I finally finished my rendition of Todd Owyoung's DIY Beauty Dish, the Chinatown Special Mark II. He has complete directions on how to build one, so I won't bother. I made a few modifications to it, however.
First, working under the assumption if some is good, more is better, I cut the hole in the back large enough to accommodate 2 flashes. Using the cheap Quantaray flashes I picked up, I attached a radio trigger to one and put the other on optical mode. I attached velcro to the backs of both flash heads, and then used a ball bungee to further fasten them together. By orienting the flashes this way, I can still access the controls for both flashes. This seems to work though I haven't really battle tested the dish.
Secondly, I used 4 screws to mount the internal reflector instead of 3. I could not figure out how to accurately position 3 screws using only a homemade compass. Further research revealed that it is impossible to trisect an angle with a compass, while 4 points was very easy to measure, so I used 4 screws. I used carriage bolts instead of end cap bolts, because I thought it looked better and because it was easier.
Additionally, I built the custom bracket that is holding the two flashes. While it isn't as professional looking as the lastolite flash bracket, it was cheaper and allows me to use 2 flashes. It is attached to the swivel bracket by removing the screw on cold shoe and then screwing the cold shoe on over the metal bracket. I don't have standard flash brackets, but with standard flash brackets this would not be necessary.
Below are preliminary shots with the first available models I had access to.
Photos of the Superman are always suspect, as his complexion is too perfect. The other photo (despite the model's blemish free skin) shows the resolving power of the beauty dish, and you can even see her first tooth. Self portraits were a little too realistic as every pore becomes visible. I don't have reference with a real beauty dish, but I think I would look more beautiful under softer light, so perhaps a larger bowl would be more appropriate. Most beauty dishes start at 22 inches while this bowl was 18 inches, so maybe that would make a difference. There are larger bowls available, but even the 20 quart bowl is only 19 inches.
The total cost to build would break down like this
$12.75 16qt bowl
$3.00 8 inch pizza pan
$7.00 primer for the paint
$1.50 screws and bolts at Lowe's
this is about $25, but does not include:
white paint- one application donated by the crew of the building. Otherwise would have cost $1 of ultra cheap can to about $4 for regular can
$1 spent on ultra cheap can of black paint. Really I should have skipped primer and just bought better paint. You could save a few dollars by not painting the outside, or painting it white instead of black cutting your paint costs in half.
$100 borrowed a Dremel. If you have to buy one, it really isn't as cost effective anymore as you can buy an off brand dish for $150. You could drill a lot of holes or use a forstner bit, but you'd still have to buy a forstner bit
$10 metal for bracket I bought a strip of metal from Home Depot a while back, and there is plenty left to make more brackets, but this is still much cheaper than buying a photography dish mount.
In a future post- figuring out how to use it.
No comments:
Post a Comment