Hard light is a lighting quality that is a direct result of a small sized light relative to the subject being lit. Light sources like the Sun, though massive in comparison to anything we photograph, relatively is very small, a coin sized incredibly intense light source. Similarly, bare bulbs, unmodified flash guns and even things like candles are small light sources that create hard light.
Hard light casts harsh contrasty shadows with a hard edge. These shadows emphasis texture, shape and form. For portraiture it was add an edgy, gritty style but can also highlight flaw in skin. Hard light, particularly continuous lighting like from the sun or lamp can also cause a person to squint.
Here’s a shot taken on a clear day around 2pm. The model, Josh, is stood facing the direct sun.
The texture in Josh’s jumper is apparent as harsh shadows are being cast from the textured wool. The creases and folds in his coats are more pronounced, his hair is textured and contrasty creating an interesting look.
However, due to a pole between the sun and Josh, we have a long harsh shadow being cast on his body, the shadow cast by his nose his connecting with the unlit side of his face. Due to the intensity of the sun he’s also squinting and therefore scrunching his face making an unflattering portrait.
To alleviate some of the issues, I decided to turn josh parallel at a right angle to the direction the sunlight was hitting him.
This created an arguably more interesting lighting style by split lighting him which also meant he wasn’t directly facing into the sun allowing him to open his eyes.
You can see the high contrast detail in Josh’s hair and clothing while reducing the distracting shadows from his face but still retaining the interesting definition in his jawline and around his eyes.
We have lost some of the detail of the texture of his jumper due to the shadow cast by his coat, this could be remedied with a reflector to bounce light back onto his jumper but was unnecessary as it is not vital to the image.
Here is a picture shot during golden hour on a clear day. The sun is really low in the sky with the subject, Fern, looking directly into it.
Due to the harsh shadows, the texture on the stone wall is emphasised helping to enforce the rustic feel of the bridge.
Though Fern’s face is lit well the hard light is causing her to squint and her face scrunch due to the intensity of the sun. Though there are no shadows cast on her face, her chin is casting an unflattering shadow on her jaw.
The harsh shadow cast on the building behind Fern is a good example of the hard lines hard light shadows cast but is rather distracting in the image along with the very flat harsh shadow on the bridge wall to the left.
To remedy the issues with the previous shot of Fern, I asked fern to face her back to the sun, creating a bright rim light on her hair.
This allowed the open shade surrounding us to softly light Fern’s face, ridding her of any unflattering shadows but still retains the interesting texture in the stone wall.
The downside to doing this is that the rim light has highlighted every stray hair causing a very distracting and messy portrait. This can be easily fixed both in shoot by simply taking more care while shooting and is simple in post to fix but it does show hard light is very unforgiving when it comes to highlighting flaws.
By changing my shooting direction I have eliminated the distracting background shadows on the building as I’m shoot the side of the bridge not lit by the Sun.
