Beauty dish for speedlite outdoor photography

I do most of my shooting outside (portraits and fashion for the most part). I hate how umbrellas and soft boxes tend to struggle under windy conditions

I was thinking of buying a beauty dish to be used on its own or with a diffuser (when I want to essentially achieve a soft box look). This would give me a wind-proof softbox, plus the option to remove the "shower cap" and get crispier directional light.

22" or 27" appeal to me the most. I'd be happy to use one or two 580EX II in the same beauty dish/reflector.

Is this a good idea or should I just get a soft box instead? Outdoors I plan to use this off camera on a c stand/boom as my one-light setup.

In terms of recommended beauty dishes, I'd like to keep dish, diffuser, and bracket adapter for speedlite within $200. $300 if it accommodates two flashes. Any recommendations in that price range?

Thank you very much in advance.

Tony, I would forget the speedlites outside. Get a "real' strobe, then and only then will you be able to overcome the sun on ANY occasion. You might be able to get by at sunrise or sunset but not 10am-2pm timeframe.

I have tried the 16" and 22" BD outside. I think bigger may be better with white inside being prefered to silver or siver with diffuser. Look for some of those BD threads that are around, we have discussed sometimes at length the look of all the sizes of dishes. Some of the guys have the 27" dishes and results are good. Find the thread about using the single strobe not hotshoe and the beauty dish thread too.......most of them have over 3-8 thousand views, they aren't that hard to find.

Quick study will give you all your answers which are bigger better, white prefered but socked silver will also work by you MUST have real strobe behind it, your choice of monolight/stobe manufacturer. I can tell you from personal experience a White Lightening X3200 will work around half power with full sun at subjects back at 3pm.....I think it was around 5 feet away, 22" dish.

22" BD sandbagged in Oklahoma wind down the plain on Manfrotto lightstand with minimal movement and NO worries about tipping over.

Others here will have specific words too, I do encourage you to use the search function. There are some very pointed BD threads that have occured here over the past few months.


Bob E.

Thanks for your comment, Bob. I did search the forum and researched the topic quite extensively earlier today. Sadly, it looks like dishes are either out of my price range (shipped) (Kasey, Mola, Profoto) or have very mixed reviews (particularly on the flimsy hotshoe adapters/brackets). So I'm a bit confused on which one would be a good choice.

In terms of lights, for now speedlites will have to do (with all their limitations). That's why I wanted to have two on the same bracket. But I don't exclude the possibility of getting a mobile strobe in the future. I'm assuming that whatever I buy now will be usable with the strobe provided that I acquire the right adapter. While on the topic, what is your recommendation for the mobile approach? The WL X3200?

RPS makes a nice Beauty Dish that includes flash mount with tilter and a grid for about $160.00. My friend has one and we use quite a bit outdoors.

My Lumodi 18" BD has worked great outdoors with a speedlight.