Here is a quick studio portrait (view larger) lit by my new “Chinatown Special” DIY beauty dish and taken with the Nikon D3 and the new Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII (my review).
The “Chinatown Special” is a new DIY speedlight beauty dish design by Todd Owyoung. As you can guess from the name, the majority of the parts came from a Chinatown restaurant supply warehouse. 100% crop, strobist info and shooting notes after the jump.
Subject is seated roughly 5 feet in front of a set of white cotton curtains.
This photo was taken with the new Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II lens at 200mm and f/3.2 at ISO 640 and a shutter speed of 1/60 using the Nikon D3. Considering that I’ve come to depend on the new 70-200 down to 1/10th of a second, the shutter speed of 1/60 was more than fast enough given the new VR II image stabilization and the stopping power of the SB900.
ISO640 enabled me to use far less flash power for the key light and the background light than the same shot taken at ISO200. As you can see from the 100% crop below, the noise at ISO640 is pretty insignificant.
Despite costing about $20, the catchlight produced by the Chinatown Special is very similar to what you’d expect from a commercial version costing hundreds of dollars. Notice how even the distribution of light is around the center of the dish.
100% crop from the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II lit by the "Chinatown Special" DIY Beauty Dish
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This entry was posted on Saturday, February 13th, 2010 at 1:46 pm and is filed under Portrait Photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Chris Owyoung is a New York City based music photographer specializing in concert photography and band portraits.
Click here to contact Chris for assignment of commission, or call him at +1.917.572.4499.
Chris Owyoung is a freelance photographer based in New York City. His work has appeared in numerous publications including: Rolling Stone, SPIN, VIBE, Billboard, New York Magazine, The New York Times, Symphony, Domino, Time, and The Village Voice. Chris is available for editorial and corporate assignments in the New York area and abroad.
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All content © 2012 by Chris Owyoung
Thanks for the awesome post, nice site to! It makes be want to improve my blog. What software do you need to get started? I hear a lot about this WordPress?! Mariam Rosborough
Hi Mariam,
I know I replied to you over email, but just in case anyone is wondering, WordPress and http://www.graphpaperpress.com themes are the way to go!
Read My Last Blog Post: Photos: The Bamboozle – Saturday, Day 1
I would like to thank you for taking the time to post these online quite often. I am sure you have tons of poepel, just like me looking forward to your next posts. I always wonder how on earth can you create such wonderful profound information that one can pick straight off the peg and use right away. Well, I am certainly wanting to read more of what you have to say.
Theodore,
Thanks so much for your comment. Let me know what else you’d like me to share!
Read My Last Blog Post: Photos: The Bamboozle – Saturday, Day 1
The technical things of photography went over my head. I am really interested to know more about what you called “Chinatown Special” DIY beauty dish.
G’Day Chris the Chinatown beauty dish is fantastic the light looks beautiful so soft I saw your band group shots they were great and the portrait shot of the girl with the dish and the 70-200 mm VR lens I have one and I love it. I am going to make two dishes as the light here in Australia is so harsh I will use them all the time on location and in the studio and also I will save around 600 Australian dollars to make them myself. Thanks for the design Chris, that you did with your brother. Have a patent on it mate and you could be a wealthy man like Bill Gates.
Good luck with the photography, and the great work.
Paul Trezise, Photographer
Melbourne, Australia.