What Is Soft Light Photography: Essential Guide [With Examples & Tutorials]

Soft light photography is when you use the available light to your advantage.

The term soft light refers to any source that is not harsh or direct, but is still illuminating the scene. It’s a lot like diffused natural light, except that there are no shadows at all, only reflections and highlights.

Soft light also refers to how it appears in a photograph, but this comes later – let’s first talk about what soft light is.

What Is Soft Light Photography?

When you’re out taking pictures, your camera’s metering system can be pretty good at finding exposure – it’s got to be, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to see anything in the first place! But when it comes time for post-processing work on your images, things get more complicated because we all have different opinions about what looks good and what doesn’t.

This can make working with a lot of images difficult because if you want them all to look the same and have similar exposure values, then they need to have similar lighting conditions as well – which means they should all have been taken under similar conditions.

So how do we achieve this? Well, if you’ve ever taken pictures of people outdoors under sunlight or even indoors under incandescent lamps or fluorescent tubes

What Is Soft Light?

 What is soft light? The term soft light is a bit of a misnomer. The light you see in your image may be hard, or it may be soft. It depends on the subject, the lens used and the camera’s aperture.

Soft Lighting

The term “soft lighting” refers to an effect created by using a low ISO speed and a long exposure time with a small aperture. This produces a large depth of field (DOF) in your image, which means that everything from near to far is in focus. A wide aperture will also help create this effect.

If you’re shooting with a kit lens, which has a relatively wide aperture opening, you can use any setting between f/1.8 and f/2.8 to capture this type of lighting without having to move around much or alter your camera settings at all!

   

Benefits Of Soft Lighting

 Soft lighting is a great way to set the mood for your home. It can help you create a relaxing atmosphere that makes you feel at ease. The soft light from a lamp or overhead fixture can also be used to accentuate certain features of your home and add drama to other areas.

Here are some benefits of soft lighting:

Soft Light Is More Efficient

Soft light is more efficient than bright light because it doesn’t require as much power to operate. This means there’s less heat produced from lights and they use less energy overall. Softening the light also helps save energy by reducing glare on windows and other surfaces in the room.

Soft Light Can Help You Sleep Better

Many people think that using low-wattage bulbs in their homes will make them more comfortable, but that’s not always true! Low wattage bulbs produce a lot of heat, which can actually make it harder for people to fall asleep at night. Softening the light can help ease sleep issues caused by the flickering or buzzing of other CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps).

If you suffer from insomnia, try using low-wattage bulbs in your bedroom at night rather than bright lights

Soft Light Vs Hard Light

 Soft light and hard light are two popular types of lighting. Soft light is created using a diffusion medium and hard light is created using a diffusor. Diffusion media scatter light, allowing it to be bounced off the surface in some way. Diffusion media can be flat or rounded.

Hard Light

Hard light is where the source of the light is very close to the subject, not much distance away from it. The source is usually behind the subject, with most of the illumination coming from a point source (e.g., a flash) or multiple sources (e.g., a strobe). Hard lights have more power than soft lights but tend to be less forgiving in terms of exposure and fill factors on your subject’s face where they can cause harsh shadows or blow out highlights in your image if they are too intense.

Soft Light

Soft light is created by diffusing an already existing source of illumination with something like what you would use in a windowless room like an office or studio space with windows that let in natural sunlight or artificial lighting from other sources such as fluorescent bulbs or incandescent lights

Soft Light Vs Hard Light

 When you think of light, an image of hard, bright, sharp light might come to mind. But there are other types of light as well. Soft light is a type of illumination that creates a more intimate and warm environment. It can also be used to create an atmosphere with a romantic feel.

Soft Light

Soft light can be described as a combination of ambient and incandescent lighting that creates a soft glow around the object being lit. The color temperature of soft light is usually between 5,000K and 6,000K.

Hard light has a higher Kelvin rating (color temperature), usually between 3,000K and 4,500K, which gives it more contrast and definition than softer lights.

Hard Light

Hard light is definitely not the warm glow you would expect from incandescent bulbs but rather a harsh white or stark black source. Hard lights are used for enhancing contrast in artwork or video projects because they create sharper lines than softer lights do.

Soft Light Photography Examples

 The soft light photography examples are perfect for taking photos of your friends, family and other important people in your life. You can also use these examples to take great portraits.

Soft light photography is a type of photography that uses the light to create a beautiful effect on the subject or object. In this case, you can use the soft light photography examples to get amazing results in your pictures.

Soft light is mostly used by professional photographers who want their photos to look like they have been taken by professionals. These images have a very realistic feel to them and they make people feel like they are really there.

