And even with the downsides I am about to hit, it's a lot of versatility for $150. Lots of different combos here, with internal indentations for two different positions. There is a direct light blocker disc that is both moveable and removable - another win. And you can combine the diffusor (on the inside) with the grid (outside) for a gridded, soft, even light. Which allows you to work in close with big lights. The addition of the diffusor make for a smooth, patternless light source and also bleeds some power. You can work right at the fall-off of that edge for cool portraits. The grids are a nice touch, and add a nice "edge" to the hard/soft light. You need fill with it, but it can be very cool, when used appropriately. (Boy, that would have been nice.)īut the light is very even, and has that not-hard-not-soft quality that I like about the LumiQuest SB-III. The interior is crinkle finish, which is the only thing that keeps it from behaving like a super-efficient Profoto tele-reflector. It is a different light source, with a unique look. It needs to be pretty close-in, which makes it better as a key for, say, speedlights.
#GRIDDED BEAUTY DISH FULL#
More on that later.īut a 16" dish, with two full grids, a diffusor and a donut diffusor with central grid spot for $150 shipped? Sure, I'm game.įirst of all, it is not a true "big light" beauty dish, which is to say it is not very soft at the distances you are likely to use big lights. This is because the different flashes will place their bulbs at slightly different depths, with possibly none being at the focal point of the parabolic reflector.Īnd the mounting system itself may have issues, as it has to be designed to be (a) convertible and (b) inexpensive enough to provide a tempting discount relative to the name brand. Granted, a 3rd-party, multi-brand beauty dish is gonna be a compromise in the light shaping department. So that's exactly what I did, from eBayer "onecamera," who sells these 16" beauty dish kits for a variety of flash mounts. (That's one reason I modded my AB softboxes to use with the Profoto lights.)īy comparison, the prospect of getting all of this for $150 (shipped) was intriguing:
#GRIDDED BEAUTY DISH MOD#
But the prices are such that a mod is not exactly an impulse purchase. And thankfully, there are enough other Profoto users so that the 3rd-party eBay folks offer a large number of "unofficial" modifiers.ĭon't get me wrong, I love my Profoto reflectors and I even have one of their beauty dishes. One of the reasons I went with Profoto a ways back was because their reflectors are "zoomable," due to the design of the mount. But rather, I am a sucker for new and different light modifiers. Here you can skip catchlights and have the model turn their into the shadows and still get an interesting portrait, I think.Which is not to say that I am both promiscuous and a snazzy dresser, because I am neither. Painting a picture with mostly two different tones of the same colour can be very freeing, the position of the head is not as important as it is with harder and darker shadows.
![gridded beauty dish gridded beauty dish](https://www.bhphotovideo.com/images/images2500x2500/Impact_bdg_20_Honeycomb_Grid_For_20_838088.jpg)
Just by adjusting the light output or angle or position will create completely different portraits. I plan to buy two silver Profoto Umbrella XL and diffusers soon, and variations of this setup will be something I will continue to explore with them. The camera was, as always, a Nikon D700 using, as always, the 85mm 1.4 lens. The light in the background was not turned on, I just tried using it for a gradient on the background, but chose to keep it really simple, just two lights. the same effect setting, maybe a little lower on the fill side. The lights where at the same height, angled down a bit with approx. They key light was a Profoto D1 250 Air with a gridded white Softlight Reflector (beauty dish) from camera left and a large 5-f00t softbox Octa camera right.
#GRIDDED BEAUTY DISH SKIN#
What I am trying to say is I like interesting shadows.įor this portrait, a headshot for an author I did a couple of weeks ago, I tried to balance the key and the fill light so there would be one half of the portrait in a lighter skin tone, and the other in a darker.
![gridded beauty dish gridded beauty dish](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1899/4221/products/godox-wistro-ad360-ad360ii-beauty-dish-with-grid-5_1024x1024.jpg)
This might sound strange when I try to explain it, I blame it on not having English as my first language. There is something I like with cinema lighting, or lighting for television, when they tend to have faces painted with just two tones of the same skin colour.