Lighting for Digital Photography: From Snapshots to Great Shots

chaPter 1: the five characteristics of Light 25

harD anD soft shaDows

Think about the shadows! Are they defined sharply—like your shadow on a sunny

day? Or are the edges fuzzy—like your shadow on a cloudy day? Photographers call a

light that creates a sharply defined shadow a hard light and a light that creates shad-

ows with fuzzy edges a soft light. In Figures 1.19 and 1.20, you can see the difference

between hard and soft shadows.

FIguRe 1.19

I lit this shot with a single

Speedlite at 45º right. Because

the flash was smaller than the

bunch of flowers, it created

many hard-edged shadows

within the shot.

FIguRe 1.20

Without moving the Speedlite,

I added a shoot-through

umbrella between the flash and

the flowers. This increased the

apparent size of the light source

so that it could send light at the

subject from multiple angles.

As you can see, all of the hard

shadow edges have disappeared.

Canon 5D Mk II

ISO 200

1/160 sec.

f/16

150mm

Speedlite

Canon 5D Mk II

ISO 200

1/160 sec.

f/16

150mm

Speedlite and shoot-

through umbrella