Test shot using my home made DIY 12-inch beauty dish.

[jiro]

As you all know, I like building my own light modifiers (short for financially handicapped ) and this time I decided to make my own DIY beauty dish. Here is the youtube video that I copied the idea from: http://youtu.be/ewVnRwZyIb4

Here is the actual beauty dish that I made:


The plastic bowl cost me about $4.50, the paint $1.10, the other stuff are free since I have them at home like the reflective duct tape, CD-case cover, some screws, glue, white boards,etc.

And here is the result using my daughter as my model:


I wanted to retain some detail on the background so I set my shutter speed to about 1/125 second. Then after a test shot, I find that opening my aperture to about f/4.5 would prevent me from having those blinking highlights on my camera screen. The lowest ISO that my camera can use is ISO 200 hence the setting. Some selective sharpening, a little retouch on my kid's pimples and that was it using lightroom and photoshop. Not bad for a cheap light modifier if I may say. My only problem is with my voice activated light stand (my other kid) who had a hard time responding to my commands. Thank you very much for viewing.

[wommby]

Nice shot. I'll have to get my husband making me all these wonderful little extra's like you do. I do like the lighting.

Deb

[jiro]

Thanks, Deb. If your husband has a Dremel tool, he can easily make this one in about 15-20 minutes. The paint job is the one that will consume more time. Here is another test shot. This time using my voice activated light stand as my model. His name is Bryan.

[Katy Noelle]

Very clever, Jiro, and it looks good to me!

But, ohp, cool! Your son looks like you! The big question, now, is do you look like your pet....???

Beautiful faces and expressions!

[jiro]

Very clever, Jiro, and it looks good to me!

But, ohp, cool! Your son looks like you! The big question, now, is do you look like your pet....???

Beautiful faces and expressions!

Yeah, people say my kid is beginning to look more like me. He even inherited my white hairs though he's only 13! When you see me in person I'm more like a mixed breed of a Chihuahua and a Boxer. Hahaha!

Here's another shot of Bryan on his bike but this time i decided to go with bare flash using my SB-24 set at 1/8th power. ISO 200, f/5.6 and at 1/400 second.

[Katy Noelle]

LOL! You're so funny! and, another great pic, although, on this one, the flash is more noticeable but, maybe, you don't mind?

[jiro]

LOL! You're so funny! and, another great pic, although, on this one, the flash is more noticeable but, maybe, you don't mind?

I did made the flash really noticeable on this one. Without the flash I would need to use a ridiculous ISO 1600 on my Nikon D70 which would give me a noisy shot while only giving me a shutter speed of 1/3 second. I've been following Zack Arias' blog and I'm trying to learn from his tips on One-light photography.

[Katy Noelle]

Cool, it doesn't bother me, personally. The shot tells a great story - has a really upbeat and definitely good feeling to it!

[jiro]

Cool, it doesn't bother me, personally. The shot tells a great story - has a really upbeat and definitely good feeling to it!

Once I get hold of a wireless flash triggering device I can be more playful with my shots. I'm only limited to about 5 - 6 feet of spread since I am using a flash cord to trigger the flash. I'm glad you like the last one.

[Sahil]

Wow.. Your DIY beauty dish is definitely doing a great job, Jiro.

[jiro]

Thanks, Sahil.