Improved DIY Beauty Dish for Under $35
anonymouscuban
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Some of you may recall my post (http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=180289) a few weeks back where I showed off a DIY beauty dish I made from stuff I had laying around in my garage. Well, I made a second version of it, this time using more durable materials. Thought I'd post a guide on how I made it along with some pics in case one of you feels like making one.
Materials List:
Tools Needed:
Before I get into the instructions, I thought I'd post a few pictures of the completed beauty dish and a few that I took with the dish:
Here are a few quick shots I took of my wife with the beauty dish... Paramount setup but only with the dish, no fill and other than sharpening, they're SOOC:
Materials List:
- 16 quart steel mixing bowl - $12
- 8" pizza tray $1.50
- 3 x 4" #10 bolts $1
- (4) 3/4" #6 bolts - $1
- (9) #10 nuts - $2
- (4) #6 nuts - $1
- (4) #6 wing nuts - $1.50
- Satin black spray paint - $3.59
- Flat white spray paint - $3.59
- Clear coat spray paint - $4
- Speed-light softbox speed-ring and stand mount - free (from softbox I own)
Tools Needed:
- Dremel with metal cutting disc
- Screw Driver
- Fine grit sand paper
- Drill
- 9/64 drill bit
- 1/4 drill bit
Before I get into the instructions, I thought I'd post a few pictures of the completed beauty dish and a few that I took with the dish:
Here are a few quick shots I took of my wife with the beauty dish... Paramount setup but only with the dish, no fill and other than sharpening, they're SOOC:
"I'm not yelling. I'm Cuban. That's how we talk."
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I tackled what I thought would be the most difficult part first... cutting the hole in the back of the bowl for the speed-light.
#1 - I used the stofen diffuser that fits perfectly on the my SB-600 flash as my guide. I used the back outside dimension since this would be a little bigger than the actual flash head so my flash would fit easily in the hole without scraping. Also, I wanted it to be able to fit other flashes in case I bought a different brand or model:
#2 - I made a template from cardboard by tracing the stofen diffuser onto the cardboard and then cutting it out. I found the center of the template and poked a hole in it:
#3 - I then found and marked the center of the back of the mixing bowl and aligned the hole in the template with the mark. Then I traced it with a sharpie:
#4 - Here is the outline of the template:
#5 - Next I took my Dremel loaded with a small metal cutting disc and cut out the hole. It was actually quite easy. I cut along the outside of the sharpie outline because I wanted to make sure the hole wasn't too small. I wish I had taken pics of me actually cutting the hole but I didn't feel like setting up my tripod. ****Caution - do not cut the hole inside the house unless your single and don't mind the stink of burnt metal. My wife didn't enjoy coming home to the smell.
#6 - With the hole cut in the mixing bowl, I put it aside and worked on the pizza tray which is going to function as the reflector to bounce the light from the flash back into the dish. I needed to make 3 holes in the pizza tray for the bolts that will mount the tray onto the bowl. First, I eyeballed where I wanted the holes and marked the spots with a sharpie. Then I drilled the holes using a 1/4 drill bit and my cordless drill:
#7 - With the holes in the pizza tray done, I centered the pizza tray inside the mixing bowl and transfered the hole pattern onto the mixing bowl with a sharpie:
#8 - Here are the marks for the holes, which will align the holes in the pizza tray to the ones I about to make in the mixing bowl:
#9 - Using the same 1/4 drill bit, I drilled out the holes in the bottom of the mixing bowl:
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#11 - Now take another set of nuts and screw them onto the bolts. The pizza tray will rest on these bolts so screw them down to the position you want the pizza tray to sit. I screwed them down about 1/2":
#12 - Now place the pizza tray on the bolts
#13 - Next take another set of nuts and secure the pizza tray in place. Your beauty dish should now be taking shape:
#14 - I don't have pictures of the rest of the steps but it's pretty straight forward from here. I took the speed ring from my softbox mount, marked the hole pattern on the back of the mixing bowl and drilled the holes for the bolts that will secure the speed ring to the beauty dish. The size holes you will make will depend on the speed ring that you have. My speed ring had holes that would accommodate #6 screws so I used a 9/64 drill bit to drill the holes.
#15 - Next I lightly sanded the mixing bowl and pizza tray just to give the paint a better surface to stick to.
#16 - Now came paint. I gave the inside and outside 3 coats of spray paint. Flat white on the inside and satin black on the outside. I also gave each side of the pizza tray 3 coats of flat white spray paint. I allowed 3 hours dry time in between coats. Then I let it sit for 24-hours.
