Softest lighting

[Robert A. Zeichner]

I have found that a Chimera Chinese lantern makes a wonderfully soft source for portraits, but without the flatness associated with skylight or huge soft boxes.

[Duane Polcou]

I do not know the OP's degree of expertise with lighting, so forgive me for being a bit theoretical.

Soft lighting generally means illumination which produces facial shadows (eye sockets, nose, chin, etc) which lack edge definition. This is determined by the size of the light source. Larger = softer.

Soft lighting can also mean lack of shadows altogether, which is achieved by light placement. Placing the light source on lens-axis with the subject looking straight on into the lens will minimize these shadows. Or, placing enough lights/reflectors around the face and body, creating what is called a "light tent", is the most sophisticated solution.

Window light or the sky meets the criteria for softness of shadows, but unless you fill these shadows with strobe or reflectors, the illumination will rarely be shadowless.

The softest illumination I ever use is bouncing two lights off of a very large very white wall with your subject facing the wall. The wall acts as an enormous reflector, and although there are shadows because the light is of course coming from a direction, it is so frontal that these shadows are nominal.

Attached is a magazine shot utilizing this technique.

[Ken Lee]

The larger the source of light, the softer the light.

[Peter De Smidt]

The larger the source of light, the softer the light.

As long as "larger" means "covers more angles radiating out of the subject." The sun is a huge light source, but since it's so far away, and hence since it only covers a small angle from the subject, it's a hard light.