The pros and cons of soft lighting.

Photography is about capturing light.  Light falling on the subject (incident) and light being reflected by the subject (reflective) are both important aspects of it.  It is the incident light and the camera's position relative to the subject that captures the reflective light.  

The nature of light falling on a subject varies widely.  Direct light from a point source (the sun, direct flash) is typically harsh and produces shadows which can be very harsh if there is little fill (secondary light source) available.  A broad light source (cloud, diffused lighting through vegetation, softbox) offers soft light that produces little or no shadows and is often preferred over harsh light from a point source.  

The reason is that features on the subject can still be sharp but are muted with lower contrast.  Colours typically aren't as rich but can be boosted using vibrance and saturation settings.  The big advantage is that the subject, besides being equally lit, can often be photographed from multiple angles without the specter of shadows degrading the shot.  In wildlife photography this is important as the subject can be approached without having to take into account the position of the sun.  Additionally, flash can be used to augment ambient light and increase contrast, separation from the background, and saturation.

The downside to this all involves diminished illumination.  Soft lighting often comes with the caveat of slower shutter speeds meaning that higher ISOs are required to mitigate that issue.  Although modern digital cameras can produce better images than older generations at high ISO levels, there is still the risk of significant noise or pixelation being present when significant enlarging or cropping is pursued.  Wildlife photos often benefit from fast shutter speeds, both from freezing action and reducing camera blur, and dim lighting may require very high ISO values to compensate.  Fast lenses also help, but the cost is often exorbitant and beyond the reach of many.

My favourite time to photograph wildlife is early in the morning while the sun is low and existing shadows are soft.  When shooting mid-day, I find that high, thin cloud cover is the best as it scatters light efficiently but still allows decent shutter speeds at relatively low ISO levels.  The photos above are of a spotted towhee photographed under different soft lighting situations.  You can see mild pixelation in the left image due to the higher ISO settings used.  The same camera and lens were used to photograph both birds.

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