Soft light and hard light

Question

There are different types of light heads... and most can be categorized as soft lights or hard lights.
Some pars ( hard light ) can accept different lenses to focus the beams
lights with fresnel lenses are hard lights.
A zip light is a soft light.
no matter how close or far away a light is from the object being photographed , that light remains a soft light or a hard light.
What changes when moving a light further away , or closer, is the INTENSITY of the light.. not the quality of the light source.
So if I move a soft light closer to my subject, the intensity increases, the shadow changes due to a couple factors ( maybe someday we can yap about that but not now ).
If I move the soft light further away from the subject, the intensity decreases.
The intensity is generally measured in foot candles.. and light meters use sensors to measure the intensity of the light ... and that reading is generally zone 5 , the mid tone of scale.
Now, If I take a hard light and put diffusion between the light and the subject, that light head is a hard light but the light source hitting the subject is now changed into a soft light.
This is done by the way the diffusion material spreads the light within its fibers and how it transmits the light through the material...
people who make color gels and diffusion materials have spec sheets and that information in their swatches which can be ordered free from rosco and lee ...
So once again... moving a light futher away or closer does not change the quality of that light except for the intensity....
People who need to communicate with each other about lighting have to know these things. If you don't work with anyone like that then you don't need to know this stuff.
For example, if I use my walkie talkie and speak to my crew member on the 2nd floor balcony... and say, " Put an inkie on that plant near the guard rail " the person I am speaking to will know it is a hard light I want on the plant.... I may or may NOT ask for some diffusion ... on the doors of the inkie or in a frame further from the light ... maybe some opal or 250 or whatever....
But because I am working with other people we all need to know what a hard light is and what a soft light is... and what intensity of light means.... ( add a double scrim do knock off a couple stops or single scrim to knock off one stop, or move light further away ?? )
I seriously hope this clears up the confusion

Answer 1

thanks for your input guys... yeah, there's tons of stuff to finesse lights and more than one way to skin a cat.. sometimes what you HAVE to work with is a reality.. due to budget or number of heads available on a job.. lots of variables.. also there are guys who have preferences ... like once you know what the director is looking for ( mood etc ) and see the location ( wndows and practicals ( sources )... or see the set and all that ... the lighting has a lot of hoops to jump through.  Plus for every angle ( master and med and tight shots , coverage on axis, is re - light ....embellishments, etc... work is a busy activity ( strike, re light all day long )....
The main thing is to get the basic vocabulary right to begin with.  Once that's done and understood mutually ( everyone knows the basics ) then it's really a ton easier to start finesse and tweak things... but the basic vocabulary is a must....and that included the types of heads that exist ... in this case this thread starts with the most simple of that vocabulary .. what a hard light is and what a soft light is... ( heads )... and what intensity is ( F Stop )... thats the basics.
If I take a hard light like a 2k fresnel mole richardson tungsten lamp.. and go from spot to flood... that light gets less intense, more spread out , and indeed a little softer.... If I flood it and pinch the doors really tight.... I get the light quality without letting the " spread " go all over the place...
Once the basics are understood for the purpose of yappin about what to DO to light something... substitutions and alternate methods ( same result desired but using what is available ) is way easier to communicate, often with walkie talkies ... electricians on channel 2, grips on channel 5, production on channel 1... you know, the usual thing...
Anyway, thanks for adding to this thread....
The shot of girl was strobe heads ( my first test of using strobes with mamiya rb67.. never had strobes before ...only tungsten ).  I didn't have enough power in the house to get an F stop with the tunsten lights... ( 10 amps per 1000 watts with safety added.. prabably closer to 8 amps in reality ) .. so I bought some inexpensive strobes. Only had one power pack and 4 heads
I rented grip stuff from a friend's equipment house... ( flags, nets, grip stands, etc ).  I made home made snoots for the strobe heads out of showcard and some of those snoots had 216 on them.. but the main reason for the snoots was to keep the light from going all over creation...
key was snoot with 216 through a 4x4 silk or grid cloth , with 4x4 solids ( sides and top ) and a duvateen skirt to kil bounce off floor... basically a soft light box sorta thing.
key was camera right about 4 feet from center and probably head height ( center of silk )
Some flagging to keep key off back seamless. The wrinkles on seamless gray killed me.. had to use a head to blow that out ....bummer.
4x4 bead board camera left and slightly behind girl for fill on that side.
hair light ( back light ) with snoot and diffusion up high and camera right behind girl.. pretty much useless depending on pose ( where she ended up moving etc ). Was alone so couldn't adjust stuff cause I was shooting ... which is why I lit it before she got there...
eye light snoot with diffusion WAY behind camera just above camera so I wasn't blocking it..and I think I hit the switch on that strobe that knocks off a stop no that head.
mighta had some other stuff too but thats the basics.. pretty simple...