Help with creating pattern shadows!

[Alefeb07]

Hello,

I have been attempting to create some striped shadows on the wall by using an umbrella light source and a standard window blind. Whenever I do this the shadow pattern on the wall is very weak. The shadow lines are barely noticeable and faint. I find many photographs with this technique being used and the shadow lines are extremely thick and defined. They do a great job to give the photograph a more 3-d aspect.


Can anyone provide me with a little insight on how to get thicker, fuller shadow patterns. Should i position the blinds directly in front of the light, or should the light and blinds be separated by some distance? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[mseigafuse]

You can see how I did this in my setup shot below



You can see I used bare flash for the blinds effect, I would think an umbrella would disperse the light too much to get well defined edges. If you click through to Flickr I also have notes on flash settings and the like.

Final result below:


Hope that helps.

Mike

[zona5101]

Mike illustrated it perfectly...loose the umbrella and you should be golden.
The umbrella is making your light source big and soft, you want you light souce small and hard to produce sharp edge shadows. Also the closer the blinds are to the subject, the sharper the edges regardless of how near or far the light source is. Try it with a flash light and your hand, project the shadow on a wall and vary the distances of your hand then of the light...

[Alefeb07]

Hey,

Thanks for the great advice. It makes good sense and I will try it out tomorrow. I will definitely let you know how it goes.

Thanks again!