Beauty Dish

[mkothare]

Originally Posted by DoublyDan

Thanks everyone. I am thinking about buying the ephoto one from amazon. The only thing is the loss of light with the size of the whole in the rear of the dish.

Milind, is your dish white or reflective/mirror on the inside? And in your image did you use a fill card/light? I didn't think I saw one....

My dish has a silver reflective surface. I dont think I have seen a white reflective surface in the somewhat less expensive versions sold on ebay/Amazon. It's possibly because they expect the light sources used by the buyers to be less powerful and the silver bumps up the light strength

I did not use any fill card/light. The not so contrasty shadows, I believe were a function of the close distance between the beauty dish and the model's face. The walls were not closeby or light colored to reflect back much fill light, either.

I bought the dish with a Bowens mount and a Cheetah Speed Pro bracket that allows me to use Bowens mount modifiers (beauty dish, softbox, barn doors, snoot, etc) with a speedlite. At the same time I can use the beauty dish with my 300WS monolite that has a Bowens mount. Paco had provided us a review of this equipment in one of his nice instructional threads.

Here is the url and picture for that piece of equipment
Cheetah Speed Pro Bracket

[The Philos]

What are you shooting with it/them?
Fashion, beauty, headshots, anything...

Name brand, cheapy or homemade?
eBay

What sized beauty dishes are you using
27", 16"

Diffusion sock or bare dish?
Bare dish or gridded

Also if you have more than one size, which applications do you find more fitting for each?
I also have a 16" that I use for fill or when I'm doing a strictly headshot session on location (I'll often use it with the sock).
The 27" dish is much more heavy but it really pumps out some light (I'm using Bowens/Calumet monolights).

And other observations that you may have encountered....during your experiences.
The 27" is difficult to use because of my stands not being very sturdy and it's size is a bit cumbersome, but you do get used to using it. I'd only replace it them with a Mola or the Speedotron dish modded to fit my lights.

Here is the 27" dish with the sun providing hair light:


Here is to show the fall off of the dish at about 4' again with the sun providing the hair light:

[brewercm]

I just picked up the Alein Bees ABR800 that will hopefully work out for me as for a couple of uses. Looks like it will make a good beauty dish (as long as power's available), and a regular monolight with one of the octoboxes available. Would like to get one of the portable units also to give it a try where strobes are only option.

[DoublyDan]

Thanks for sharing David. I like the shadows that your dish produces at 4 foot.

I have a tendency to go softer, but that may just be my photographic infancy coming out. Gotta learn to walk first....