Photography lighting

Relative light size for photography

What light style do you want and how to get it.

Photography is about capturing light. Without light, we wouldn’t be able to see anything and neither would the image sensor in a camera. It’s common practice for portrait photographers (and many other types of photography) to use light to control the look and feel of a photograph. It’s worth mentioning here that the properties of light not only are useful for photography but also film making.

Photo by Vladimir Fedotov on Unsplash

It is therefore worth understanding some of the properties of light.

You’ve no doubt heard mention of soft light or hard light. In many ways this is actually referring to the shadows created by a light source. A light source that creates very defined sharp shadows would likely be considered a hard light, whereas a light source that created soft gradual shadows would be considered soft.

When taking portrait photos it’s often desirable to have a nice soft light that wraps around a subject. Not only just this give an overall nicer feel but it can also help smooth out skin and more. But how do you get that soft light?

It’s all about the size.

A small light source will create hard, sharp, defined shadows.