. Using Hard & Soft Lighting in Your Films The difference between hard and soft lighting in your films Hard light often creates harsh, sharp-edged shadows. With soft lighting, the light is more diffused and evenly spread out. Direct sun overhead on a bright sunny day is an example of hard lighting. When the sun is behind clouds in the sky, this creates soft lighting. Hard and soft lighting can also be created artificially with the use of different lights. A direct spotlight would be another example of hard lighting while gentler overhead lighting with various lamps around to help fill in shadows could be considered a more soft form of lighting. Hard lighting occurs when you have a relatively concentrated light source. Areas behind the light source are often blocked off from the light and create hard, dark shadows. Hard light sources include the sun, bare light bulbs and flash bulbs. Lighting is softened when the illumination is scattered. Clouds or light-toned surfaces can create soft lighting. When soft lighting is present, it creates shadow areas which are diffused and soft edged. One form of lighting isn’t necessarily better than the other one. It all depends on what the desired effect is. Obviously, hard lighting in a normal portrait situation would not be desirable. Hard shadows cast on a human face can look distracting and unprofessional. However some abstract or nature footage would look great with hard lighting. Example of Soft Lighting     Continue Below... Filmmaking: Lighting tutorial How to create a backlit scene in your film The importance of side lighting in your films Filmmaking techniques: Hard vs. soft lighting Diffusion & light reflection       .

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