Direct or Diffused Light

Direct or Diffused Light

by William Lulow

Working with beginning STUDIO LIGHTING students is great fun because it forces one to get back to basics when talking about and demonstrating various types of lighting. I have often written about how studio photographers are always looking for SOFT LIGHT. The reason is that it is much more flattering to subjects and it can reveal detail that much harsher, direct light obscures with deep shadows. Here are two images. One is lit with a DIRECT LIGHT, the other with a DIFFUSED LIGHT:

I placed them side by side so the differences can be seen easily. Even though detail is evident in the first image, look how harsh the light is! They were both lit by a studio flash unit, but for the second one, I simply taped a piece of white copy paper over the flash head, a simple step that immediately reduced the glare of the light and made it more pleasing.

In order to make DIFFUSED LIGHT you need to place a translucent material over the source. It will scatter the light rays and create a softer, overall light on your subject. This is the same effect that a cloudy day affords. Light rays from a point light source such as the sun, are diffused over a wider area than the direct light and therefore produces less shadows and SOFTER lighting effects.

With this said, the way to achieve really soft lighting effects is to make sure the MAIN LIGHT IS MUCH LARGER THAN THE SUBJECT. For this reason, I use a very large and deep umbrella that not only spreads the light over a greater area, but also makes it soft by being so big compared to the subject. Here’s an example of what a large MAIN LIGHT does:

Note that in this image there is virtually no shadow on the face. This is because it is being lit from opposite sides with very diffuse light. The top, MAIN LIGHT is made with my large umbrella and the bottom light is produced by a medium sized softbox. Here is what the softbox looks like:

This light modifier is actually about 18″ x 24″. It attaches to a light head and allows light to bounce around inside it and then it is dispersed through a translucent material that serves as a diffusion screen. So it is a combination of a bounce light as well as a diffused one.

As I have mentioned before, specially designed umbrellas that are way bigger than the subject, produce the softest light. This is the one I use every day and it is shown with its companion, the softbox fill-in light:

Consistently soft light is produced in this environment:

In this picture I wanted to light the face but keep a bit of shadow to add some interest. You can see where the lights were placed by looking at the “catchlights” in the subject’s eyes. The big umbrella main light plus the smaller softbox fill-in produced this result. The image was made on location, but with the same setup I usually use in the studio.

DIRECT LIGHT can be useful sometimes as well when a more dramatic image is needed. Here are a couple of examples:

This image was produced with just one flash positioned about 45degrees off the camera axis to produce a REMBRANDT LIGHT. The shadow was intended to be in context with other, more dramatic images on this company’s website.

This image was made by a SIDE LIGHT with the opposite side of the face kept in shadow to produce a graphic look for this graphic designer’s brochure. And, of course for really dramatic images, use a simple EDGE LIGHT:

Dramatic lightings are produced usually without using any extra lights on the set. Other lights can sometimes be used to bring out some detail when it is wanted, but they are created mostly with the use of just one light.

There are many ways to use light in a studio situation. The thinking process comes first. Photographers must determine what the final use of the image will be and that helps them decide what kind of light they will use.