Photography Lighting Part 2 — Hard Light, Soft Light and Why Bigger Can Be Better
A brighter light is not necessarily a better light.
In Part 1 of this series, I looked at something that is easy to overlook when learning photography: the direction of the light can matter far more than simply having lots of it.
Move one lamp around a subject and the photograph changes dramatically.
But there is another characteristic of light that can transform an image just as much: how hard or soft the light is.
This is where photography becomes slightly counter-intuitive.
A small, extremely powerful lamp can produce harsh, unflattering light. A much larger light source that is actually less intense may produce a photograph that looks considerably better.
And the really important word here is not simply large.
It is apparently large.
What Do Photographers Mean by Hard and Soft Light?
Hard light produces:
clearly defined shadows;
strong contrast;
sharp transitions between light and shade;
obvious surface texture;
bright highlights;
a more dramatic appearance.
Soft light produces:
less sharply defined shadows;
gentler transitions;
lower apparent contrast;
smoother-looking skin and surfaces;
a more flattering appearance for many portraits;
a more natural wrapping of light around three-dimensional objects.
Neither is automatically better.
Hard light can be wonderful when photographing machinery, architecture, textured surfaces or a dramatic portrait.
Soft light can be excellent for people, food, products and situations where we want detail without aggressive shadows.
The important skill is learning to choose rather than simply accepting whatever light happens to be available.
Why Does the Size of the Light Matter?
Imagine photographing someone's face with a tiny LED lamp.
From the subject's point of view, the lamp occupies only a small part of their field of view. Light therefore arrives predominantly from one direction.
The nose blocks that light and produces a distinct shadow.
Now imagine replacing it with a large softbox.
Light is arriving from many slightly different directions across the surface of the softbox. Some rays illuminate areas that would have been shadowed from other parts of the source.
The result is a gradual transition from light to shadow.
That is softness.
This also explains one of the apparent contradictions in photography:
The Sun is enormous, yet direct sunlight produces very hard shadows.
The Sun really is enormous, but it is also approximately 150 million kilometres away. From Earth it occupies only a small angle in the sky.
Its apparent size is therefore relatively small.
Now put a 90 cm softbox one metre from somebody's face. It may be insignificant compared with the Sun physically, but from the subject's viewpoint it looks enormous.
That is what matters.
Distance Changes Everything
This leads to an extremely useful practical lesson.
A softbox does not automatically produce soft light.
Move it far enough away and its apparent size becomes smaller.
Bring it close to the subject and its apparent size becomes much larger.
Therefore, when I want particularly soft light, my first thought is not necessarily:
"I need a brighter lamp."
It may be:
"I need to move the light closer."
There is an additional benefit. Moving a light closer increases the illumination reaching the subject considerably, meaning that I may be able to run the lamp at lower power.
Of course, distance also affects how quickly illumination falls away across the scene, so positioning a light is always a compromise.
But this is precisely why practical experimentation is so useful.
The Simplest Experiment: One Subject, Three Lighting Arrangements
This is an excellent photography exercise because almost anybody can try it.
Choose a subject containing both smooth and textured surfaces.
A person's face is excellent, but so is a model, ornament, piece of fruit, flower or interesting household object.
Put the camera on a tripod so that the composition remains identical.
Then take three photographs.
Photograph 1 — The Bare Lamp
Start with a relatively small exposed light source.
Position it perhaps 45 degrees to one side and slightly above the subject.
Look carefully at the resulting photograph.
Do not merely decide whether you like it.
Look specifically for:
the edge of the shadow;
bright highlights;
texture;
reflections;
shadow beneath protruding features;
contrast between the illuminated and shaded sides.
If photographing a face, look at the shadows around the nose, eye sockets and chin.
This is our hard-light reference photograph.
Photograph 2 — Add a Diffuser
Now place diffusion material in front of the lamp.
Immediately, there is an important question:
Has the diffuser actually made the effective light source much bigger?
A small piece of diffusion material positioned very close to a small lamp may make surprisingly little difference.
