Chinatown special DIY beauty dish

I'm a sucker for a DIY photography project.  It's as much about the making it as it is the end result.  So I'll preface this post with the fact that there are probably some equally cost effective ebay solutions to purchasing a beauty dish.  But they won't be half as much fun as doing it yourself.  The world also doesn't need another design for a DIY beauty dish.  A quick google on the subject will find you all sorts of designs from the Turkey Dish to the Chinatown special DIY beauty dish.  In my opinion photographer Todd Owyoung did a fantastic job with his design and write up which means I didn't have to!  That along with a modificaiton by Gregory Tran’s version of this design, using an L-plate instead of the Lastolite bracket is where I started.

The biggest issue is despite trawling t'interweb and visiting my local markets and Chinese wholesalers I couldn't find a bowl or pizza tray exactly the same as Todd's.  Revieiwing all the internet posts for DIY beauty dishes I think most UK photographers trying to do the same have found the same issues.  My beauty dish is therefore known as the Swedish special as IKEA came to my rescue!  Their bowl isn't shaped in the same way as that used by Todd but as you will see below it shapes light as nicely as it holds a salad.  For the pizza tray substitue and a rather fitting nod to Todd's Chinatown design I ended up using a small metal dish from my local Chinese wholesalers. Try as I might I can't find a web link to anything like it but I think it's probably a small finger bowl.

United Kingdom shopping list for the Chinatown special DIY beauty dish

1 x Synchro Sync Hot Shoe Flash Adaptor (between £4 - £8 on ebay)
    www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=Synchro+Sync+Hot+Shoe+Flash+Adaptor&_sacat=See-All-Categories
1 x IKEA 36cm BLANDA BLANK Serving bowl, stainless steel - Article Number : 000.572.56 £8.99
    www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/00057256/
1 x 100mm Corner Brace £5 for a pack of 4 from B&Q or Homebase
    www.diy.com/nav/fix/hardware/ironmongery/joinery/B-and-Q-Corner-Brace-Zinc-Effect-9370673
3 x (W)M6 x (L)100mm Hex Bolt £4.30 for a pack Of 10 from B&Q
    www.diy.com/nav/fix/hardware/bolts/bolts/-specificproducttype-hex_bolts/Hex-Bolt-AVF-852657-Pack-Of-10-W-M6-x-L-100mm-9708094
2 x (W)M6 x (L)40mm Hex Bolt £1.74 for a pack Of 10 from B&Q
    www.diy.com/nav/fix/hardware/bolts/bolts/-specificproducttype-hex_bolts/Hex-Bolt-AVF-852695-Pack-Of-10-W-M6-x-L-40mm-9708096
1 x Manfrotto 234 Monopod Tilt Head £16
    www.warehouseexpress.com/buy-manfrotto-234-monopod-tilt-head/p11018
1 x 9cm metal dish from a chinese wholesale store £2
    This was the hardest thing to source and try as I might I can't find a web link to anything like it

1 x length of aluminium foil
1 x length of black insulating tape

1 X Rustoleum undercoat
1 X Rustoleum Matt black
1 X Rustoleum Matt White

Total cost: approx £42 + Paint

I had a number of the parts listed below already and my dad works for a paint wholesalers so managed to get a bit of a discount there but as I've already said it doesn't work out cheap mainly because you have to buy serveral of the parts in bulk.

My method is pretty much as explained by Todd, but I used a large angle grinder to cut the whole for the flash which results in a rectangular whole, I also purposefully made it slightly larger than my flash head as at the time of cutting I hadn't finalised the above shopping list and wasn't sure how exact I was going to be able to be with positioning the flash head.  To compensate for this I took a length of kitchen foil, scrunching it into a long snake and then wrapping it around the flash head to shape and finally covered it in black insulating tape.  This moldable tape / foil surround is then used to make a snug fit for the flash head and prevent light leakage.

To secure the L bracket to the Manfrotto head I used one of the 40mm M6 bolts to screw it directly inot the Synchro hot shoe.  The hot shoe has an imperial thread but luckily is made of softer metal than the bolts so I was able to rethread it with relative ease.

The pictures below can be used along with Todd's page to work out the rest.  But most importantly how does it perform?  See examples below

Examples

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