Beauty Dish Placement?

Digital_zen wrote in post #13915856
What focal length were you shooting at? Sometimes narrowing the field of view by shooting at a longer focal length works.

I usually shot with my 70-200 f4L. I could definitely crop out the dish but in order to take the picture without the dish in the frame I had to zoom in super close. It just didn't seem right when I looked at the setup that the dish would be 2 feet away from my subjects face. Most of the pictures and videos I'm seeing are showing the dish a bit farther back.

Ten Ounce wrote in post #13915369
Is the dish on a boom or on a regular light stand?

I was using A420 with 40" grip arm. BD hanging from a drop down pin.

For headshots you should have no problem with dish so close. You going to be shooting tight.

and heres a video - except its with a setti

http://www.youtube.com …?v=TV3je...ezwQ​VsIOyScUPJ

Soto does strange positions with her lights.

Often its pointing more at the ground than at the subjects. Some might call it feathering, but Ive seen other videos where her setti is just about pointed at the foreground and not even at the model. [In the video above at times 0:26, 2:16 etc]

or this video if hers:
http://youtu.be/rUZSEZ​Nelwo [2:40 marker is the funniest - resulting photo shown after doesn't look like it could have been taken with this foreground light )

I've always liked my lighting up higher and the centre deflector aimed in a line down at their face. Certainly a bigger modifier means better coverage across the body if used in this fashion.

Ive seen some mola shoots - like fiona quinn (on mola blog) use a small dish 22" such up high, on camera axis for some subtle fill (so not even a catchlight shows in the eyes) so it all depends on what look you want to achieve.

certainly the further away it is, the more you will lose the 'beauty dish' look in your image.

There's no right or wrong way to use one though typically for tight headshots start 1.5-2 times its diameter away on a boom to allow you to work away underneath it. I also prefer using it with a grid to control the light direction for headshots.