# Introducing the Booty Dish



## kdthomas (Feb 17, 2015)

Tired of your portraits looking like this?



Try the new booty dish!


Shamelessly stolen from a DIY photography site on the internet, the Booty Dish turns portraits like the one above, into photographic gold, like this:

or this!

or even this!
*Ahem!*

Build yours today at:
How To Build A Beauty Dish - DIY Photography


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## Braineack (Feb 18, 2015)

here's a two more DIY solutions:
Flickr Discussing Trash Talk DIY Trash Can Lid Beauty Dish Pot Base Beauty Dish...UPDATE in Strobist.com

I went this route: Amazon.com Fotodiox 10DISH-16-Bwn-kit 16-Inch Pro Beauty Dish Kit with Honeycomb Grid for Bowens Gemini Standard Classica Powerpack R Series Rx Series and Pro Series Strobe Flash Light Photographic Lighting Reflectors Camera Photo

Fits on my strobes or speedlights w/adapter.  It was only $60 when I bought it; guess it's more popular now.


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## gsgary (Feb 18, 2015)

No need when you have a Bowens dish


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## tecboy (Feb 18, 2015)

I wonder why the beauty dishes are so expensive.  These can break easily.


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## Braineack (Feb 18, 2015)

because everything in the camera industry is expensive with or without justification.


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## W.Y.Photo (Feb 18, 2015)

That's Booty-full.

Thanks! looks like a useful tool.


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## Mach0 (Feb 18, 2015)

Braineack said:


> here's a two more DIY solutions:
> Flickr Discussing Trash Talk DIY Trash Can Lid Beauty Dish Pot Base Beauty Dish...UPDATE in Strobist.com
> 
> I went this route: Amazon.com Fotodiox 10DISH-16-Bwn-kit 16-Inch Pro Beauty Dish Kit with Honeycomb Grid for Bowens Gemini Standard Classica Powerpack R Series Rx Series and Pro Series Strobe Flash Light Photographic Lighting Reflectors Camera Photo
> ...




I've been eyeing a 16 inch. Can't decide on that or a 22 inch 


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## photoguy99 (Feb 18, 2015)

So, how do you use it? Do you hit the model with it until he stops picking his nose?


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## kdthomas (Feb 18, 2015)

photoguy99 said:


> So, how do you use it? Do you hit the model with it until he stops picking his nose?


Or she ...


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## photoguy99 (Feb 18, 2015)

I'd never hit a woman. With a booty dish, anyways.


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## Braineack (Feb 18, 2015)

Mach0 said:


> I've been eyeing a 16 inch. Can't decide on that or a 22 inch



throws a LOT of light all over the place.  compare it to a 32x47" softbox:


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## Mach0 (Feb 18, 2015)

Braineack said:


> Mach0 said:
> 
> 
> > I've been eyeing a 16 inch. Can't decide on that or a 22 inch
> ...



Those patterns of light look odd. Have you tried it with a stofen cap? Or something similar? I know that dish is designed for a bare bulb so I can see why but it looks off. 


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## photoguy99 (Feb 18, 2015)

Note the shadows cast by the background on to the dungeon wall, in Braineak's photos. That's actually the point. Light all over the place, but directional.


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## Derrel (Feb 18, 2015)

Yeah...a beauty dish that has no barn doors available for it is one I would not want to have. Speedotron makes a good set of 16-inch two-leaf barn doors. I have  a set....REALLY useful on beauty dish or parabolic reflectors.


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## Mach0 (Feb 18, 2015)

photoguy99 said:


> Note the shadows cast by the background on to the dungeon wall, in Braineak's photos. That's actually the point. Light all over the place, but directional.


I am talking more of the hard lines. Almost as if the lines are the direct flash hitting the background because of the distance from the flash from the center plate or the fact that it's direct flash on the flat deflector plate vs bare bulb or a convex mirror. It's rings of hard light that I'm speaking of. 


