Granted these were taken in my living room in a space the size of a jail cell, but still - that shaddow annoys me. This is why I like black backgrounds.
Granted these were taken in my living room in a space the size of a jail cell, but still - that shaddow annoys me. This is why I like black backgrounds.
I would try a lot of dodge at the background and then some clone tool.
I had an experience like that with this shot:
There were shadows like yours at the right.
You could try some top or side light in order to get less shadow, move your model at least 30cm (1ft) from the wall.
You could also try two flashes from the front if you don't want just side or top light, and position them as below. Make sure you bounce the flashes off a piece of card or something, not directly lighting. I've guesstimated soft light shadows, and you can see the ideas is that each flash washes the other flashes shadow out. I'd have the right flash closer at about -1ev. Sorry for the crappy picture, i'm at work heh. Just make sure your light is as soft as possible.
If you only have one flash, besides moving the subject away from the wall a little also point the flash upwards about 45 degrees so some of the light bounces off the ceiling. It should cut back on the shadows a little bit or at very least redirect the shadows lower..
I know you want to prevent the shadows next time but here is a way I have found does a great job getting rid of the shadow. Use the clone tool set it to lighten mode then select near the shadow then paint out the shadow. You can even turn the brush opacity down a little so all you end up doing is taking the harshness out of the shadow.
Try bouncing most of your flash off the ceiling if you are using a flash unit. If you only have a built in flash, a styrofoam cup over the flash, with the pop up flash thru a hole in the bottom of the cup will diffuse the direct light, and give you some bounce at the same time.
If you are using a tripod, you can also try slower shutter speed and less flash to mix ambient light with flash.
If you use incandescent light, you may have to use a jel on the flash to match it to the color of the incandescent light, then set a custom white balance for the shooting.
I do most of my portraits outside. But, 1) we were just fooling around with lighting trying some things out, 2) it was dark and cold outside, 3) she had no shirt on.
Thanks everyone! Some great ideas here. My strobe flash went belly up during my brother's wedding. I want to get another flash that I can slave to my camera flash - one of these days....
