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Photography lighting
Relative light size for photography
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.
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.
A large light source will give soft, wrapping, gradual shadows.
BUT…. it’s relative. For example, the sun. The sun is massive compared to us. The sun has a radius that is approx 100 times bigger than the earth, meaning that approx 1,000,000 earths would fit into the sun. So it’s huge. But, we all know (or should) that if you take someone out into the sun and take their picture, that there will be very hard and harsh shadows.
I’ve just said that a large light source will create a softer light, but this seems not to be the case… well, it’s important to understand that the size of the light is relative to the subject.
So in the case of the sun, it’s a massive source, but because it’s so far away (92,955,807 miles / 149,597,870 kilometers) it is very small relative to your subject. It’s this relative size that matters.
