W. Seren wrote:
Most of my stuff was done using beauty dishes.  Demi and Euro.  But unlike everyone here, I don't like to grid my beauty dish.

Neither do I

I shoot the Euro for almost every studio and some location work with incredible results. No grid...

Alyssa Megan wrote:
Do you most of you use the beauty dish on a continuous light source? Or on a monolight?

Monolight.

Alyssa Megan wrote:
Does the grid downplay a spotlight effect?

Sure, if that's what you want to call it. A grid shapes your light to make it more narrow.

Chris N wrote:
Damn you guys, I just pulled the trigger on a new BD and grid...

scary

Haha wonderful, which one? I need to pull the trigger on one very soon, but have so many other things to upgrade before I do so.

Bad Karma Photo wrote:

Haha wonderful, which one? I need to pull the trigger on one very soon, but have so many other things to upgrade before I do so.

Alienbees, since that's what I'm currently using. Otherwise I would have bought a mola or speedotron. I got a couple other things I need to get too, but I've wanted one for so long I just couldn't wait any longer, hah.

PixelWorks Studios wrote:

Neither do I

I shoot the Euro for almost every studio and some location work with incredible results. No grid...

The same when I grid the Demi, I just don't like what it does to the light.  It makes it look like a regular gridded reflector.  I have other ways to control the spill.

Maybe the Speedotron beauty dishes look better gridded, but the Molas, it doesn't look good gridded.  But that's just my opinion

StephenEastwood wrote:
sshhhh.....I just point it toward the model, the dish does the rest of the work 

Stephen Eastwood
http://www.StephenEastwood.com

I wish I believed that Stephen,lovely images, and something to strive to.
I use a profoto with grid for all my portraits ( pretty standard ) and some art nude.
My Avatar image as can be seen by the Dough nut catchlight, was taken with The said dish.
Even after 6 mths of use, still having fun trying different combinations , using the BD as main light.

StarMaker Figure Study wrote:
Another thing, I heard your best distance from model when using BD is twice the Diameter. 16'' BD should be used at 32'' from subject, the farther away you are the more the BD becomes a simple softbox.

Now this is an interesting query.

Now I'm friends with/ assisted Bruce Smith and he loves to get the dish REALLY CLOSE and feathered off a bit. He will also get it kinda "high up" almost above camera and pointed down with a grid, centered diffusion, but ONLY a center... or, cut a hole in the middle of the diffuser and slap the grid over it.

Most of the time, when doing headshots... I guess I'm about 3' away. Ernst Bachrach would be very disappointed that I'm not taking a tape measure and "precisely placing" my lights.

No, I've never worked for Ernst.

I would think that... If FULL DIFFUSION were being placed over the BD, then it's just a bit more than a 22" circular BD. Tight feathering/ falloff and with the opportunity to tightly grid.

OPEN, no diffuser... then I'd think that one can find the "sharpness" of the light and be able to focus it so it's a bit more SUNLIGHT than diffuse.

A BIG THANK YOU must go to Stephen for his contributions to such "mundane" questions!  Stephen is really one of the cooler Mo' Fos' on this site. A BIG THANK YOU to everyone for trying to keep this site cool and fun vs. argumentative and douchy. There is some really killer work being displayed.

A great deal of my headshot work is pretty much a BD.

StephenEastwood wrote:
http://www.stepheneastwood.com/tutorials/Tutorials_beautydish.htm

or here:

-- Stephen Eastwood --
http://www.PhotographersPortfolio.com

Damn, you're a great photographer!