Direct versus soft lighting
Direct versus soft lighting | ||
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Direct light is not as good a choice for portraiture. People rarely look their best under a direct light, because even a baby's skin is subject to imperfections that we don't see under home illumination, which is deliberately designed to be non-harsh). Only in direct sunlight are we likely to look our worst. Most portraits are made using softer illumination, such as that produced by bouncing light off an umbrella. As the light strikes the umbrella (or other soft reflector), the light scatters. It bounces back towards the subject and appears to come from a much larger source—the umbrella itself rather than the bulb or flash unit that produced it. A much softer beam of light bounced onto the subject from an umbrella. You probably already guessed by now that the distance of the light source from the subject also has a bearing on the quality of light. The umbrella is fairly far from the subject, so the light source seems to come from a relatively small area, even though it's bouncing off an umbrella. The effect is less harsh than direct light, of course, but still not as good as we can achieve. When the umbrella is moved in much closer to the subject, it makes the blunt end larger. The apparent source of the light is now much broader, relatively, and correspondingly softer. You'll need to keep this characteristic in mind as you set up your lights for portraiture. If you need to move a light back farther from the subject, you'll also need to take into account the changing nature of the light. A larger umbrella may help keep the lighting soft and gentle. Or, you simply might want to have slightly "edgier" lighting for your subject. As long as you are aware of the effect, you can control it. . | ||