Hard and Soft Light

Hard Light

Hard lighting creates harsh shadows which will have sharp edges

Soft Light

Soft lighting creates the opposite which means softer shadows with undefined edges

What is diffusion? 

Diffusion allows any light to be softened which in turn creates soft edges of the shadows created.

A popular light diffusion is opal ; it is so thin you can almost see through it.This doesn't make the light very soft, but sometimes we want a subtle effect

Brown, Blain. Cinematography Theory and Practice: Image Making for Cinematographers and Directors. P.113

Nearly all diffusion filters come in grades: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 1/8th, 1/4, 1/2, 1, 2, and so on

 Brown, Blain. Cinematography Theory and Practice: Image Making for Cinematographers and Directors. P.256

Now taking a look at one of the previous sessions I have done for this project you can see from the lighting that I have used softer lightning which has created the less darker shadows on Liam's face although I was lucky with this as I had not diffused the lights when setting up

Now taking a look at one of the previous sessions I have done for this project you can see from the lighting that I have used hard lightning which has created the darker shadows on Shaun's face