The eye school

Its role is to make available to the photographer's eye some essentials to judge and help decide about the light used in a shot. Not on a scientific basis, but on a purely practical one. If the viewer should see something very specific in the shot, a gradation for instance, it must be created deliberately. One can see in a picture only what has been created beforehand. In the following, the eye school will first show the different types of light, then detail some essentials regarding the relation between the size of a light and the resulting highlights and shadows.

Hard light

A very small lightsource (in relation to the object) emits a hard light. The shadows of such a light are very sharp. On a wall behind the object there are only two different areas: illuminated areas and a core shadow. The distance of the lightsource to the object has also a big influence on the hardness: Imagine e.g. a normal reflector illuminating a person from about 10 m distance, the resulting shadows will be very hard. But when you illuminate a small box of matches from about 10 cm with the same reflector - the shadows will be much softer.

As sole light source we used a PulsoSpot 4 with a 150mm projection attachment.

Soft light

A typical soft light source is of about the same size as the object. On a wall behind the object a "new" shadow appears: Between the fully illuminated areas and the core shadow we can see a gradation from bright to dark. This area is called a semi-shadow. Again the distance has an important influence: Going very far away from the object the light becomes harder, going closer it gets softer.

The soft light on this illustration was produced by a P-soft reflector at a distance of 4 m.

Diffused light

You get diffused light finally from a very big light source. Choosing the light big enough; its characteristics are more or less independent of the distance. Every little spot on the wall behind the object gets some light. The core shadows disappear. Eventually only a slightly darker area can be seen on the background.

The reference photograph was taken exclusively with indirect light.

Light and shadow with hard light

The idea is simple; any subject can be considered as being a mirror. Of course, some reflect more, others less. Some have a perfectly flat surface, some show a structure. If a specific light should be visible, it first must be produced. To show structures we need the relation between light and shadow; so we work with a hard light. Examples: Textile, food, sunlight imitations.

Light and shadow with soft light

The shadows are softer, normally not as dark as with a hard light. The characteristic of the light is more or less the same as that of a window without direct sun. Examples: People, portrait, fashion, stillife.

Light and shadow with diffused light

The shadows and the structures disappear - on the object and on the background. The surface is even (-> beauty - photography hiding wrinkles). In nature a clouded sky is a perfect diffused light. Example: Beauty, people, cars, fill-in light in combination with hard and/or soft light.

Colour high saturation

The hardness of the light has, as shown before, not only influence on the shadows and the structures but is also of great importance for the colour saturation: The above picture was illuminated with hard light (spot) and is special due to the high colour saturation.

Colour low saturation

However, the photograph, in comparison, was softly colour illuminated with a Pulsoflex C. The shadows are softer, less deep and also the colour saturation is reduced.