From the course: Creating a Short Film: 07 Cinematography

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Hard light vs. Soft light

Hard light vs. Soft light

From the course: Creating a Short Film: 07 Cinematography

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Hard light vs. Soft light

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- When working with light, we often describe it in terms of hard light or soft light. Technically, when light rays emanate from a single point and the light rays are not diffused, this creates hard light. We'll talk later in this chapter about different types of light but spot lights, like these RE Fresnels, create hard light. The sun also creates hard light. Hard light creates shadows with a hard, distinct edge. Hard shadows can create striking visuals like those we see here in Bram Stoker's Dracula or in film noir movies like in this sequence from Sunset Boulevard, but typically, hard light is not flattering for most faces. The shadows created by hard light exaggerates blemishes as we'll see later in this course. Because hard light can be unflattering, when trying to make people look beautiful on camera, we usually use soft light. Soft light is created by diffusing the rays of light so that the light rays are less direct and kind of bounce all over the place. This creates softer…

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