moveyour subject away from the back ground shoot from a little further back with a longer lens to maintain a similar feild of view, stop it down an extra stop to depth of feild and pull the background closer in the final image.... let the shadows fall on the floor... problem solved.

doesn't mean new cameras aren't coming.... just that RH has a couple times "Scooped" bogus sources....
I find it funny when the guy uses other peoples blogs as source/reference material then puts a rant about others stealing his "copyright material" from his blog....

link

Ricehigh with egg on his face?

k10, 16-45.
f8, 1/125
elinchrom lights
c&c welcome...

hope it helps, come back if it doesn't... this is a hepful group..

I have the 2.2 m version and love it.
you are forced to compose by putting the main subject dead center and compose in post by cropping.
it can produce amazing portraits and boke..

love it or hate it, it is unique. I'd love to have the 85 2.8

read your k5 manual.. the display on the flash won't change UNLESS it is in HS mode AND the camera chooses a shutter speed faster than 1/180 sec.
try shutter priority (Tv mode) and set a high shutter speed... see what happens..

sounds like the switch is stuck or broken?

you should be able to slide thw switch into any position, but then... the camera needs to support the mode for it to work as well.. what body/settings you using?

I've experimented...in the past.. given issues like battery life and reliability I really only found two effective uses for snap in focus...
one macro shooting if you got a rail or sliding plate on your tripod.....
macro shooting if you're using flash.....

the only other real use was when me an my son rigged the flash hotshoe to an arduino board, and ran that to a servo attached to the trigger of a paintball gun and mounted the camera as a scope for the paintball gun....

that had some hilarious uses for practical jokes, but was too shaky and unreliable to make it work on our robot we built.
(proved more reliable to just use a web cam and a laser for aiming and firing by remote control BTW)