambient" in any of these images (without flash, they'd be about a dozen stops underexposed) -- it's all flash. Actually, in all three of these images, the setup was exactly the same: An Alien Bee B800 boomed on a manfrotto 420B stand, through a bare (ungridded, unsocked) beauty dish on the camera axis. I use pocketwizards to trigger them...

The color is such (in the one color photo) because I intentionally used a three stop ND filter that is pretty cheap and shifts colors. with the two black and white images (from the same shoot), it uses the same lighting setup and they were both unchanged from what I got out of the camera, but when I did the black and white conversion in photoshop, I dragged the blues down a little, which gives it a bit more contrast. I just realized this is a canon forum, so I hope I'm not overstepping my bounds (shot these with Nikon, but light is light to me, and I love my 7D too), just trying to be helpful.



If you have any other questions, I'm happy to help!

m.shalaby wrote in post #12035243
also, any idea how to get the shadows so dark? i'm guessing underexposing the ambient a little?

On a nice sunny day, stand close to a wall and observe your shadow on it. Or if you have a flash use it bare and observe it shadow with any subject. Now try this with other diffusers.

Be careful about under exposure. Even with lots of light. Strong tone curve is also you friend for getting rich blacks contrasty looking mid-tones and well detailed highlights.

as far as these images in particular, it makes a difference that I was wearing a black sweatshirt, and the other image, wearing dark blue pants and dark boots, so the dynamic range of the jpeg does probably clip the blacks more than a raw/tif would...only using one light often is the most dramatic lighting though, without other lights for fill...

edit: using a beauty dish without a sock, especially when compared to a softbox or umbrella that diffuses light much more, will give you higher contrast...you won't get the light "wrap" that you'd get with an umbrella, because there is no diffusion material in front of the dish. Additionally, the beauty dish is only a 16" light source, versus the larger 40"+ umbrella or typical softbox.

anlenke wrote in post #12035505
Thanks, I did use a beauty dish. I built it myself, but it's about 16" in diameter, and does have a silver interior (metallic silver spray paint). Using this beauty dish for half length shots gives the deeper shadows/higher contrast (from a faster light fall off), versus a 22" beauty dish that gives more even lighting. I got your message on flickr and will show you the beauty dish I modeled my design off of, they're pretty inexpensive...

There's not really any "ambient" in any of these images (without flash, they'd be about a dozen stops underexposed) -- it's all flash. Actually, in all three of these images, the setup was exactly the same: An Alien Bee B800 boomed on a manfrotto 420B stand, through a bare (ungridded, unsocked) beauty dish on the camera axis. I use pocketwizards to trigger them...

The color is such (in the one color photo) because I intentionally used a three stop ND filter that is pretty cheap and shifts colors. with the two black and white images (from the same shoot), it uses the same lighting setup and they were both unchanged from what I got out of the camera, but when I did the black and white conversion in photoshop, I dragged the blues down a little, which gives it a bit more contrast. I just realized this is a canon forum, so I hope I'm not overstepping my bounds (shot these with Nikon, but light is light to me, and I love my 7D too), just trying to be helpful.



If you have any other questions, I'm happy to help!

oh awsome, i didn't know you were on PONT! bro, i love your work.
I sent you a flickr e-mail asking as well... lol...

cool to know your here on PONT - now I'll bug the hell out of you for lighting advice! j/k, j/k

I'm not a big DIY guy.. i'd like to buy something pre-made, ya know. I have been looking at this 16" silver dish -
http://www.cheetahstan​d.com …d-Pro-16%22-Beauty/Detail

any thoughts on that? should do the trick, right? -also, is the 16" big enough to do full body shots? from your photo's it looks like its covering just about your full body.
and one other question about ambient - so you just shot these with your BD, but what was the ambient in the room? window light or just like table lamps, ect???

thanks for the help in advance!

Typical beauty dish you want to use real close. So most sizes are for face shots only unless you buy those really big ones that Peter uses. I have kacey dish and do use it for full length though. It is not perfect but it works for me. I am using two speedlites and I have seen that this configuration puts more light on a wide pattern to cover full body. Here are some samples.

bobbyz wrote in post #12037077
Typical beauty dish you want to use real close. So most sizes are for face shots only unless you buy those really big ones that Peter uses. I have kacey dish and do use it for full length though. It is not perfect but it works for me. I am using two speedlites and I have seen that this configuration puts more light on a wide pattern to cover full body. Here are some samples.

Don't know how the pattern for cheetah or other 16" dishes with only 1 speedlite looks.

not sure who Peter is, but the linked photo's are exactly what I'm looking to do, and he is pulling it off with a 16" BD.

m.shalaby wrote in post #12037436
not sure who Peter is, but the linked photo's are exactly what I'm looking to do, and he is pulling it off with a 16" BD.

Look at the waist down on the linked pictures. There is couple of stops difference.

bobbyz wrote in post #12037502
Look at the waist down on the linked pictures. There is couple of stops difference.

Ah, I gotcha... well I'm cool with that. Those are the exact types of shots I'm looking to do, and I really like the punchy look of the silver dish....

"oh awsome, i didn't know you were on PONT! bro, i love your work.
I sent you a flickr e-mail asking as well... lol..."

Haha, I wasn't a member until last night when I saw there were a bunch of links pointed to my photographs, and I thought, since you were asking, that it'd be helpful if I chimed in...I didn't even realize it was a canon forum until after I posted lol.

