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The artificial lighting learning curve for most photographers starts with a built-in flash or external flash mounted above the viewfinder. The photographs they take with a single flash look flat and boring because they lack shadows to create the illusion of depth or look unflattering due to the position of the shadows to the side of the head and nose.
The first step a flash user can take to improve the the lighting is to change the direction of the light. Not by moving the light a few feet to one side – which only creates dark distracting shadow – but by simply raising it a foot or more above the lens. Raising the flash above the lens was a trick discoved by wedding photographers about 40 years ago. When the flash is raised straight up the head shadow disappears behind the shoulder the one created by the nose is hidden out of sight directly below it in a full face view or out of camera view in an oblique pose.
