Question About Lighting Full Length Shots And Shadows

The only way I would do it Wilt is if the panel and light were directly below and above the camera. One low one high so the shadow would fall straight back. With a panel off to one side equal in height to the subject its going to create a soft but very long shadow. With an umbrella you can get it up high so the shadow cast is short. Use fill over camera a half stop to a full stop under main to keep the shadows filled.

Thank you airfrogusmc, Wilt and Gentleman Villain,

I'm going to work with the various suggestions and do some experiments. I can see how and why various techniques will work and why some won't.

If I don't want to preserve the shadow and have purse white completely surrounding the subject I can do that in post very easily. I don't have clients that are asking for the shadow or asking me to remove it. Personally, I believe that the shadow should be there because without it, it looks like the subject is just floating. I don't care for that look and would only do it is the client requested it.

The real issue here becomes one of which technique gives me the best starting point so that I am able to differentiate the subject shadow from the seamless (or whatever material is under the subject) so that I can paint/mask around it, while keeping the shadow looking natural.

I would rather not remove the shadow entirely and then create a new one from scratch. I find that to be difficult, time consuming and the end result simply does not look real anymore.