Or, How To Whip Up A Little Something In The Kitchen For The Studio
Occasionally in my web surfing I come across things that strike me as quite clever. One such example is a homemade beauty dish I stumbled upon on lifehacker.com. Well, actually the lifehacker page was really the entry to a rabbit hole I eventually went down, that lead to David Tejada’s blog for commercial photographers, where he references Tyler Burk‘s instructions for this clever little item on Flickr. Such is life in cyberspace.
Okay, so why do you want to know how to make a homemade beauty dish anyway? Because they can turn your camera’s dedicated flash unit into a stunningly fantastic piece of advanced lighting equipment. And because you can make this version for approximately $15-$20, vs $175-$365 for one like this Dynalite Model.
If you’re still not convinced, check out the two images in this post by Evan Romine, both lit with a beauty dish. Good stuff, no?
If you would like to read more, check out these articles:
High Key Studio Lighting – Tutorial
Photographing Young Children With Low Key Lighting – Tutorial
Studio Lighting for Headshots – Tutorial
How to Set Up a Photo Booth in Your Home
How to Photograph Large Groups in the Studio
Photographing Babies, Birth to One Year – Tips and Techniques
Using Bold Color in Portraiture – Tips and Techniques

nice find – Going to try this one out over the weekend and snap some up. Your my hero as always!
Hi Chris,
I’m always so glad to hear from you. Hey, if you do make this little gadget and shoot some cool stuff, I’d be happy to feature a shot or two here on the blog. That’s what it’s all about, doing real stuff in the real world and sharing it with real people.
Have a GREAT one!
Well I spent all day saturday obsessing over the pan to use, went to like 5 different stores, but finally got one. This saturday is DIY day. My mates doing it too and has sent me shots of his advanced progress, lol it’s a real race too!
I’d love to post some shots!
chris x
Hi Chris,
This is just the kind of thing I love to hear about. I think it’s fantastic that you and your mate are in a bit of a challenge! Can’t wait to see the no doubt fabulous results!