SteveNC wrote in post #6019494
I really don't understand the concept of a beauty dish compared to a grid, much less a beauty dish with a grid attached. Is the primary purpose to produce a soft diffuse shadow that wraps around the subject?
In addition to the good advice Robert added...
A grid and a beauty dish are really two separate things. The beauty dish is more like a soft box, while the grid is more like a snoot. So I'll compare the those, then talk about how they are used.
A softbox is a soft light source much like the light from a north facing window. A strobe with a standard reflector is a harder light source and more specular in nature, much like a bare light bulb. A beauty dish is somewhat in-between the two, as it is soft nature but with a bit more specular quality to it. You can think of it as a semi-soft soft box if you will.
A snoot is a light modifier that constricts the light to the shape and diameter of the shoot. A very small diameter snoot will create a very small spot of light, or footprint on a wall. A larger diameter snoot will create a larger footprint on the wall. A grid basically serves a similar purpose, but uses different honeycomb patterns to vary the diameter of the light. Rather than change the diameter of the snoot to vary the diameter of the light pattern, the honeycomb patterns limit the light through the honeycomb, and are measure in degrees. The grids are generally made in 10, 20, 30, and 40 degree patterns.
You can add both a snoot or grid to a softbox, beauty dish, and standard reflector. If you use a reflector with a grid, you will still get a more specular light source, and the grid will modify that specular light source creating a smaller footprint matching the selected degree pattern. But the source will still be specular in nature. It does tend to soften the light slightly, but that's a side effect and not its intended goal. If you put a grid on a softbox, it will still be a soft light source, but again be modified in a more restricted pattern with reduced light footprint.
The grids are used to limit the footprint of the light, so the photographer can 'throw' the light exactly where he wants it. A softbox will generally light a large area rather easily, but if you restrict that with a grid, it will light only the area that falls within the grids 'footprint'. Thus you still have a very soft light source, but it will only cover a very small area compared to the softbox without a grid.
I hope that helps explain the differences for you..
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