Depends on the look you want. The harder look of the beauty dish works well in sun, like at the beach. I use them on a limited basis for portraits since they produce a harder light, unless that’s the look I’m going for.
I have both, but only rarely use them. In most cases I haven't cared for the light that they produce. The foldable one that I have is an Anker, and it can be used with or without the center reflector, so works as a folding soft box too, and this is how it is more often used. Because it folds it tends to get used if shooting out of the studio. In the studio I think I have only used it twice as a beauty dish, other than the initial test shots. I just don't care for the results that I get from beauty dishes.
Whenever something new arrives in my studio, I run tests using it. Not to the point of collecting data, but just to get a feel for how it works and what works best with it.
As a soft box, the Anker beauty dish works about the same as other similar sized soft boxes when the disk is removed. As a beauty dish, it is larger than my 24" metal Godox version, so the light from it is a bit larger at the same distance, but as a beauty dish I still don't care for the resulting light from it nor from the 24" metal version. A beauty dish is supposed to be used high and close to the subject, where the slight shadow of the center disk enhances the look, but I have never cared for the result that I see and I prefer just using octagonal soft boxes for my portrait shoots, since I don't like the catchlights in their eyes when using rectangular, or square soft boxes either. We photographers all have our styles and this isn't mine.
I am curious as I don't have a studio and wondering if a beauty dish, either metal or folding, would better mix with ambient light when shot in harsh sun days where a foldable would sure be more portable than a metal one.
Classic metal benefits = constant shape, solid plastic grids are great.
Classic metal downsides = transporting/storage safe keeping can be tougher due to shape, depending on the size/weight might test your mount or lightstand.
I've used Hensel and Fotodiox versions only I think. I'm rough on my stuff and unfortunately put dings and dents in them, the Hensel held up a long time basically long enough for me to switch mounts/lights.
I shot beach photos with the Hensel 22" white beauty dish (with grid on and off) and also 28" Fotodiox (usually grid off). I shot some indoor stuff with the 28" with grid off and on in a studio meet and greet. I've also got/used 18" Fotodiox beauty dishes that I usually use with the grid and does a decent job with video too.
If having to battle with the sun I'd recommend silver, otherwise white.
I don't think I've used any of the "foldable" beauty dishes, I look at them more as soft boxes.
GiovanniAprea wrote:
I am curious as I don't have a studio and wondering if a beauty dish, either metal or folding, would better mix with ambient light when shot in harsh sun days where a foldable would sure be more portable than a metal one.
To me the metal creates less wind friction because it’s more streamlined. A fabric beautydish or softbox of the same size is lighter and seems to require more sandbags. They mix well with the harder sunlight.
Depends on what kind of quality of light you want. Either would “work” in the situation you’ve described, they’d just be different.
I think if you’re not sure what the difference is, I’d recommend a fabric one, none of which will produce the specific quality of light a metal beauty dish will, sans a fabric sock on the front (the fabric sock basically just turns it into a small softbox). Fabric “beauty dishes” generally produce a softbox quality of light, especially with front diffusion. One of the better fabric “beauty dish“ mods I’ve used is the Westcott one, and with the center deflector plate and no front diffusion, it does produce a nice quality of light but it still won’t reproduce what a Profoto softlighter for example will.
One more thing about metal beauty dishes is that they are best used close, within around 3-5 ft from the subject, with the center of the modifier pointed at the face. If you try to “feather” a metal beauty dish ie not point the axis of the dish at the face, the hard light of the bare strobe can peek past the deflector plate and hit your subject in a way that you may not like. They produce beautiful light when used properly with a nice blend of hard and soft light, but they can be tricky to use on location. They’re fun to use though, and if you’re curious I’d just get both and try them out
back on beauty dish, I would eventually go for the real metal thing would I get one, now, color be white, should I ever use it outside it would do it no matter white or silver, size wise, for portrait what would you get and which brand would you recommend, is there that much of a difference between the cheaper more affordable brands like Godox or Neweer and other more expensive ones (which by instance I don't know as I never really made a search for any)?
The gold standard for BD's is Mola so have a look at their site and check out how they design them. Of note, the centre is diffusion and not a deflector as are virtually all other brands. That tells you something on why Mola designed it that way and the only other BD that essentially is a Mola 22 BD is the Speedotron BD. For less money and replacing the speed ring mount to the one you need for your strobes is a good option. BTW, they only come in white.
