I managed to persuade my resident model – my eldest daughter – to spare 15 minutes this evening so I could give the DIY Beauty Dish as quick test.

I didn’t have enough time to give it a thorough testing so just fired off a few comparison shots with the flashgun, beauty dish & DIY Milk Carton Diffuser which I made a while ago.

I still haven’t found a mirror to go inside the CD case to reflect light back out into the dish, so in the end I have made a small circular cone out of thin card & covered it in aluminium foil which reflects light from the flash out into the dish & then out onto the subject.

I set up the flashgun on a tripod using a wireless trigger mounted on the camera to fire the flash. The flashgun – Sigma DG 500 Super – was set on manual. Camera was hand-held & I used the Canon 50mm f1.8 for all shots.

All shots were taken using the following setup. I clipped a black cloth to the living room curtains for the backdrop.

Plain Flash

This shot with the un-diffused flashgun – 1/160 @ f18. Note the light is quite harsh with stronger shadows.

Beauty Dish

This shot with the Beauty Dish – 1/125 @ f6.3. Note the light is less harsh, more diffused with softer shadows.

Milk Carton Diffuser

This shot with the home made diffuser – 1/125 @ f3.5. Note a more even light including around the top of the head, due ability of the diffuser to bounce flash off the ceiling as well as straight ahead. Much softer shadows still.

Milk Carton Diffuser with Reflector

This shot as above but with the addition of a 80cm silver reflector to the left of the model – 1/125 @ f5. Note more light available to the left of the model’s face, hair & shoulder.

I think overall, while the DIY Beauty Dish does soften the harsh light of the flashgun, I prefer the look of the Milk Carton Diffuser for the overall softness of the light. It’s more portable & much cheaper to make than the Beauty Dish!! Having said that, this isn’t a full test & I’d like to do more test shots using all three setups.