DIY Beauty Dish

I made a 14" beauty dish for my off-camera flash out of a terra cotta bowl, a CD spindle case, some gutter parts from Home Depot, spray paint, and a convex blind spot mirror. So far, I only took a few test shots so far but it seems to work well.

The inspiration came from this blog post:
http://davidtejada.blo​gspot.com …auty-dish-for-sb-800.html
The dish is pretty much the same; my main change was having a holder for my flash and not putting the weight on the flash head.

This is how it looks from the side. The flash is in the back and the flash holder which is constructed out of several gutter parts has a window so that I can change the output and turn it on or off. The thing hanging at the bottom is the wireless remote trigger.

Looks pretty awesome for a DIY - the results hold up, too! Thanks for sharing!

How did you make the casing for the flash? Is that a Sunpak?

Looks good, now post the step by step with pics so I can make one too

For a second, I thought it was a strobe behind the BD. Nice work.

thats awesome!

where did you get the swivel mount?
i need a few of those for my DIYs

Hi Lars,
Of all the DIY beauty dish designs that I have seen this is the neatest. It looks profesional enough to use commercially when a lightweight portable strobe is required.
Are the gutter parts that you used plastic or metal?
Can you advise what the part names are to improve my chances of tracking them down?

SnlpeR wrote in post #6492373
thats awesome!

where did you get the swivel mount?
i need a few of those for my DIYs

nevermind...it looks like a regular umbrella moount with the longer shoe mount top...

i was hoping to find a metal one with the top base that you can bolt down to something
looking for it to hold an alienbee and 4ft octabox
haha dont ask

I have never seen this post or the one you linked, but I've had the idea for doing something very similar myself but as a portable version for on camera flash work. But, yours looks like it does a great job.

I made one a little while ago! i like it...plus it was fun to build!

looks really professional =)

Very nice Lars. Kudos from a fellow DIY'er.

Any chance you could get a view of the side of the dish on the inside? Did you spraypaint the sides of the cd holder?

Also, what did you use to cut the opening in the dish?

What kind of flash?

I was down at the local store and saw a large stainless steel bowl that would be the right size and shape for this, I'm just wondering would stainless steel be appropriate or is that going to give too hard a light compared to the pebbled surface of the terra cotta bowl used above and in the link?

I'm not real familiar with beauty dishes. :/

I'm not sure the bowl like above will be easily available around here so I'm looking for alternatives. If a mixing style bowl won't do because it needs the textured surface I might be in trouble for a DIY dish.

Kurt

Twitch1977 wrote in post #6502113
I was down at the local store and saw a large stainless steel bowl that would be the right size and shape for this, I'm just wondering would stainless steel be appropriate or is that going to give too hard a light compared to the pebbled surface of the terra cotta bowl used above and in the link?

I'm not real familiar with beauty dishes. :/

I'm not sure the bowl like above will be easily available around here so I'm looking for alternatives. If a mixing style bowl won't do because it needs the textured surface I might be in trouble for a DIY dish.

Kurt

You could just paint the inside with a flat white.