The lights in the Virtual Lighting Studio are a close, but not perfect, emulation of real-world photography lights.

Common light controls

All the Virtual Lighting Studio lights feature the following controls (Figure 1).

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Figure 1. The common light controls

Power	This defines the strength of the light and is measured in watts. For reference, a standard domestic room ceiling light is around 50 watts.
Softness	This value impacts the edge hardness of the shadows. Generally (though not always) very hard edges are avoided.
Color	This obviously impacts the color of the light. Generally, high saturation values are to be avoided as they will not look realistic.

Light types

There are three light types in the Virtual Lighting Studio: snoot, bare and soft.

Snoot

Snoot is an old word for snout which is the long nose of an animal like a dog. This is a reflection on the long nose of the snoot light's hood, which serves to produce a directed beam of light.

A real-world snoot light (Figure 2) is used to restrict where the light falls, and also to produce dramatic lighting effects.

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Figure 2. A real-world snoot light

The snoot has two extra controls in addition to power, softness and colour (Figure 3).

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Figure 3. The size and blend control of the snoot light

Size	This defines the angle spread of the light cone (Figure 4).
Blend	This defined the hardness of the edges of the light cone (Figure 5).

Figure 4. The blend value being used to soften/harden the edge of the cone

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Figure 5. The size value being used to change the angle spread of the cone

Bare

A bare light is one that shines equally in all directions (Figure 6). It is akin to a simple light bulb.

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Figure 6. A bare light casting radial shadows

Soft

A real-world soft light (sometimes known as a soft box) is one which is housed inside of a broad cone of fabric. The fabric on its front is translucent (Figure 7) and acts as a diffuser. A diffused light beam lacks directionality. The surface area of the diffuser impacts this softness which is particularly evident in the edges of the shadows (Figure 8).

Soft lights are used to provide soft, indirect light. Typically, they are used to soften darkly shadowed regions which is particularly useful in portrait photography. It is not unusual to add a little bit of color to this light.

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Figure 7. A soft box light

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Figure 8. The impact on the surface area of the diffuser on the softness of the light, and the edges of the shadows

Environment

In the environment tab are two further controls which also effect the lighting of the scene (Figure 9).

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Figure 9. The controls within the Environment tab

Ambient light

Ambient light is light which emanates from the environment. Typically, it is the diffuse light which is bounced from a light source onto walls, floors and other objects in the environment. It is diffuse and complex.

In a real-world photo studio ambient light is usually kept to a minimum as it is difficult to control.

Shown in Figure 10 is the impact that ambient light can have on the shadows of a scene. See how it has been used to soften the impact of the shadows.

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Figure 10. Ambient light in action

Backdrop

A photographer's backdrop will inevitably be an active component of their lighting setup. The green in figure 11 was made by directing a green light towards a black backdrop.

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Figure 11. The green in this render was made by directing a green light towards a black backdrop