Softening the Light

  This is a straight forward exercise to see how diffusing the light used when taking a photograph affects the image. I used a flash head with a reflector and then with a soft box, this meant that the first light is a small hard light and the second is a large soft light.

No Diffusion

   The above image has no diffusion and it is evident that the shadows are very hard edged and very dark with a complete loss of any detail. The garlic has lost any texture on its right side and there is a hard highlight on the inside of the bowl, and on the red onion. These two factors together mean that this picture has a very high contrast.

Diffused

  This is the diffused version, and apart from a dark triangle between the red onion and the bowl, the shadows are much softer edged and are lighter, managing to retain their detail. The highlights are also softer edged and not suffering from any burn out, the image generally has lower contrast than the undiffused version, but it still has a full range of tones.
  In the still life used the diffused version is obviously better, but that that does not mean that it will suit all applications, you must still choose the correct lighting for each subject.