The main difference between hard light and soft light do not eradicate in the light itself but in the shadows. When the shadow is perfectly defined and opaque we talk about hard light. When the shadows are diffuse we called it soft lighting, the shadows will also be less opaque.Is there any specific lighting source that creates hard or soft lighting? The answer is no. Any light can create hard or soft lighting depending on two factors.

Diffused lightExamples

If the lighting source is way bigger than the subject and it's place near of it, the light beam will be curved a lot, even they will get mixed at some point. Consequently the profile of the subject will not be represented in the shadows.

Diffused lightarchitecture

Diffuse light and soft light are not the same. When we talk about soft lighting we are talking about soft shadows. When we mention diffuse light we are talking about the distribution of the light, equally distributed along its surface.

If a big lighting source is placed very far of the subject, its size will be altered in relation with the subject, and its behavior will be the same as a small lighting source, generating hard shadows. The most common example of this is the sun. It is very far but still generates hard lighting. Only on cloudy days the sun lights gets diffused by the clouds.

If the lighting source is bigger than the subject and it's placed near of it, the light beam will get curved a lot generating soft shadows.

What is diffused lightfor plants

These days we are lucky enough to apply the same photographic and cinematographic principles to our work as visual effects artists lighting shots. That's why we are always talking about cinematography and cinematic language. Today we are going to talk about some very common techniques in the cinematography world: hard light, soft light, specular light and diffuse light.

If the size of the lighting source is smaller than the object or it is placed far away from it, the light beam won't bend creating very hard and defined shadows.

Diffused lightceiling

Diffused lightphotography

Diffraction refers to various phenomena that occur when a wave encounters an obstacle or a slit. It is defined as the bending of light around the corners of an obstacle or aperture into the region of geometrical shadow of the obstacle.

Specular light: Lighting source very powerful in the center that gradually loses energy toward its extremes. Like a traditional torch. It generates very exposed and bright areas in the subject. Like the lights used in photo calls and interviews.

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Diffuse light: Lighting source with uniform energy all over its surface. The lighting tends to be more compensated when it hits the subject surface.

When a light beam impacts on the surface of an object, if the size of the lighting source is similar to the size of the object, the light beam will go parallel and get slightly curved towards the interior.