Hard Light
Hard light sources cast shadows whose appearance of the shadow depends on the lighting instrument. For example, fresnel lights can be focused such that their shadows can be "cut" with crisp shadows. That is, the shadows produced will have 'harder' edges with less transition between illumination and shadow. The focused light will produce harder-edged shadows. Focusing a fresnel makes the rays of emitted light more parallel. The parallelism of these rays determines the quality of the shadows. For shadows with no transitional edge/gradient, a point light source is required.
When hitting a textured surface at an angle, hard light will accentuate the textures and details in an object.
Read more about this topic: Soft Light
Famous quotes containing the words hard and/or light:
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The kids grow up and go to college
They don’t come back
the little fir-trees do”
—Gary Snyder (b. 1930)
“To behold the day-break!
The little light fades the immense and diaphanous shadows,
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Hefts of the moving world at innocent gambols silently rising,
freshly exuding,
Scooting obliquely high and low.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)