An easy way to determine if lighting is soft or hard

You will often read that soft lighting is the best type of lighting for product photography, and that is true.  However, unless you have a lot of experience with lighting, it can sometimes be difficult to determine if lighting is soft or hard.  Here's a simple way to check to see if you have soft or hard lighting.  This method works well both  indoors or outdoors and the only equipment it requires is your hands.

Hold your left hand out, keep it flat and slightly in front of you.  Now hold a finger from your right hand a few inches above your left hand.  Take a look at the shadow cast by your finger.  A hard shadow indicates you have hard light conditions, a soft shadow means that the lighting is soft.
 

Direct sunlight produces a hard shadow

 Soft light inside a light tent produces a soft shadow

Once you have tried this a few times you will see that you can even tell how soft or hard the light is.  And if you look carefully you will even be able to tell if the light is actually coming from multiple sources. 

A slight overcast produces a slightly soft shadow

   Multiple ceiling lights produce multiple shadows