Train the Trainer Part 3: Recording 101

Lighting hardness or softness refers to the quality of the shadows. If the shadows have hard lines and edges, the quality of the light is hard. If the shadows have gradual, blurred edges, the quality of the light is soft.

Fluorescent lights tend to be of hard quality, while most home lighting is usually softer. The sun on a clear day provides hard light, but on a cloudy day, its light is diffused and softened by the clouds.

We try to have fairly soft light in most of our videos as it looks more neutral, while hard light tends to look more dramatic. There are means of controlling the hardness of shadows, but odds are the best option you will have available to you is to select which type of lights you are working with. Shoot a few samples and see how the lighting looks in each possible location.