Deep Beauty Dish for flash photography

Materials: Foto (discontinued lamp shade), - vice grip/ clamps - hammer - drill & drill bit set - hack saw - metal cutting snip (offset cutter) - Grinder power tool (to cut metal ). wrench, ratchet set, hammer, vice grip, drill, hacksaw, metal cutting snip. grinder, nuts bolts, wingnuts, screws, aluminum strip, reflector

Description: Bought the 'Foto' aluminum lamp shade from Ikea two years ago from the 'As-is' section. Must've been discontinued, but I picked it up for $5!

Materials:
The rest of the parts such as, an aluminum strip, threaded rods, 1/4" screws, wing nuts and bolts are from Rona & Home Depot. Bought a 5" metal plate from a dollar store and it used as the reflector in the center. The plastic tubing you see is just leftover tubes used to hook up residential sinks and bathtub faucets.

Tools used:
- vice grip/ clamps
- hammer
- drill & drill bit set
- hack saw
- metal cutting snip (offset cutter)
- Grinder power tool (to cut metal )
- wrenches or ratchet set


I think this is pretty straight forward project for photographer feeling a bit savvy. What I like about Do-it-yourself is trying to figure out what works best, that's where I get my high.

I designed it to accommodate the much larger Nikon SB-900, But I used a Nikon SB-800 speedlight encased with a Velcro strip for this setup.

The works:
This is a deep Beauty Dish, so all I can say is light fall-off is very dramatic and contrast it creates is high. I often have to use white reflectors to pick-out the shadows on my subjects. If only I had any opportunity to use commercially-bought beauty dishes, I would have comparisons. But nope, this is a poor man's hack. :)

See more of the Beauty Dish.

~ Chun Wu