Move a larger diffusion panel away from the lamp so that the light illuminates a substantial area of it, however, and that illuminated panel effectively becomes our new light source.
The difference can be considerable.
Compare the shadow edge with the first photograph.
It should become less abrupt.
Highlights may become broader and less aggressive.
On a face, the light may already appear more flattering.
Photograph 3 — Use a Large Softbox
Now repeat the photograph using a large softbox positioned relatively close to the subject.
This should produce the most obvious difference.
Look at the transition from highlight to shadow.
The light appears to wrap around the subject.
There are still shadows — we have not eliminated them — but their boundaries are gentler.
That distinction is important.
Good soft lighting does not mean removing every shadow.
Without shadows, three-dimensional objects can begin to look flat.
The objective is usually to control the shadows.
What Is a Softbox Actually Doing?
A softbox performs several useful jobs simultaneously.
First, the internal reflective surfaces collect and redirect light that might otherwise escape in unwanted directions.
Second, the front diffusion panel spreads that light across a much larger surface.
Third, many softboxes include an additional internal diffuser to help even out illumination before it reaches the front panel.
The result is effectively a large glowing surface.
To the subject, that large surface — rather than the relatively tiny LED or flash tube inside it — becomes the light source.
This is why simply putting a piece of translucent plastic immediately over a small lamp is not necessarily equivalent to using a large softbox.
Diffusion and apparent source size work together.
Umbrellas — Simple, Large and Effective
Photography umbrellas use a similar principle in a slightly different way.
A translucent shoot-through umbrella allows the flash or lamp to illuminate a large area of material, which then becomes a much larger apparent source.
A reflective umbrella points the flash away from the subject and into the umbrella. The reflected light then travels back towards the subject.
Umbrellas are popular for a good reason.
They can be:
relatively inexpensive;
quick to erect;
lightweight;
capable of producing a large light source;
excellent for portraits and groups.
They also have disadvantages.
They tend to throw light over a wide area, which means they offer less control than a well-designed softbox.
In a small studio, that light may bounce from walls and ceilings whether you intended it to or not.
Sometimes that is useful.
Sometimes it is precisely what you are trying to avoid.
Your Wall Could Be a Giant Light Source
One of the cheapest photographic lighting accessories is already installed in most rooms.
It is the wall.
Instead of pointing a flash directly at somebody, point it at a large pale wall.
The flash illuminates a substantial area of that wall.
The wall then becomes the apparent light source.
Suddenly, a flash head only a few centimetres across has effectively become a light source perhaps a metre or more across.
The difference can be dramatic.
The same technique works with ceilings.
Pointing a flash towards a white ceiling can produce a broad, soft illumination that resembles light coming naturally from above.
This is particularly useful for event photography, where carrying large softboxes may be impractical.
But Watch the Colour of the Wall
Bounce lighting introduces another problem that demonstrates why photographers need to observe rather than merely follow rules.
Imagine bouncing a flash from a white wall.
No problem.
Now bounce it from a strongly coloured red wall.
The wall reflects not only the light but also its colour.
Your subject may acquire a noticeable red colour cast.
A green wall can be even more alarming when photographing people.
Similarly, a wooden ceiling may produce an unexpectedly warm result.
Before using bounce flash, therefore, look at what you are bouncing the light from.
The surface has effectively become part of your lighting equipment.
Bigger Is Better — Up to a Point
The title of this article says that bigger can be better.
That qualification matters.
Very large, very soft lighting can be beautiful, but it is not always appropriate.
Suppose I am photographing an old mechanical component and want to emphasise scratches, machining marks and texture.
Very soft frontal lighting may conceal much of what makes the object visually interesting.
A smaller source positioned to skim across the surface could reveal far more detail.
Likewise, a dramatic musician's portrait might deliberately use relatively hard side lighting.
A product photograph of polished metal may require carefully shaped reflections rather than simply making everything as soft as possible.
Photography is rarely about discovering one universally correct lighting setup.
It is about understanding what each choice does.
Soft Light Can Still Be Directional
There is another common misunderstanding worth addressing.
Soft light does not have to mean flat light.