#17 - I gave everything 2 coats of clear coat spray paint just for good measure. This will help protect the paint from chipping and scratching too easily. Again, gave this 24-hours to dry.
#18 - After everything was nice and cured, I reassembled everything the same way I did in the earlier steps. I also mounted the speed ring and stand mount and viola, I had a well built beauty dish that rivals an expensive store bought model:
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This will outlast the flimsy one I purchased!
Royce
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One small piece of advice: since the pizza tray is floating on the bolts and only held in place by nuts, I suggest you replace those nuts with lock nuts, something like these:
http://www.fastenal.com/web/products/detail.ex?sku=1137018&ucst=t
That will prevent the nuts from coming loose during normal transport and storage, and keep the pizza tray precisely aligned inside the mixing bowl; my guess is that if it's mis-aligned, the light will spill unevenly to one side of the bowl and give you a weird shadow effect in a shot. The last thing you want is for your nuts to fall off.
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The metal dog bool should work but you'll need to find one that is big enough and when you do, it will probably cost you 3 times as much as the mixing bowl. A 16 quart mixing bowl is 18" in diameter so it's pretty large. I had no problem finding it online but I ended up finding it locally as I mention in my OP.
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Had the same thought about the lock nuts and if you look at the finished picture, you'll see I replaced the original nuts with lock nuts. Good catch though as I forgot to mention it. Also am going to use lock washers. Just need to buy them.
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I like your idea! It loks quite professional and the results are very nice.
I am considering modifying the plans to accept one of my studio strobes.
I like the results of a beauty dish but, since I will seldom use one, do not desire to spend the big bucks to purchase a commercially made model...
Btw, what's "Paramount setup"? Presumably what the studio used but... care to share the specifics for those of us who don't know yet?
http://www.studiolighting.net/paramount-butterfly-lighting-studio-lighting-setup/
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Ha - yes, sorry, I DO usually do my own research, but had people talking to me (family holiday and all that) and my fingers just kinda typed the question...
Funny that this is essentially the setup I use for about 80% of my formal portraits indoors, although with a Softliter or umbrella rather than beauty dish. Ha!
I think it's time to get a bigger foil pan for my ghetto version
I considered making this to work with my Alien Bees but I thought I'd first cut the hole for my speed flash since I can always make it bigger but not smaller. The biggest issue is that if I cut a round how to fit my Alien Bees strobe, when I use the speed flash, I will have a lot of light spill. I am thinking of using a small piece of black cloth, attached with velcro to the dish to cover the gaps around the speed light and prevent light spill.
I have to think about this a bit before I cut the dish to fit it because once I do, I can go back.
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Diva... You may actually be able to cut the hole using the jig saw with a metal cutting blade. You'll have to drill a hole in each corner of the outline so you can get the jig blade in to start the cut. Tin snips may work as well but you may have to drill a few holes along the outline to make it easier to cut through. Tin ships are like heavy duty scissors that are using to cut tin and thin metal.
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There are a ton of other ways you can cut the hole cheaply if need be. If all else fails you could just drill holes around the perimeter where you want to the hole cut and find something to snap the small pieces of metal remaining, you could use a hole saw (which I plan to do if I ever make one) with an appropriately sized drill bit.. Just think outside the box. There is more than one way to cut a hole.
Exactly. If you drill the small hole around the perimeter, you can probably use tin snips to cut it out. Tin snips run about $15 for a nice pair. An angle grinder, fitted with a metal cutting disc would work as well.
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No worries Diva. Let me know if you decide to make one and if you need any help. BTW, my next project is to turn my shoot through umbrella into a Brolly box. Just need to go down to the fabric store. Hopefully I still remember what I learned in the 7th grade when I took sewing.
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You also can sometimes get a different shop to help you out. I have gone to the local bicycle store to get a shelf for my motorcycle cut (I let the magic smoke out of the first Dremel). So sometimes other places that work with metal might be willing to help out. Also some of the hardware stores here rent out tools for home improvement projects - they want you to buy the materials there.
If you are lucky enough to live near one of these.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TechShop you could get it done in a few minutes.
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I originally made this for my Nikon SB-600 hot shoe flash. It worked quite well. However, I ended up modifying it to fit my Alien Bees strobes since I use them much more than my Nikon flash. I actually just used it with my AB800 for a few sessions. Here is one of the shots:
I just bought some material to make a sock for it to diffuse the light just a tad. I don't really think it needs it but I want to try to see if the light looks different/better with the sock. I only paid $3 for the material and elastic so why not.
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