Photographic lighting - softening the light

We used various techniques to soften the mains flash lighting during the workshop.

• In the first session, Richard showed how the hard shadows on the subject (a shiny take-away container lid) could be softened by placing a honeycomb on the lamp itself and a large tracing paper screen in front of the lamp.
• In the contre-jour lighting set up, the main light source was inherently diffuse, as the lamps were used to illuminate a huge white screen placed behind the subject.
• We used a soft box on the lamps providing the main light source for the exercise on lighting of form.

In taking the photographs of a take-away container lid ourselves, we used a tracing paper screen as well as a neutral density filter cloth (a scrim) to both reduce the light intensity and further soften the shadow edges.

Enlargement of part of take-away container lid before using scrim

Nikon D300 with 18-70mm lens: Iso 250 f29 for 1/80th second

After using scrim

Nikon D300 with 18-70mm lens: Iso 250 f29 for 1/80th second