My Does it need a name? If it does, maybe you guys can help me name it/him/her.
Since I finished it, it has been sitting idle.
I have been dying to put it to use but until recently, when I taught my Small Flash Lighting workshop, I just didn’t have a model to do some test shots.
So… does it work?
You be the judge.
Mouse over the big picture above and see for yourself.
Some Background
I hope I don’t have to tell you this beauty dish is strictly for off-camera use with your Speedlight.
That means you have 3 options:
- use Canon or Nikon’s proprietary infra-red transmitter the Canon STE-2 or Nikon’s Commander
- use a super-long off-camera cable (advantage being you get i-TTL or E-TTL automation)
- radio slaves
Off-camera flash triggering
With the exception of macrophotography, over-powering the noon sun with just one speedlight is almost an impossibility.
I say “almost” because if you really had to, you would have to place the speedlight maybe 5 inches away from your subject.
Those of you interested in the nitty-gritty will know a Speedlight/Speedlite only puts out about 50 watt/secs of power with its 4 AA batteries.
So what does the external power pack (bottom right in the picture) do?
An external power pack doesn’t give your flash more power.
The powerpack only enables the Speedlight to recycle faster or get back to full power after firing.
The more often the flash completely discharges its power at maximum output, the shorter the battery life and the longer you have to wait between shots.
The closer the flash to the subject, the less power is needed.
The Pictures
The following were taken with my Canon Powershot G11 with a Cybersync radio slaves with the dish fitted to a Canon 580EX.
Opinions anyone?
So now that you’ve looked the results. Let me hear your thoughts.
My buddy and former colleague from the newspaper, Rodrigo Peña, happened to buy an Orbis Ring flash recently, so when he came along to help with my Small Flash Workshop, we did some tests together.
Next time, a side-by-side comparison of pictures taken with the Orbis ring flash and my homemade beauty dish.
Peter Phun Photography
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