Filming & Production
Soft light
Also called: softened light
Softness comes from the size of the source relative to the subject, so a small LED panel two metres away is hard and the same panel pushed close behind a diffusion frame is soft. An overcast window is the cheapest version there is.
Gentle shadows hide texture, and that is why interviews and most talking-head setups reach for them. The cost is shape. Very soft light flattens a face, so a harder key or a small hard accent on the background often supplies the separation that was missing.