AYWMC: Part 3 Lesson 2: Quality of Light

Lesson 3.2 in my own words

Quality of light refers to how hard or soft it is

Hard light is direct and casts distinct, contrasting shadows
Soft light is indirect or filtered, and casts indistinct, often unnoticeable shadows

Light quality is a spectrum
Preference for quality of light is subjective
To determine, examine the shadows

Is the eye drawn to the subject or the shadow?

To change hard light to soft light for a single subject (eg. a flower), add an overall shadow (such as a hand) to soften harsh shadows

This week's project

Make a study of shadows without using the flash.

Range of hard to soft
Natural and artificial light
Naturally occurring and create your own
Experiment with different diffusers (something placed between light and subject to diffuse the light)

Bright sunny day, late morning

Early afternoon on a bright sunny day

Late afternoon on a sunny day.

Late afternoon on a sunny day

Natural daylight from a window

Natural window light + overhead electric light

Light from the window + nearby electric table lamp

Daylight through the windows + overhead kitchen light

Combination of hard and soft shadows

In the barn before sunrise

Overcast morning

What I learned

I've always been aware of how light affects a potential photograph. I've never liked bright harsh daylight and prefer outdoor photographing on overcast days. Even with drawing, I focus on where the light hits the subject and adjust the shadowing to feature the light. This assignment asked me to concentrate on shadows. Shadows became the subject matter and it caused me to look at light a bit differently.

Other things I observed that affect shadows:

The time of day.
The type of indoor lighting (natural or artificial). One thing I notice about this is the color of the light. Artificial lights are warmer in tone.
Number of sources of light. For example, the double shadows from the wineglass stem. One light source was the window, the other was the ceiling light.

Now that my attention has been drawn to shadows, I realize what interesting things they are.