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.
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? When you shoot
clear glass, or clear liquids, the main light source IS the background. The
way that you can see a transparent object is by the way it disrupts the
light coming from the background. Any lights that you aim at a transparent
object merely goes through it and only provides specular highlights. I can
assume from your comment that you have never shot on figure fashion with a
white background.



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.