Ok yesterday http://www.pbase.com/lundy/image/40695675 I tried to do this shot but I was trying to use an umbrella to accomplish this strong shadow (without light wraping around). Well it failed, I liked the image alot but not what I had set out to accomplish.

So John Nasche suggested that I need to not use the umbrella and use more direct light. So tonight I tried just that. I put a snoot on the end of my flash to go for very directional unsoftened light.

Tech note: To get that red background, I placed a red gel sample into my stofen omnibounce and then placed the omnibounce on the end of my flash as normal. The background is just cheap Black Velvet from Wal-Mart. The texture of the velvet shows up nice with the colored flash.

The Roscolux Swatchbook can be purchased for a PENNY! Yeah I said a PENNY from B&H. If you don't use more high end studio lights like White-Lightning, Alien Bees or Novatron (or what ever dedicated strobe/flash), and you just use you speedlite type flashes for your studio then I highly reccomend you get a swatchbook for a penny instead of spending hundreds of dollars on these expensive gels, in their full size. Here is the swatchbook link. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=WishList.jsp&A=details&Q=&sku=45189&is=REG