Im gonna be getting all new studio equipment. I shoot outdoors and indoors. I want one of the beauty dishes. I just can not decide which one. I shoot single portraits and families. Any suggestions?
I have the older style white dish and haven't tried the other to compare. They come with an optional sock diffuser and suspect that the silver with the sock would be very similar to the white.
I'd also venture a guess that few people have both so you might want to call the company, explain what you want to do with them and see which they recommend. They are very helpful folks and you might even find yourself transferred to and talking to Paul Buff himself.
I have the silver and it's very powerful, almost too much for wide aperture work on a b800. The sock over it works well, but turns it more into a medium softbox than a b-dish.
I use the silver one - without the sock it can be very bright and harsh and hard to use when looking to shoot shallow, but paired with a B800 outside, I have no problems at all overpowering the sun.
I usually just diffuse the hell out of it when I want to use it inside for shallow.
Looks gorgeous if shooting hard, contrasty looks with no diffusion over it.
I would start with the outdoor flash setup and for me the most versatile is the Quantum Qflash heads for both outdoors and indoors. Full TTL at distances up to 600 feet and I can do all the adjustments for different outputs and ratios from my camera. A number of beauty dishes work well with the Quantum flash heads.
The PCB ones are currently too flimsy...if you can find the older PCB dish, it's a lot better built...they got rid of these after people whined that the old white one was more expensive than the new silver one
Get the white one. That said, Beauty dishes are better suited for young women with amazing skin. Portraits for non-models require a gentler light, and large softboxes are just the ticket to provide a better quality of light for the average face. Consider getting a 3'x4' softbox for your main light.
