What size Beauty Dish for 580 EX Portraits?

What size (diameter) beauty dish should I get for a 580 EX if I want to be doing head shots and half-body portraits?

~22 inches is pretty much the standard for BD. How the BD is configured to work with the 580 EX is going to be far more important...... To much weight on the flash head is taking a risk of damage. Since beauty dishes were designed for studio strobes were the flash tube is inserted into the dish it is harder to replicate the true BD effect with a Speedlight.

I've been doing a lot of research with beauty dishes in the last couple years. I can tell you to make the BD more effective the center diffusion disk should be highly reflective in nature such as a mirror. Placing something like a stofen omni-bounce on the head before inserting into the dish is another way to modify the light if you want a little less contrast.

Shape and size of the dish is going to be very important. Just because some company takes a bowl and mounts a center diffusion disk in it..... Does not qualify it as a BD IMO. Yes, it will make the light source larger than a bare flash head which will equal softer light, but it will be far from the beauty dish effect professional are used to.

Hope this help a little,
JK

Is a beauty dish 22" more portable compared to a softbox 24' to 36" or umbrella (shoot-thru/silver)??

jackies35 wrote in post #7574758
Is a beauty dish 22" more portable compared to a softbox 24' to 36" or umbrella (shoot-thru/silver)??

Yes,
If the softbox put together or the umbrella is open when transporting

One very nice thing about the beauty dish (among other things) is that if you're shooting outdoors on location it's more stable and not likely to become a kite or parasail in a slight breeze.

J Kacey wrote in post #7574674
~22 inches is pretty much the standard for BD. How the BD is configured to work with the 580 EX is going to be far more important...... To much weight on the flash head is taking a risk of damage. Since beauty dishes were designed for studio strobes were the flash tube is inserted into the dish it is harder to replicate the true BD effect with a Speedlight.

I've been doing a lot of research with beauty dishes in the last couple years. I can tell you to make the BD more effective the center diffusion disk should be highly reflective in nature such as a mirror. Placing something like a stofen omni-bounce on the head before inserting into the dish is another way to modify the light if you want a little less contrast.

Shape and size of the dish is going to be very important. Just because some company takes a bowl and mounts a center diffusion disk in it..... Does not qualify it as a BD IMO. Yes, it will make the light source larger than a bare flash head which will equal softer light, but it will be far from the beauty dish effect professional are used to.

Hope this help a little,
JK

What company makes "professional" beauty dishes? Of course, I'm sure Profoto and Bowens make excellent ones, but what about more affordable ones?

Many of us use the Speedotron 22" Beauty dish. The light is fantastic and the design very closely resembles that of the Mola.

I've been developing one for quite some time that will allow the use of a common studio flash's as well as a Speedlight. It will be marketed mainly for photographers that do a lot of location work. Specifics will be announced on my website sometime next week.

Borbor wrote in post #7614878

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After I gathered up all the necessary bits, it took 3 hours from start to finish, and the longest time was from the paint to dry

15" dia

Nice, now can we get some shots of the build and a shot of the light pattern?

you can when i have time

J Kacey wrote in post #7576241
I've been developing one for quite some time that will allow the use of a common studio flash's as well as a Speedlight. It will be marketed mainly for photographers that do a lot of location work. Specifics will be announced on my website sometime next week.

do you have any picks of this beauty dish? are you gonna come out w/your 22 degree grid again also?

1danny wrote in post #7652184
do you have any picks of this beauty dish? are you gonna come out w/your 22 degree grid again also?

Yes, I will develop a grid for the dish too.... Right now building up stock for the dish and bracket
Image shown with optional Speedlight Bracket.
More info HERE
If someone wants to start a thread for the dish we can keep the info in one spot.

J Kacey wrote in post #7653297
Yes, I will develop a grid for the dish too.... Right now building up stock for the dish and bracket
Image shown with optional Speedlight Bracket.
More info HERE
If someone wants to start a thread for the dish we can keep the info in one spot.

Looks awesome. Any idea for a price yet?

FelixDIB wrote in post #7653806
Looks awesome. Any idea for a price yet?

Did you click the link?