Thanks, Charles. Mounting a flash high above the subject and washing the wall of shadows can work well. "Cheating" the subject away from the wall to a distance where somewhat elevated flash unit shadows will not reach the wall can work. The existence of shadows in the circumstances I mentioned in my initial post were a frustration, the cause of which had escaped me prior to Paul's explanation.
Jack --- Charles Robinson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Nov 21, 2007, at 15:58, Jack Davis wrote: > > > Only for the sake of discussion (actually I can't discuss the > > question, > > only raise it), why don't two lights (540 flash units for example) > > > wash > > out or cancel each other's shadows? > > Example: one flash on either side on a plane with the camera, > lighting > > a common subject. > > Must assume perfection in placement with respect to all distances > and > > angles even though it's not a requirement. Offered to avoid the > issue > > being raised. > > I've known for sometime that the 'wash out' doesn't happen, but the > > only answer I've ever gotten; "they just don't". > > > > Can't answer the question, but I avoid the issue by doing it this > way: > > I use a flash in front of the subject (on camera) and a second one > behind the subject to light up the wall behind them. > > That way, the rear flash has more power (closer to the wall) than > your > head-on flash and "tada!" no shadows. > > Example here (headshot for work) (warning! full-sized image!): > > http://charles.robinsontwins.org/photos/2007/imgp8627_heather.jpg > > This photo was taken with the camera rotated ccw, with the flash > (af540fgz) rotated upwards and a sto-fen on top of the on-camera > flash > to smooth things out. The Sigma EF500DG was on a table behind her > aimed upwards at a 45-degree angle to hit the wall. > > This ain't art, it's just a photo for work. :-) > > -Charles > > -- > Charles Robinson - [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Minneapolis, MN > http://charles.robinsontwins.org > > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above > and follow the directions. > ____________________________________________________________________________________ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
