What defines the hardness or softness of a light?

[Dirty_Ass]

Is it the falloff? I've been wondering this for a while now. Thanks

 

[bcheong]

It has to do with the perceived size of the source from the subject. Fall-off corelates to it.

David Mullen ASC explains it really well in this post (scroll down a bit):

http://www.studentfilmmakers.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=1279&highlight=falloff