Portraits with chairs

I didn't think of this before, but have seen some pictures recently that have used a chair to sit the main subject and have others around the chair. I'm talking about a highback, upholstered chair. There were some real harsh shadows cast from the main subject behind them on the chair. How does one keep from casting these shadows? I don't have links as I saw them in person. They were blown up and used in a promotional gallery at a local store. Just thought I'd get some tips and tricks before I try something like this.

The harsh shadows most likely came from pointing the on-camera flash directly at the subjects.

To soften those shadows try bouncing your flash off a white ceiling (I'm assuming that your flash has the capability to rotate the flash head and that the ceiling is more or less normal height). The bounce makes the flash a much larger omnidirectional light source and softens those harsh shadows.

I haven't had the need for this yet, but could see where it would come in handy when shooting grandparent and having them sit down and the family around the chair. I could assume that a softbox directly overhead aimed down would eliminate those type of shadows or at least minimize them.