Put a large softbox close to one side of somebody's face and you can still create strong modelling.
One side is brighter.
The other is darker.
The difference is that the transition between the two is smoother.
This combination — soft but directional light — is one reason large softboxes are so popular for portrait photography and video production.
We retain shape without producing excessively harsh shadows.
Look at the Catchlights
When photographing people, look closely at the eyes.
The small reflections visible in them are known as catchlights.
They can tell us a surprising amount about the lighting arrangement.
A small point source creates a tiny catchlight.
A large rectangular softbox may produce a large rectangular reflection.
An umbrella often creates a characteristic round reflection.
Window light produces a reflection shaped by the window.
Indeed, when looking at professional portraits, studying the catchlights can sometimes help you reverse-engineer how the photograph was lit.
It is a useful exercise for anyone learning photography.
Instead of merely thinking, "That is a nice portrait," ask:
Where was the light? How large was it? How high was it? How close was it?
That turns looking at photographs into learning photography.
Try a Window
Before buying any specialist equipment, there is another enormous soft light source worth experimenting with.
A window.
Direct sunlight streaming through a window can be hard.
But on an overcast day, or when the window is facing away from direct sunlight, the entire window can behave like a huge softbox.
Place a person close to it and photograph them at an angle.
Then move them progressively farther away.
Watch how the character of the light changes.
It costs nothing, yet it teaches exactly the same principle as using professional studio equipment.
My Approach: Change One Thing at a Time
One of the advantages of having a controlled photography and video setup is that I can experiment rather than guess.
If I want to understand what a diffuser is doing, I do not simultaneously change the lamp position, camera exposure, background and lens.
I change the diffuser.
If I want to see what happens when a softbox gets closer, I keep everything else as similar as possible and change its distance.
This is really the scientific method applied to photography.
Change one variable.
Observe the result.
Compare the photographs.
Then make another change.
It is also one of the reasons digital photography is such a wonderful learning tool. An experiment that once involved film, processing and waiting can now be performed and compared almost immediately.
A Useful Challenge to Try at Home
Find one lamp and one object.
Then try to make the light progressively softer without changing the subject.
Try:
the bare lamp;
tracing or diffusion material positioned safely away from the heat source;
a larger diffusion panel;
bouncing the lamp from a white wall;
bouncing it from the ceiling;
using window light.
Take a photograph each time.
Then put the images side by side.
Look particularly at the edges of the shadows and the appearance of surface texture.
This exercise will teach far more about light than simply memorising the statement:
"Large light sources produce soft light."
You will actually see why.
Safety note: never place paper, fabric or improvised diffusion material close to a hot tungsten, halogen or other high-temperature lamp. Cool-running LED photographic lights are much more suitable for this type of experimentation, but manufacturer guidance should still be followed.
Lighting Is About Quality, Not Just Quantity
Modern cameras are remarkably capable in relatively low light.
Modern LED lamps can also produce extraordinary amounts of light from compact units.
But neither development changes the fundamental principle.
The amount of light is only part of the photograph.
We also need to consider:
its direction;
apparent size;
distance;
softness;
colour;
contrast;
reflections;
and what we want the viewer to notice.
A powerful lamp pointed directly at a subject may give us a technically well-exposed photograph.
That does not necessarily make it an interesting one.
Conclusion — Stop Asking "Is There Enough Light?"
When people first begin taking photographs, the natural question is often:
"Have I got enough light?"
As photographic skills develop, the questions become much more interesting.
Where is the light coming from?
How large does the source appear to my subject?
How quickly do the shadows change from light to dark?
What texture am I revealing?
What am I hiding?
Would moving the light closer improve the photograph more than making it brighter?
That is the transition from merely illuminating something to lighting it deliberately.
And perhaps the most useful experiment of all is surprisingly simple.
Take one subject.
Take one lamp.
Photograph it bare.
Add diffusion.
Then replace it with, or bounce it into, something much larger.
Put the three photographs next to one another.
You may discover that the best photograph did not come from adding more light at all.
It came from making the light bigger.
