In this video, NY based fashion photographer Lindsay Adler talks about her favorite beauty lighting modifiers, why she uses them and how they can be used to create very different results.
Each of the three beauty lighting modifiers Adler mentions in this video creates different types of lights and modes and you should pick the one that creates the visual story that you are looking for.
Magnum reflector – bright, hard and crisp, it shows more texture like wrinkles and requires more makeup and retouch but sometimes this is what you are looking for.
White beauty dish – this one is softer than the magnum. This gives you a bit more contrast but still relatively soft while still being a hard light.
Scrim – this is the softest of the three modifiers mentioned in this video. These come in different sizes and the larger the scrim the softer the light. A scrim is just a frame with a diffusion material (it can come in different diffusion levels – they can go to 3-4 stops so you will need to push a lot of light to make a difference). Back the light from the scrim so you won’t get a hot spot in the center. A scrim can let you achieve that soft sunlight-like look that can be super flattering when shooting beauty.
Adler explains when she uses each type of modifier. For higher contrast, she uses the magnum, if she needs something super smooth on the screen – the scrim is ideal and if she needs both contrast and smoothness the beauty dish is her go-to choice.
Playing with each modifier can help you get different visual stories and looks and become more creative.
You can find many more helpful photography tips on our Photography tips section as well as lighting techniques here on LensVid (if you are more into beauty – take a look at this subsection). You can find all of Adler’s other videos we have published here in the past on this link.
Iddo Genuth 
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