Can't get rid of the flash-shadow

[manaheim]

^^^ really neat pic, btw.

 

[Mike_E]

ARRRGH, move her away from the wall.

 

[cumi]

Problem solved! There is no shadow anymore. I followed your tipps: removed the (self-made) bouncer, removed the built-in widener glas and directed the flash 90 deg to ceiling (not 45). Moving her away from wall and using a black background would have surely also help, but was not neccesery. Obviously, the more flash-light goes DIRECT to subject (even from bouncer or just a bit from the edges of the flash), the more shadow there will be. The more I have white background it's more stronger the shadow.

About the (under) exposure: I added a bit exp comp and the photo was lighter. That means to me: there was enough light from the flash, the camera exposed this way (probably because of overwhelming whites).

Sorry I didn't posted any examples yet, I'll do it later.

 

[cumi]

Moving her away from wall and using a black background would have surely also help, but...

I have limited space in my living-room for making photos, if I don't want to have a chair or TV on the photo. For the black background I would also need some equipment (or very creative ideas) or a lot of black color...

 

[Mike_E]

Sorry about the space limits but it really is just a matter of geometry if you want to use light with enough direction to give interesting shadows to the face.

 

[AndrewG]

I beg to differ. If you have the right tools and know how to use them, then flash strobe lighting can be as good of if not better a solution.

There's no way this would have worked just using the window light. It wasn't bright enough and it would have been soft from the person moving. Exposed for ambient with one strobe with an octobox in the upper right of the frame. I can give you a link to thousands of photos where you wouldn't be able to tell whether or not ambient or flash was used.


Edit: See any harsh shadows?

Nope; point taken. I was speaking from my limited experience using flash-I much prefer available light.

 

[AndrewG]

I've been doing a lot of the longer exposure/diffused light with a single fire of the flash to even out the light in the room. That actually works quite well as long as there is nothing moving in the shot. I've found that relying exclusively on the light from windows in MOST locations leads to "overly dramatic" lighting at best.

It's continues to amaze me how little light we need to see and yet how much is necessary to properly expose a picture.

I've used a reflector made out of a large sheet of cardboard with kitchen foil spray-mounted onto it to bounce window light which works well. Someone earlier mentioned 'overly dramatic' window lighting and using the reflector softens up the shadows nicely.

 

[cumi]

Here is the bad example of shadow and under-exposure:

This photo is how it cames from camera, so without PS. Of course, the WB and exposure (histogram & curves) can be easily fixed.