The best thing about using soft light photography is that it allows you to take any photo you want without having to worry about how it will look on an actual camera or phone screen. You can easily adjust every aspect of your photo before printing it out or sharing it with others online!

When To Use Soft Light

 Soft light can be used to create a warm and inviting atmosphere in a room. It is especially useful for scenes featuring people or objects that are not easily seen.

Soft light can also be used to create an airy, open and bright feeling. This effect can be achieved by placing large windows in the background of your shot and using soft lighting on the foreground subjects.

Soft light is often used for portraits, family photos, home interior photography and portrait studio work. Here are some tips for shooting with soft light:

1) Place your subject in front of large windows or walls that have natural light coming through them.

2) Use diffusers or reflective umbrellas to direct the light onto your subject from all angles.

3) Use reflectors to bounce light back up towards your subject from below his or her feet so that they appear lit from above as well as below (to give the illusion of greater depth).

4) Experiment with different types of reflectors to see which ones work best for you

Her (2013)

 Her is a 2013 romantic science fiction film written and directed by Spike Jonze. It stars Joaquin Phoenix as a man who falls in love with an operating system designed to meet his every need.

The film was produced by James Ponsoldt, co-produced by Jonze, and John Cohen, and executive produced by Josh Boles, Ponsoldt, Jonze, and Dave Eggers. It also stars Amy Adams, Rooney Mara, Olivia Wilde, Scarlett Johansson and Forest Whitaker. The film premiered at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival on May 21 before being acquired by Sony Pictures Entertainment for $5 million the following day.

Her received critical acclaim upon release. It has a weighted average score of 91% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 325 reviews; the site’s consensus states: “Smartly written and effectively acted but slightly lacking in novelty or surprise.

Soft Light Portrait Photography

If you are looking to take better portraits, then the most important thing is to make sure that your subject is in the right mood for the photograph. If you are working with a model who is not comfortable with being in front of the camera or if they have little experience posing, then soft light portrait photography can help to create a more flattering image.

Soft light portrait photography involves using natural light and some kind of reflector such as a white piece of paper or card so that there is no direct light hitting the subject’s face. This creates a soft, beautiful glow around their face that looks very flattering on most skin tones.

You will need to practice before you can get great results from soft light portrait photography but it is well worth it as it can give you photos that are truly stunning!

Soft Light Vs Hard Light

 A hard light is a type of light that produces a harsh, direct and unappealing image. The opposite of this is soft light, which creates a more flattering and natural-looking illumination. Hard lights are usually high-powered, while soft lights are low-powered.

Hard lights create hard shadows and contrast in your photographs by creating harsh contrasts between the subject matter and its surroundings. This can make subjects appear smaller, or it can make objects appear larger than they really are. Hard lighting also tends to flatten out skin tones, leaving subjects looking sallow or washed-out.

Soft light is used for artistic purposes when you want to create a more pleasing effect on your subject matter by using a diffused source of light that doesn’t cast shadows or create contrast. Soft lighting can be created with an umbrella, a reflector or even natural sunlight if you’re shooting outside in good weather conditions.

How To Get Soft Lighting

 Soft lighting is a type of lighting that produces a soft glow and is used in many applications. Soft lighting can be created using various types of lighting equipment, including floodlights, spotlights and globes. In some cases, soft lights may be used to create the illusion of shadows or highlights on surfaces.

Soft lighting typically emits light in all directions at once. This gives it a very low intensity compared to other types of lighting. The amount of illumination provided by soft light will vary depending on the distance from which the light is being viewed.

Soft lighting can be used to illuminate large areas with low intensity light while still allowing for detail to be seen in those areas where there is sufficient contrast between objects or surfaces. Soft lights are often used when photographing portraits or landscapes because they produce a warm glow that enhances the appearance of skin tones and creates an overall softer look for images.

What Is Soft Light Photography – Wrap Up

So, what is soft light photography? Well, it’s the use of diffused light to create a romantic or intimate atmosphere in your photos. It can be used as a creative way to capture people and places that are important to you. And, it’s also a great way to photograph things that don’t move very much.

Soft light photography is best done with long exposures so that the ambient light from the room you are in will be captured by the camera sensor.

The type of soft light used depends on how much ambient light there is around you at the time. If there is plenty of natural light coming into your scene then it will be very hard for your camera sensor to pick up any detail since there isn’t much contrast between the subject and background.

However, if there is no real ambient light then your camera sensor will pick up everything and create some wonderful effects by using lots of different blur techniques on your subject matter.