Hard and soft light are very important in photography as they can carry the mood of a photograph this can also be determined by the direction of light as it can change the story of a picture e.g in dracula he holds the light beneath his chin making the light opposite to the sun meaning unorthodox as it computes in our mind as wrong. Hard light is often more textured giving a high contrast between the shadows and light giving a high impact photograph it is often used in landscape photography and not often used in portrait as it shows many details in the skin such as wrinkles and blemishes. Soft light does not do this it is even light although there are shadows they are not as clearly defined or shown in the image. With soft light the light source has to be diffused this means that something is filtering or reflecting it making it not as strong as before because it is not direct. The direction of light is critical to the image as it can make an image look 3d and interesting this is why artist have been using then for many many years as the picture is more realistic and is not dull like others this can often be a problem with soft light as well as it is dull and faded here are a fe examples of photographs using this technique.
This image uses reflections helped by the light as the sun is directly upon it giving it its high contrast showing the clear image of the buildings in the water making stand out . This image uses hard lighting as the light and dark are clearly defined.
This image is high contrast forming the standout shadow in the background the direction of light is from the side it is a very hard light.
This is an example of soft light with the shadows being softer with even lighting.
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