Portaiture help

I was asked to do a photoshoot this coming october and i need someone who can help me out with the layout. The background i should use is white wall... or considering i can use white cartolina papers for the background. Although my problem there is how can i eliminate the shadow of the subject? If I were to put a light behind the subject and another one in front of the subject, would that eliminate the subject? I may not use any flash at that moment. I'm also considering another option... If I were to use only 1 light, I should put it behind the subject and the brightness of the light should also match the brightness of my flash right? Would that eliminate the shadow too? Oh btw, i'm using an 18-55mm lens. Might be better to zoom all the way out...

The thing is, I lack the equipment and since the group can't hire a professional photographer at all, I was just then asked to do the job for them. What kind of lighting I should use? Are there any limitations? oh.. and one more thing, is it important to keep the subject distant from the background? Comments and criticism are very much appreciated. I would like to hear from my fellow picturesocial people. :) Thanks in advance!

(The attachment below is the layout I made but there are no lights included in the layout so maybe someone there can help me where i should place them exactly)

Cheers
Maeda

Tags: help, portaiture

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Permalink Reply by jim on September 1, 2009 at 10:10am

well i think i read in a magazine how they made this glamourous shots that they put in magazines, posters etc.it said that to eliminate the shadows you could use three lights one at the back of the subject, and two at the front but not direct in front of the subject but by the side(not completely) the one front light will be stronger and the other will light the shadows tha the first one creates.the whole point in using 3 lights and not just a flash on camera and a light behind is that the flash will flatten the details of the person in the shot.
The back light will give this effect of halo if it is strong enough.

well now something else,the kind of style of photography must be in accordance with the music kind of the group
you know if it a rock group, or a pop artist, hip-hop...and isnt just a matter of clothes and makeup but the whole photo must say i am that kind of group

as for the lens i dont think there is gonna be a problem although a 70mm fixed lens i read is better because whats at the center of the lens becomes a little smaller resulting in smaller nose , i think this is the most used lens in a classic portraits

hope i helped