Finding The Soft Light

For this week’s photography tip, let’s focus on discovering what soft light is, and how to find it!

What’s soft light? It’s light that’s like butter. Does that help? No? Ok, let’s explore this a little further.

Light is considered harsh when the resulting shadows and highlights are strong. That is, there’s a very defined separation between what’s lit and what’s in shadow. A great example of this is anything you see on TV shot in space - very strong light and dark areas, with not much in between. Another example is outside at high noon. The sun causes strong light, and strong shadows (under the nose, in the eyes, etc).

Soft light, by contrast (heh - good pun), has smooth transitions between shadow and light. It’s soft and even. It may have a slight direction to it, but not so much that it emphasizes bad qualities of the subject.

So what can you do with this information? Well, it depends on what you are trying to accomplish. To start out, finding and using the soft light is a great way to get great shots. You are looking for light that is even and not patchy (at least, not patchy on the face). A great place to find this is in open shade.

Here’s an outdoor shot taken in open shade:

If I had moved the subject directly into the sun, it would have been too much. But because the light is coming from many different directions, the light is smooth, and the shot is much more appealing. Also, when you shoot in open shade you avoid the subject squinting their eyes to look at the camera!

Another great source of soft light is window light! Get between the window and your subject, keep the flash turned off, and you can get something like this:

So the next time you are out and about with your camera, look for soft light! It is everywhere, and once you find it, your photography will improve because you will start looking for the light before you look for the background!

This tip comes directly from my downloadable photography e-book, “10 Tips To Shoot Your Baby Like A Movie Star”. You can use the code MANPAGE to save another 10% on it.

Eric Doggett is a photographer in Austin, Texas. He has a site specifically for baby photography tips at ShootTheBaby.com, as well as BoxOfficeBaby.com, a site where you can order custom birth/party announcement posters - a unique gift newborn children can keep forever. You can reach him at babydaddy -at- ShootTheBaby.com.