I made this beauty dish back in 2009 but I've hardly used it. The bracketry attches via thumbscrews for easy packability. It's made to work with Canon 580ex-sized flashes as well as taller ones like the Promaster FTD 7000M (a large square nut under the cold shoe acts as a spacer). There's also an arm with another cold shoe to hold a radio receiver. I'm including the dish, bracketry, and lightstand adapter/umbrella bracket. Some of the black paint has chipped/scratched, and there are a couple minor surface cracks in the wood but it's structurally sound and overall in great condition. I'm asking $120 + shipping.
How I made it:
Materials used:
18″ wood bowl
5″ convex mirror
3mm styrene (plastic)
Flat aluminum strips
Various nuts & bolts
Spiked T-nuts & matching thumb screws
Cold shoe
The bowl I used had concentric ridges all over it so to start, I sanded the front and back to remove most of the rings. I then drilled three small holes for the mirror standoffs. These holes form a centered triangle with roughly 5″ between each point. In the center of the triangle, I cut out a hole for the head of my speedlite. The speedlite bracket is a “L” with a curve on one side that matches the contour of the bowl. On the side of the bracket that touches the bowl, I put a strip of adhesive rubber to help cushion, conform, and prevent scratches. To attach the bracket to the speedlite, I used T-nuts and thumb screws so that it could be removed for easy storage/transport. To make it look as nice as possible, I recessed the T-nuts then covered them with wood filler and sanded it smooth before I painted. That way they’re completely invisible from the front.
The heart of a speedlite beauty dish is the deflector. I used a 5″ convex mirror for maximum output. I removed the actual mirror from the plastic holder and epoxied it to a circular piece of styrene/plastic. The styrene was cut slightly larger than the mirror, just large enough for a small bolt to pass through and nut to fit without hitting the mirror. The mirror needs to be spaced away from the flash head and for these standoffs, I used the thinnest bolts I could find so they interfered with the light as little as possible. The mirror-to-flash distance can be tuned to your liking but after lots of testing, a space of 1.75″ between the bowl and styrene gave me the best results. Zooming the flash in and out didn’t make much of a difference. Zooming in to 105mm produced a very slightly hotter center.
Looking through the speedlite hole at the mirror/deflector:
All bracketry, and the rear of the bowl was painted semi-gloss black. The inside of the bowl was painted white. I coated the thumbscrews in black Plasti-Dip to make them look a little nicer.
The output is very soft with a smooth falloff.
Sample photos:
IMAGE: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v69/SpeakerPhreaker/william-1.jpg
IMAGE: http://janchristianphoto.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/tactical-vest.jpg
