Nor am I. We are presented with two good illustrations of this principle that
even I can understand. Everyday, there is the sun. It's a huge light source,
but so far away it acts like a point source throwing harsh shadows. Then there
is flash. It's many times smaller then the sun, but used to shoot tiny
insects, it's much bigger than they are and even when fired at close proximity
acts as a broad light source producing diffuse light with weak shadows. Yet,
use the same flash to shoot a human portrait and it acts as the familiar ugly
pinpoint light source. When you bounce a flash, you are actually using the
walls and ceiling as a large light source thus reducing this affect by
increasing the size of the light source relative to the subject. In much the
same way, shooting on an overcast day has little to do with diffuse light, but
everything to do with the light source increasing form the size of the sun's
sphere to the size of the open sky.
<<I am not a flash expert, but I have read several articles that
explain that the harshness of light is dependent on the size of the
source and its closeness to the subject. If your source is the same
size and at the same distance, diffuse or not, there will be little
or no difference in the lighting of the subject.>>
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