How to avoid double shadows when using shower curtain as butterfly

[Salil Sundresh]

So I picked up a big white fabric shower curtain in hopes of using it as a big silk. Unfortunately I'm getting both a hard shadow and a softer wrap around light. I'm punching a single 1k Arri lite through it. Is there any way around this besides putting a hunk of heavy diff on the light?

Edited August 11, 2009 by Salil Sundresh

[Tom Jensen]

So I picked up a big white fabric shower curtain in hopes of using it as a big silk. Unfortunately I'm getting both a hard shadow and a softer wrap around light. I'm punching a single 1k Arri lite through it. Is there any way around this besides putting a hunk of heavy diff on the light?

 

How pulled tight is the shower curtain? Like all diffusion, it should be flight and tight. Are you flooded or spotted. You spot it to aim it and then flood it to fill the frame of the diffusion.

[JB_Letchinger]

the medium you've chosen has created your results.

try backing the light off and flooding it, is you're hope...

also try putting some opal on it and see if that helps...

even silks can have a little hard shadow from the "specular" source - -

 

get your subject away from the background to lose the shadow...

and start thinking about buying a partial roll of used 216 and hanging it off a C stand or a pipe if you don't want hard shadows and are trying to save $$...

[Tom Jensen]

How pulled tight is the shower curtain? Like all diffusion, it should be flight and tight. Are you flooded or spotted. You spot it to aim it and then flood it to fill the frame of the diffusion.

 

Flat and tight.