Looking to get a Beauty Dish, need advice.

[ste0803]

Hi guys,

I have a basic setup at the moment which includes umbrella's and a softbox but looking to get a beauty dish to allow me to get round catch lights in the eyes and get that "beauty" look.

I'm looking to get a beauty dish which can either take a speedlight flash or use the existing S-Type mount I currently have for my godox softbox which can be seen here:

http://www.godox.com/EN/Products_S_type_Speedlite_Bracket.html

What type of fitting do I need or can someone link to something suitable. Not looking to spend a lot.

Any information or help is greatly appreciated

 

[Phil V]

Some will disagree, but IMHO a speedlight doesn't really work with a beauty dish (though it's on my list of experiments to check empirically). A Beauty dish is (should be) a very precise tool taking the light from a tube a set distance from the inner deflector and reflecting it round the dish. A speedlight doesn't act like a flash tube, it's already inside a reflector that's designed to send light out at a fixed angle.

So the simple answer would be to buy an S mount one so you can use it with your speedlight bracket.

Meanwhile - if I get time tomorrow and I can find a willing model I'll do the experiment.

 

[Kodiak Qc]

it's on my list of experiments to check empirically

speedlight doesn't act like a flash tube, it's already inside a reflector that's designed to send light out at a fixed angle.

I discovered, Phil, when my Speedotron 2400 rendered its soul
and I had to use a SB 900 in a siver sided SL (BD), that it worked
just as well and sometimes even better since, at the right distance
from the subject, a lower level of power is required.

The only tweak prior to the shoot is to place the SL (BD) at the right
distance from a grey BG and adjust the zoom so it will not leak around
the central reflector. In my case, it was between 70 and 105 depending
on the distance between the flashtube and the central reflector.

An interesting point here is that the tube should be zoomed longer
than shorter.

But, of course, nothing beats experiments!

 

[Kodiak Qc]

@Phil V

Sorry to bother you but I forgot something…

To have the flash gun stay at the right place demanded
quite a bit of fiddling. I am happy a solution was found
but I hope I will never have to use it again.

Today, numerous brackets serve the purpose very well!

 

[Garry Edwards]

Some will disagree, but IMHO a speedlight doesn't really work with a beauty dish (though it's on my list of experiments to check empirically). A Beauty dish is (should be) a very precise tool taking the light from a tube a set distance from the inner deflector and reflecting it round the dish. A speedlight doesn't act like a flash tube, it's already inside a reflector that's designed to send light out at a fixed angle.

So the simple answer would be to buy an S mount one so you can use it with your speedlight bracket.

Meanwhile - if I get time tomorrow and I can find a willing model I'll do the experiment.

This is pretty much right.
Not all so-called beauty dishes work as expected at all, because it's an easy thing to make cheaply, without giving any thought to the physics, and it gets even easier if the "beauty dish" is in fact nothing more than an industrial lampshade with a deflector plate added in a convenient place. These products may not focus at any distance and so may not work properly, but generally, even the poor ones are kind of adequate when used with a standard flash head, where the relative position of the flash tube is always constant, even if it's always wrong.

Using a hotshoe flashgun instead of a studio flash head creates its own set of problems, but it does allow the focus point to be changed. This can be a good thing but requires knowledge and experimentation, and if the correct focus point can be found, the adjustment will need to be identical each time it is used.

This article may be helpful https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/understanding-the-beauty-dish.619802/