on-axis

When you add a key light, the shade is already acting as your on-axis fill.

On Assignment: Open Shade Opera Singer 2009

Heckuva lot easier to use the ambient as fill than to employ a huge Octa with a ton of watt-seconds as an on-axis light.

On Assignment: Open Shade Opera Singer 2009

BTW - I made a 2m 6ft 6 in by 1m scrum that I also use to diffuse the sun and get that on-axis fill look.

On Assignment: Open Shade Opera Singer 2009

So the ambient light is effectively turned into a huge, on-axis source.

On Assignment: Open Shade Opera Singer 2009

In this configuration, the open sun area behind you is almost like a huge, on-axis soft box.

WIRED Video: Street Portraiture 2009

One, I could have simply stuck it on the hot shoe for a little on-axis fill.

On Assignment: Haloti Ngata 2009

By using an on-axis fill, we can control the fill close to the camera as a separate tonal control.

On Assignment: Reluctant Poet 2008

Plus the on-axis fill setup is great for grabbing snapshots around the shoot but away from the main lights.

On Assignment: Reluctant Poet 2008

If you have two lights, spend some time working with on-axis fill and see if you can get it to work for you.

On Assignment: Reluctant Poet 2008

At the very least, you should avoid being dogmatically opposed to on-axis light just because.

On Assignment: Reluctant Poet 2008