"cool to know your here on PONT - now I'll bug the hell out of you for lighting advice! j/k, j/k"
I'm happy to share what I know, no problems there...

"I'm not a big DIY guy.. i'd like to buy something pre-made, ya know. I have been looking at this 16" silver dish -
http://www.cheetahstan​d.com/servlet/...-Beauty/Detail. any thoughts on that? should do the trick, right?"

I'm not a DIY guy anymore either, but college forces you to stretch the dollar
Would you be using this beauty dish with a strobe or a speedlight? There could be a pretty significant difference here...With my strobes, the flash bulb sticks out into the beauty dish, which allows it to spread the light much more evenly. The diagram in the picture for that beauty dish makes it look like the speedlight is recessed more, which would probably eat a lot of light because it'd be firing right into the central circle. The circle is designed to spread the light around the surface of the dish, but you might get a light that is smaller than you think, with faster fall off and not much power.

"-also, is the 16" big enough to do full body shots? from your photo's it looks like its covering just about your full body."
It will cover your full body, but there will definitely be a difference of about 2 stops or more, depending on how close the beauty dish is to the subject. I'm about 6'4'', so I probably have a little bit more of a difference than most people you'd shoot too, and the dark pants/shoes make for a more dramatic difference in fall off as well, as I've mentioned.

"and one other question about ambient - so you just shot these with your BD, but what was the ambient in the room? window light or just like table lamps, ect"

I shot all of these at night, with the ceiling bulbs (dimmed all the way down) in an 18' ceiling...It would have probably taken something like ISO 1000 at f/7.1, to use a handholdable shutter speed. I had my camera on a tripod, but was using ISO 200 at f/7.1 and 1/200th of a second, so there wasn't going to be any ambient in the shot...I even test it before I shoot, turning off the strobe, and taking a photo...pure black.

"thanks for the help in advance!"

Welcome!

anlenke wrote in post #12037883
"oh awsome, i didn't know you were on PONT! bro, i love your work.
I sent you a flickr e-mail asking as well... lol..."

Haha, I wasn't a member until last night when I saw there were a bunch of links pointed to my photographs, and I thought, since you were asking, that it'd be helpful if I chimed in...I didn't even realize it was a canon forum until after I posted lol.

"cool to know your here on PONT - now I'll bug the hell out of you for lighting advice! j/k, j/k"
I'm happy to share what I know, no problems there...

"I'm not a big DIY guy.. i'd like to buy something pre-made, ya know. I have been looking at this 16" silver dish -
http://www.cheetahstan​d.com/servlet/...-Beauty/Detail. any thoughts on that? should do the trick, right?"

I'm not a DIY guy anymore either, but college forces you to stretch the dollar
Would you be using this beauty dish with a strobe or a speedlight? There could be a pretty significant difference here...With my strobes, the flash bulb sticks out into the beauty dish, which allows it to spread the light much more evenly. The diagram in the picture for that beauty dish makes it look like the speedlight is recessed more, which would probably eat a lot of light because it'd be firing right into the central circle. The circle is designed to spread the light around the surface of the dish, but you might get a light that is smaller than you think, with faster fall off and not much power.

"-also, is the 16" big enough to do full body shots? from your photo's it looks like its covering just about your full body."
It will cover your full body, but there will definitely be a difference of about 2 stops or more, depending on how close the beauty dish is to the subject. I'm about 6'4'', so I probably have a little bit more of a difference than most people you'd shoot too, and the dark pants/shoes make for a more dramatic difference in fall off as well, as I've mentioned.

"and one other question about ambient - so you just shot these with your BD, but what was the ambient in the room? window light or just like table lamps, ect"

I shot all of these at night, with the ceiling bulbs (dimmed all the way down) in an 18' ceiling...It would have probably taken something like ISO 1000 at f/7.1, to use a handholdable shutter speed. I had my camera on a tripod, but was using ISO 200 at f/7.1 and 1/200th of a second, so there wasn't going to be any ambient in the shot...I even test it before I shoot, turning off the strobe, and taking a photo...pure black.

"thanks for the help in advance!"

Welcome!

Thanks for the responses. Yes, this would be speedlight usage. I have this bracket:
http://www.cheetahstan​d.com …-Speed-Pro-Bracket/Detail
which allows me to control how deep into or out of the BD I put the speedlight

The BD also allows me to set the center circle depth... so with control of both the center circle, and control over how deep I put the speed light, what would you recommend for max light output?

EDIT: - Also, I’m not certain exactly how to set the speedlight’s manual FL (50mm, 80mm, 105mm) ect… ? What would I set it to?

I would imagine I would NOT want a very wide spread like a 24mm setting that I use for a softbox, right?

Well, I'd nose it in just slightly past the entrance of the dish's back, and leave the zoom probably pretty wide, with my dish that seems to give me the most even spread, but each dish is different. It's great yours is adjustable, I'd spend 30 minutes trying different configurations (even without a person, you could simply use a wall) and see which results you like best!

Anyone else laugh when they saw this guy (who took the photos) reply? Pretty awesome. Welcome to POTN! You seem like you'll blend in just fine

Aressem wrote in post #12038611
Anyone else laugh when they saw this guy (who took the photos) reply? Pretty awesome. Welcome to POTN! You seem like you'll blend in just fine

not going to lie, i did. and this thread is helping me also! thanks guys, i will continue to sit back and read.