advice needed to get a shot of shadow

[Geraldine Powell]

Hello,
I am a beginner, so please be gentle. I want to shoot a shadow or silhouette of branches
against a plain wall. I have dragged a suitable part of a tree into the house, but am having difficulty getting a shadow that is as sharp and delineated as I want.
I am using a flood light behind it.
Is there something else I can do that will make the shadows as sharp as possible?
Thank-you
Geraldine

[darr]

Use direct light (not soft) and place the light not close to the branch.

[E. von Hoegh]

Use a point source or something close to it, place it a ways from the subject. Move it around until you like the shadows.

Note - Don't use flash ( sorry, I couldn't resist )

[lenser]

The sharper shadows and greater contrast are both produced by a small light source at some distance. Therefore, if you can take it outside to a white wall and have the direct and cloudless sun be your light source, this should give the best result.

If you must do it indoors, either a window with direct sunlight through the branches or a small source with neither a soft box or umbrella but rather bare flash or a pan reflector will suffice, but keep that light as fall back from the branches as possible.

Hint: do not meter directly from the white wall unless you are at least somewhat familiar with exposure compensation using the Zone System. That will only get the wall to being a neutral gray with normal metering. Use an incident meter pointed at the light source or the old sunny 16 rule of setting the shutter speed as the same as the film speed rating and shooting at f 16.

[Nathan Potter]

Try a clear 150 or 200 watt bulb at a distance of at least 10 feet. The bare filament approaches a point source of illumination. If you"re using color film you'll need a color correction filter. B&W never mind. Hope you are using a large format camera.

Nate Potter, Austin TX.

[Geraldine Powell]

Thank you to everyone for the advice. I am using a Sinar X 4x5, and B&W film.
I was obviously not going far enough back with the light.
I don't know if I can do the white wall outdoors idea. If I can find the right tree near a white wall I will try it.
I recall now that I got very sharp shadows last summer doing just that with a digital camera with late afternoon sun..
I may not have enough space inside, but now I know the light needs to be further back, I will try that tomorrow.

Thank you again to everyone. I will post again to let you know how it went.
Geraldine

[Jim Jones]

A low voltage high intensity light bulb such as an automobile headlight is one of the smallest readily available light sources if you have a way of powering it.

[Harold_4074]

A low voltage high intensity light bulb such as an automobile headlight is one of the smallest readily available light sources if you have a way of powering it.

Actually, automobile headlights all have lenses, either in the housing or as part of the bulb, to spread the light. The lamp from a modern car, with no lens or reflector, would be a good source, but rather dangerous to work with (a lot of power in a small space, and probably in a pressurized envelope). The simplest and safest is probably a taillamp bulb, which can be powered by a battery charger and has a filament area a few millimeters across. There are (or were) inexpensive reading lamps with these bulbs; one of these would be a good thing to try.

Working indoors, there will be an issue of perspective unless the "tree" is flat enough to be very close to the wall, since the light will be leaving its source radially. We are used to seeing shadows cast by the sun, which is so far away that the light rays are essentially parallel, and this would be essentially impossible to recreate indoors without some pretty expensive optics.

[SpeedGraphicMan]

You could also use an old slide projector, empty of course!

Works similar to a fresnel/spotlight.