Exercise 9. Softening the light

For this exercise I choose a still life of a some eggs in their stand.  I set the camera up on a tripod looking slightly down on the eggs.  I used a lamp held directly above the eggs for the shots.  The first shot was with a naked light the second was diffused with some baking paper.

Naked light

Diffused light

 In the first shot the most noticeable aspect is that the eggs are more clearly defined and that the contours are more visible.  There are strong shadows both around the eggs and the holder.  The shadows in the first shot are much darker and stronger and have more definition.  The second shot is much softer generally, the edges of the shadows in particular have less definition and blend into the background.  The difference in the contrast between the two shots is also clear the, in the first shot there is clearly a greater contrast between the darks and lights.  

In this shot it is not clear to me whether the diffusion is an improvement as it depends on what you are trying to capture.  If it is a shot with plenty of detail then the naked shot is better, for a shot that is maybe more pleasing on the eye the second shot with the soft contrast is probably better.