Exercise: Softening the light

For this exercise I had to arrange a still life with an object or a group of objects.  The lighting direction I chose was slightly to the side. 

As I don't have any photographic lighting, I had to improvise for this exercise and I used a builders light.  I used tracing paper as a diffuser. 

The first shot was taken with the naked light. 

Using naked light you can see the darkness of the shadows.  They are bigger in size than the actual objects. They have a sharp edge.

The shadows in comparison in this shot are much softer although still quite big they don't dominate the shot and take away from the objects.  The edges are not as sharp.

Diffusing the light softens the shadows in your photographs.  The size of the shadows in these shots is down to the angle of the light, but it does give a good example of how naked light at this angle can produce very distracting shadows. 

I should also have adjusted the exposure to over-expose for the whitish background.