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08-04-2012, 06:33 PM   #1
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DYI Beauty Dish suggestion

Hey I'm a huge tinkerer and when I get bored I like to do a lot of DYI work. I have a bunch of metallic silver spray paint lying around from my last project so I decided that I'm going to try to make my own small beauty dish. Searching online, quite a few people use stainless steel mixing bowls, but I don't have the power cutter I would need to make the hole I need for my flash head. So instead I'm hoping to just spray paint one of my plastic salad bowls and use that. I've found some info online and I'm a little torn on which dish I should use as a base. One is a 7-quart salad bowl that is about 14 inches around the edge and a standard bowl depth. My other option is a vegetable bowl/dish that is a little wider (II'll say about 15 inches around the edge) but much shallower, its only 3-inches deep. My question is which would make a more ideal base for a beauty dish, the normal, deep bowl, or the larger, shallower dish?

08-04-2012, 07:56 PM   #2
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QuoteOriginally posted by brandonbpm Quote
Hey I'm a huge tinkerer and when I get bored I like to do a lot of DYI work. I have a bunch of metallic silver spray paint lying around from my last project so I decided that I'm going to try to make my own small beauty dish. Searching online, quite a few people use stainless steel mixing bowls, but I don't have the power cutter I would need to make the hole I need for my flash head. So instead I'm hoping to just spray paint one of my plastic salad bowls and use that. I've found some info online and I'm a little torn on which dish I should use as a base. One is a 7-quart salad bowl that is about 14 inches around the edge and a standard bowl depth. My other option is a vegetable bowl/dish that is a little wider (II'll say about 15 inches around the edge) but much shallower, its only 3-inches deep. My question is which would make a more ideal base for a beauty dish, the normal, deep bowl, or the larger, shallower dish?
Silly question, but would a bundt cake pan work for you? It already has the hole, I'm just not sure if the funky designs would cause mayhem or not.
08-04-2012, 10:36 PM   #3
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The second bowl you mentioned is probably the better choice. For one thing it will give you a bigger light source, but also I think a lot of people make the mistake of making their DIY beauty dishes too deep. I've made my own, and it work well. You want a shallow parabola, but then the key is to place the return/reflector/shield whatever you want to call it at the focus of the parabola. You may need to review your geometry for this one, I did. I used threaded rod to mount the return on mine so that I could adjust it to the proper height for my particular bowl. For the top side of the return I used a fan outlet cover, and on the underside I used a convex mirror that I found at an auto parts store to distribute the light around the dish.

One other piece of advice I'd give you is consider flat white spray paint instead of silver. I'm not saying you have to, but just consider it. I found it to be much more flattering, with fewer specular irregularities from the machining of the bowl. I would recommend a good spray primer too regardless of what you use as your topcoat. XIM 400 primer from UGL is great, if a little expensive. It sticks to anything and won't give up under the heat.

Last edited by maxfield_photo; 08-09-2012 at 08:52 PM.
08-09-2012, 04:40 PM   #4
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Go to Garage Glamour and search the archives. There was quite a bit about this topic four or five years ago. As I recall, the bottom line was that for most people, it's probably better to buy than build. But if you're good at assembling things, you can do a pretty good approximation.

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