distance from background

OK, guess I have forgotten one of the basics.

I am getting shadows on my background when using on camera flash. Seems that my memory is telling me subject should be around 5" from background but that does not seem to be doing the trick either.

Any suggestions on distance with on camera flash

You need to diffuse the light from hard to soft.

Bounce it off something. On camera flash will produce a shadow at just about every distance. However if you can bounce it off of something you will put the shadow in a different place, depending on the angle you are using. On camera, is almost always the last place you want the flash. Convenient ... yes. Best results.... No

I try to keep my subjects at least 1 to 1 1/2 feet from the background.

Post what you are getting, and we can help a lot better.

And what flash are you using? The on board pop up, or a hotshoe flash?

Not much you can do with the pop up. However if you get a white foam core board you can easily bounce the flash. Just point the flash up. and angle the foam core so the light will bounce to the subject. The shadow will be a lot smaller, and most likely not to visible.

Flash brackets are designed to get the flash up off the lens further, but many of them are also designed to keep the flash directly about the lens even in portrait orientation (verticles). This helps throw the shadow directly behind the subject and therefore eliminating, or at least minimizing the shadow.

Of course, as mentioned, having the main light source coming from the same direction as the camera is rarely ideal/flattering. So lighting a subject off-axis is better, but now you are dealing with shadows again. So there are some things you can do about it depending on your gear and location. If you have one off camera flash the closer you can get it to the subject and the larger you can make it the softer the light will be. Softer light means softer shadows. You can make a light source appear bigger by bouncing it off something, wall, ceiling, foam core board, reflector, umbrella, softbox, etc. The other tool to combat harsh shadows is to either add another less powerful light source on the side the main light source is going to cast shadows and fill those shadows with this weaker light to soften them. Another thing you can do is use a reflector on the shadow side to reflect some of the main light back into the shadows.