Adventures in Photography: Light Modifiers

So, we've got a camera, a flash, and a stand. Why the umbrella? It has to do with the quality of light. If you've watched or read any tutorials on lighting you've heard them talk about soft and hard light. Hard light has shadows that end abruptly and soft light gradually changes from light to dark. To get hard light all you need is a small source of light.

When we talk about the size of light the only thing that matters is the size of the light relative to the subject. Let's explore. Pretend for a moment you are getting your picture taken outside on a bright, sunny day without a single cloud in the sky and the only light source the photographer is using is the Sun. Hopefully you learned in science class that the Sun is big as shit. However, RELATIVE to you, it's no bigger than your thumb. With a light source that "small" moving a few inches can mean you're in shade or full sun. If you look on the ground the shadow of your hand has a hard edge to it.

Now imagine the same scenario, but this time it's overcast. The sky is completely covered in clouds. Light travels from the Sun, hits the clouds and spreads out effectively making the entire sky the source of light. Looking around you won't see any distinct shadows. You have soft light. Chicks dig soft light.

So, your flash bulb being in a roughly two inch square, that's pretty small no matter how close you move it to your subject. Slap an umbrella in front of that it's now forty inches. Move it in close to your subject and that's pretty darn big.

Depending on what you're going for, you might want hard or soft light. With a flash and an umbrella you can easily get both.

In the above photo, the flash is to camera left and about 3 feet from the subject with nothing in front of it. Notice the shadow on her cheek and how quickly it stops. That's a hard light. If you're going for drama, this could work.

In this photo, the light is again to camera left and about 3 feet from the subject, but this time behind the umbrella. There are shadows on the left side of her face, but they are really gradual and still have detail in them. That's soft light. A little more flattering, no?

In the next post or two I'll go through a few lighting setups and perhaps take the light outside where things get really interesting.