Why does shadow falloff matter?
When you use multiple source lighting, it is harder to “hide” a shadow inside another if the edge quality of the shadow is hard. When the edge quality is smooth, you can light from two directions and by using a close ratio, hide one shadow within the light from the other source. This is how bilateral lighting can be achieved without having that hideously amateur “multiple shadow” result. One more note: You MUST gray-balance your images. For the studio photographer, or aspiring studio photographer, I HIGHLY recommend your first purchase be a Gretagmacbeth color chart. One side of this chart is 18% Gray (or, “mid-grey”) and the other side is a swatch chart with multiple colors and a gray-scale. They cost around $100 for the full paper size chart, but come in multiple sizes. If you are on set, and have a chart that you can shoot (after you have set up your lights) then you will save yourself a world of pain later in the process. This isn’t as critical for closed system work (meaning from
