egproductions
Veteran
Wondering if there are any lights that are well suited for adapting to a beauty dish. Lekos maybe? Maybe an LED because tungsten heat is too much?
Beauty Dish for Video?
- Thread starter egproductions
- Start date
Excuse my ignorance, but what is a beauty dish?
I'm doing exactly that right now... I'm trying to duplicate some lighting that I have used for stills for years using pan lights (beauty dish). I found the PERFECT light to use: Fiilex P360 with an el-cheapo PhotoDix 16" white pan-light off of Amazon. The results are stunning... Since the Fiilex stuff is dim-mable and can range from 3000K-5500K without filtration, it's ideal for what you are after either in the studio, on location, or that close, even outside in open shade. Google Fiilex P360. The heads are tiny, round, and fit all of the light modifiers for Profoto. Kindest regards, pm-r 
The R300 is a great low-cost ring-light ( especially with the "milk" diffuser attached ), but it's far too small to be used as a "beauty dish", which usually start at 20 inches in diameter and go up from there.
When I used to shoot full-time studio work a long time ago, the 40+ inch Mola Light was considered the top "beauty dish" to have. It was invented by a Canadian Photographer, Walter Melrose, 30 years ago.
The Mola Blog
KurtF
Well-known member
How about "The Stupid Light" which is a creation from Shane Hurlbut's blog:
http://www.hurlbutvisuals.com/blog/2011/11/building-the-perfect-key-light/
Scroll down past the "Pan Light" to the home built beauty, or dish light.
http://www.hurlbutvisuals.com/blog/2011/11/building-the-perfect-key-light/
Scroll down past the "Pan Light" to the home built beauty, or dish light.
legrevedotcom
Veteran
A ring light is very far from being a beauty dish.
The properties of a beauty dish is that it's a soft hard source of light. It wraps nicely but retains a nice contrast. A sort of bounced direct light… I think the closest you'd get would be making a little edge (like 5-10cm high) around a bead board and then bounce a light into it.
I used to work with a photographer in London, and the Profoto beauty dish was a regular item on the beauty / fashion shoots as keylight.
However, I don't know to be honest what to use for continuos light source. I think you could go higher in wattage than you'd think, since the modelling light of some to the pro flash brands is around 600watts tungsten.
What about an Arrilite 750? Can you get a dish for those?
egproductions
Veteran
Thanks for the suggestions guys. I'm familiar with the fillex LED. It's a cool light, however, I don't think it packs enough punch for my purposes. I intend on renting a Mola Euro 33" beauty dish which is fairly large as far as beauty dishes go. I'll be throwing a 20 dregree grid on there as well.
I essentially need a somewhat large light source that has a really narrow beam spread. For still photography, beauty dishes are the way to go. For video, I've seen kinos with honeycombs (however, they are really heavy and 45 degree is the minimum) or bouncing off a diffusion panel and using flags (which is a little cumbersome.)
I think the profoto constant lights are going to be the most practical.
I essentially need a somewhat large light source that has a really narrow beam spread. For still photography, beauty dishes are the way to go. For video, I've seen kinos with honeycombs (however, they are really heavy and 45 degree is the minimum) or bouncing off a diffusion panel and using flags (which is a little cumbersome.)
I think the profoto constant lights are going to be the most practical.
homestar_kevin
Well-known member
Another option is the alzo LED fixture and the ebay variants of it.
They have a calumet/bowens mount on the fixture and can take accessories like beauty dishes and whatever you'd want to attach to a strobe.
They have a calumet/bowens mount on the fixture and can take accessories like beauty dishes and whatever you'd want to attach to a strobe.