Raise it up!

With flash these days some people ask how the heck do you actually get the light to not look so harsh? My answer sometimes is I am changing the angle of the light by making it really high. How high? Sometimes 20 feet high, or at least an angle that looks like it could of been 20 feet high. The reason for that how the light looks from that location because it might resemble a ceiling light, the sun, or if slightly above the floor its like a flash light in someones hand.

With that said, move your flash around or in this case, raise it up! Few things to take caution though is how high the stand is in the air. When it get to be a certain height just a small amount of wind speed can make your flash unit take a dive down south. To make sure that does not happen buy either a really strong sturdy steel stand that can hold allot of weight because that stand will in turn out to be a heavier than a regular aluminium stand. Thus weighting down your flash because you are overkilling the stability with that type of stand. Most of the time this isn't enough, so what needs to be done is you need to weigh it down. This can be accomplished from anything like your camera bag, a exercise weight, or a sand bag, or improvise but generally get a good amount that wont allow the stand to flex and rock too much in the wind. If you REALLY do not have any resources to be ingenious then grab a friend to hold that stand, at least he can correct the stand if it does start to deviate.

Give it a try for you next shoot if you have not done so already by using a decently tall light stand (at least 8ft and taller).