BrianO
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 p.1 #1 · RPS Studio BeautiDish -- Overview | |
Greetings fellow FMers,
As a few of you may know, last week I had one of those “Oh, drat!” moments: my camera and flash took a tumble off my monopod, breaking the flash foot and the hot shoe. My backup flash, a Vivitar 285HV wouldn’t be of use with a broken hot shoe on the camera, so I went to the Flash Zebra site and ordered a 15-foot screwlock-to-Vivitar cord, which arrived yesterday.
As with all new gear, this needed a test.
As some of you may also know, I recently acquired a miniature beauty dish-style flash diffuser, the RPS Studio BeautiDish, which some have asked about.
Here then is a quick test I did in my living room. (As expected, the Flash Zebra cord worked perfectly.)
The "subject" is mounted atop a monopod placed 27 inches from the background, a plain light-beige wall. The flash, a Vivitar 285HV, is placed on a lightstand, angled down at the target from 60 inches away and slightly left of the camera. The camera was a 20D with a 17-55 lens set at 28mm. Exposure was ISO 400, f/4, 1/125, Auto White Balance.
The first image below is with the Vivitar 285HV alone, the second is with the flash firing into the BeautiDish with the translucent reflector, and the third is with the BeautiDish, translucent reflector, and the diffusion sock. The final image is a side-by-side crop of the first and third images.
As you can see, although the BeautiDish is only 30cm (12 inches) in diameter, the softening effect is exceptional, even at five feet from the subject. Not only is the shadow on the background softened considerably, there is also a softening of the shadow cast on the ruler of the target. There would be a similar softening of shadows if one were doing a portrait with loop lighting.
There is some decrease in the exposure, but I don’t know how much light was lost; to save time I was using the flash in auto mode, with the remote sensor mounted lower on the light stand than the flash, in order to be clear of the dish. Some other time I’ll break out my flash meter and see how many stops are actually lost.
Overall, I’m very happy with this diffuser. Wall and/or ceiling bounce are great, but sometimes produce light that is too flat. This diffuser softens shadows well, and yet – as can be seen on the leather portion of the monopod strap, and on the curved surface of the ball-mount and on the target’s bubble level -- there is still enough direct light to produce some specularity, which produces nicely defined highlights, and would create nice catchlights in a portrait subject's eyes.
For shooters on a budget, I think the RPS Studio BeautiDish can be a worthwhile addition to one’s flash outfit.
Edited on Dec 28, 2010 at 08:31 AM · View previous versions
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