On Tue, 12 Feb 2002 12:21:50 -0600, "Andy McAllister" wrote:

>How should i seat my interviewee to get this effect against the background
>with a vx1000 factory lens? I've got a soft focus filter last week (B + W).
>
>Thinking it was a good idea, yesterday I seated the person about 3 meters
>from the wall (i had some props back there too) and then situated the camera
>another 3 meters back from the subject and then used my zoom to get in a
>good frame. Any way to even increase this effect more in such a controlled
>environment? Move the subject farther away from the wall?
>
>David Ruether - those are awesome pictures! :)
>Andy

Thanks.
I would not use the soft-focus filter - you want to contrast
a sharp image with a soft one (the soft-focus filter will
have more effect on the focused parts of the image than on
the unfocused...). Anything you can do to decrease the
distance to the sharp subject parts while increasing the
distance to the background (without shortening the lens FL)
will help, as will keeping the lens FL as long as possible,
keeping the f-stop as wide as possible (use AE-A mode,
select widest stop), and using soft-edged, low contrast
background material. For the light-source-spots effect,
dunno... (mebbe hang several of those battery-run
push-to-light closet lights in the background...?;-).