Brian Kosoff wrote:

Tom,
I've been an advertising still life photographer for 25 years. Getting
even strobe illumination on a background in a studio is photo 101. I do this
all the time. The backgrounds measure exactly even on both a minolta
incident flashmeter and a gossen reflective spot flashmeter. When I shoot
color chromes, it is perfect.

Well of course I don't know what your shooting or at what distance, i.e., I don't
know exactly what sort of "unevenness" you've experienced (uniform illumination
fall off or nonuniform density variations.) You may even get noticable
illumination fall off at the film plane. Nor would I predict that I would or
wouldn't experience your problem given the exact same conditions. I'm just saying
in my experience you don't generally get "perfect" even illumination (or density)
with b&w on a white background. I don't always get perfectly even illumination spot
metering a gray card, corner to corner.


As for your tip on "The whole point is to light the subject, not the
background" well that all depends on the subject doesn't it?

Yes, it does.

I can
assume from your comment that you have never shot on figure fashion with a
white background.

No. I don't shoot fashion. But I understand better what your issue is. I still
doubt it's Jobo related. In fact, if I had a background I needed very even
development for I'd probably choose rotary over just about any other method of
processing. In my experience the Jobo (I use a CPP2) gives very even development
consistently.



On 1/25/04 2:04 AM, in article , "Tom Phillips"
wrote:


I can't imagine shooting with strobe in a studio setting against any
background
(wall, floor, or light table) and getting "even" illumination on the
background.
The whole point is to light the subject, not the background, and if you try to
use flat lighting) no way is the light ever going to be 100% even on a
background. Not in my experience.