DIY Beauty Dish

Finally found a bowl good enough to try this with.

My DIY beauty dish.

$9.99 bowl from TJ Maxx, $4 for bolts and nuts from home depot, $3 for mirror at Wal-Mart, $4 for black/white spray paint.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2688/...959a308b_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2651/...641af1e8_o.jpg

Test shot with it. About 3' from subject high and to camera right. Little hot on the left side of her face but I still like it. It's my mom :)

AB800 lowest power setting. F/4 - 1/200 - ISO200

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2668/...873893a7_o.jpg

Nice.

So - errr, not to sound stupid but where does your flash go/how do you attach it?

For me the light is way too hard and I cannot see any 'beauty'...not my kind of light ;)
a beauty dish should 'melt' away wrinkles and make a soft and tender skin...here I see blotches, wrinkles and hard shadows...not offending your mom, she surely is a nice and good looking woman ;)

Well my next step is to make the "sock" for it to make the light beam even wider and the light softer. I might also attempt to make some grids for it.

Can't go wrong for $20 and some time over $120 for the PCB version.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by loydall

So - errr, not to sound stupid but where does your flash go/how do you attach it?

---

The hole in the middle is how it attaches. Alienbees use a quicklock sorta system. As you can see there are 4 prong type thing around the flash tube. The 2 tabs on top you squeeze together and it brings all the prongs in and just slide the bowl over and release and there is quite a bit of pressure in those springs so it hold it nice and snug on there. The bowl is some type of paper mache or something so it's actually really light.

http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/a...s-jdg08633.jpg

Just made a sock for my beauty dish to diffuse the harsh light just a bit. Going to test it full force tonight at a concert I'm going to be shooting at. I will be doing coverage shots of the whole show but also we made a back drop with their logo patterned all over it and will be setting up a photobooth sorta setup there so people who want that sorta picture taken can stand in front of it- which i'm guessing will be a lot.

Obviously will post results asap.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=166913384822

success! :)

Break a leg, sounds like a sweet deal, congrats bro

Didn't get back home till 5am and have been at work since 8:30 so hopefully after work if I don't crash I can batch edit these photos. I have a few hundred to sort. Some good coverage shots and then A TON of the portrait ones. Worked awesome and everyone was pumped to get their photo taken.

This really made me want to organize a http://help-portrait.com/ in my area but i don't think I can on such short notice...

post some examples before you crash :D

There were some...interesting people there :)

Here's the whole set.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulbis...7622938705382/

you worked hard and did a good job!
The booth shots look a bit 'flashy'...know what I mean? The shadows turn out a bit hard and on some shots the flash is burning out...I know this is not meant as a perfect portrait studio nevertheless I would work on the light setup...
However, great event to get into business and a nice collection in result! :)

Yeah I setup the light to be good for a certain spot on the wall and the flash was off to the right since that was how the space I was provided would work. So when groups came in the people on the right kinda got blown out because they were closer then I metered. Next time I want to bring a 2nd flash or at least a big reflector. Also center the flashes more so the shadows aren't AS harsh even though everyone loved that look.

thanks for the input

Awesome write up on how to use BD.

http://www.peteyphotography.com/blog/?p=284#more-284

Whooo I think that's awesome!

IMO the BD should be used from very close, and to shoot two subjects at the most. But not for groups. From far away it starts to resemble an umbrella.

There is usually an optimal distance for each dish, so you can blast it or feather it to your subject. Sometimes even have it right outside of your shooting frame, so you can light up the face more evenly on both sides.

Anyway, your shot is pretty clean. The BD does bring out wrinkles, you're supposed to be shooting wrinkle-less young models wearing make up so its OK if mom shows some natural lines. To reduce them, you can always put a white sheet to reflect under.