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## photoguy99 (Feb 18, 2015)

Sorry Mach0, my remark was more directed at Braineak. I dunno, do beauty dishes normally make circles? Seems based on the construction that they ought to, actually. But I dunno.

I do know that girls are neither grey, nor seamless. They're also not flat. Unless you've really really damaged them. In which case shame on you.


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## Mach0 (Feb 18, 2015)

photoguy99 said:


> Sorry Mach0, my remark was more directed at Braineak. I dunno, do beauty dishes normally make circles? Seems based on the construction that they ought to, actually. But I dunno.
> 
> I do know that girls are neither grey, nor seamless. They're also not flat. Unless you're really really damaged them. In which case shame on you.


Lol !!! 

I'm goingto buy one too and when I use it on a speedlight- I'll prob have to rig a convex mirror. 


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## Braineack (Feb 18, 2015)

beauty dishes are harsher light for sure.

I typically will use it with the diffuser sock or grid.

Here's a better series of the patterns:

bare






sock





20° grid





grid + sock







The first shows the cutoff line much better, it's that quick drop-off is why people like it to really play up the intensity of the shadows in faces. 

maybe ill pose my ugly mug for you guys later with various modifiers if I get bored.


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## tirediron (Feb 18, 2015)

Mach0 said:


> Braineack said:
> 
> 
> > here's a two more DIY solutions:
> ...


With modifiers, as with other things, than, bigger is usually better.


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## AKUK (Feb 18, 2015)

I have a 40cm and 56cm beauty dish and they are among my favourite modifiers. I find myself using the smaller one more. Although I have everything from  speedlite grids, up to a 7ft umbrella, I tend to prefer smaller light sources. I'm a fan of high contrast light and if you are working in a confined space like I am, big modifiers aren't really an option, other than "ambient" fills as opposed to keys. If I had a thumping great big studio with high ceilings, then I dare say the large umbrellas would come out more but, the 40cm gridded dish and even 7" reflectors with barn doors, tend to be my weapons of choice.

Ultimately it depends on the look you are going for as to what size modifier is used and the space you have available to you.


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## Derrel (Feb 19, 2015)

As to the hard lines shown in Braineack's gray paper shots: are those from the modeling lamp? Or are those shots made of the actual electronic flash output? My guess is that the "lines" are from the way the modeling lamp interacts with the deflector and also the struts that support the deflector.


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## Braineack (Feb 19, 2015)

Those are electronic flash output shots.   

You can see the 4 struts/posts in that first shot above.  Makes me think I'm getting some spill around the center dome and it's not all being bounced back in the dish.


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## Mach0 (Feb 19, 2015)

Braineack said:


> Those are electronic flash output shots.
> 
> You can see the 4 struts/posts in that first shot above.  Makes me think I'm getting some spill around the center dome and it's not all being bounced back in the dish.


Try rigging a convex mirror. Less than ten bucks. See if that helps. 


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## Derrel (Feb 19, 2015)

Braineack said:
			
		

> Those are electronic flash output shots.
> 
> You can see the 4 struts/posts in that first shot above.  Makes me think I'm getting some spill around the center dome and it's not all being bounced back in the dish.



The flashtube itself is pretty small in that brand and model of flash unit, and it's functioning pretty much as a point-source light, which is giving the hard shadow lines on the support struts. This modifier's performance with the small, clear glass flashtube used on that brand of monolight is one of the reasons some flash makers, like Photogenic, JTL, and the Buff-made Einstein 640 monolights have a frosted glass dome over the flashtube itself as standard equipment on some lights. I used to shoot in a studio where we used Photogenic brand lights, and they had relatively long, large, heavily frosted or "opal" flashtubes, which really,really scramble the light a lot, and make the light much less one-directional. Not surprisingly, the Photogenic lights were designed with an emphasis for the best performance in studio lighting type situations, using...parabolic or half-shell solid metal reflectors.

See this page for an idea of how important diffusion AT THE FLASHTUBE is considered by some manufacturers:  Glass Covers


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## Braineack (Feb 19, 2015)

intersting.  I just tend to use the sock.


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