Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

Ok, another crazy question:

Since I CAN'T mount a beauty dish on my old WL10,000 (and since I can't get new lights any time real soon), is it possible to use one of the PLM umbrellas to emulate the light given off by a beauty dish???

My first thought would be the smallest of the extreme silver PLMs might work if it was positioned relatively close and at a fairly steep angle.

Thanks in advance.

I would probably go Soft Silver or White, possibly even with a front diffusion fabric. Given the size of the 10K's, its integrated reflector and the focused nature of the Extreme Silver, you may end up with a dark center spot when using an extreme silver PLM.

The flash unit itself and the direction it is aimed will act similar to a deflector in a beauty dish, however the less focused PLMs will allow some spread to fill in the umbra created by the flash head. This may also require you to move light farther out than you desire.

While this may not do exactly what you are wanting, it is about as close as it gets. Maybe a really small shoot through umbrella could do better.

Thanks for the reply.

Would the front diffusion fabric work with the WL10K series of lights if I put it on a 51 inch Soft Silver PLM?

Would the opening of the diffusion fabric be large enough for the WL10K (especially since the umbrella shaft would be off center)? Would the light get too hot for the fabric (even if I remove the modeling lamp)?

One last question:

Since I plan to (eventually) either get a White Lightning Ultra / Zap series (or an Alien Bee), should I get the 7mm shaft with speed ring mount? Or get the 8mm umbrella mount?

I understand the speed ring won't work with my current WL10K series lights, but would have it on hand for when I finally move up to an Ultra / Zap / AB

Thanks in advance.

The soft silver PLM without diffuser is very close to a giant beauty dish. Adding the diffuser makes it more like a big softbox.

Thank you very much!

Well, I am still coming up with an alternate idea for creating a beauty dish for the old WL10,000 or WL5,000

I would seriously consider getting the smallest Soft Silver PLM, but because my studio is small, it is still going to be too hard to control light spread.

so here is another idea which hopefully you might be able to advise me whether this will be a COMPLETE waste of time or just a moderate waste of time ;)

Buy a large plastic salad bowl and use it to BOUNCE my WL10,000 into, similar to a bounce umbrella / PLM.

There would not be any light blocker, and I would not shoot "through" it (the way that most beauty dishes would be mounted behind the dish and through a hole).

Instead, I would figure out some way to mount a single metal rod into the bottom of the salad bowl sticking up and use that metal rod as an "umbrella mount" for the WL10,000

Then shoot into it. I figure the 7-inch-wide body of the WL10K would be something similar to the light blocker that is common to most beauty dishes.

anyway, aside from that idea, I got nothing...