is a ball of light continuous

say a point in space gives off a flash of light, and you drew a sphere with a lightyear radius from that point.  does every point on the sphere see that flash of light after a lightyear (in theory, pretend theres nothing between the point and the sphere), or are there areas which would not see the flash because light doesnt come exactly that direction?

ive wondered this ever since i was given the analogy of a ripple in a pond, and how that spreads out pretty uniformly and continuously away from the point.  but ripples get weaker as they spread farther from the center, i mean before they collide with walls or anything, don't they?  i haven't actually seen one propogate long enough to notice.

the relation here i think is that light would have to account for similar loss by not being continuous, or it would need to lose frequency as it got farther out.

I think I see what you are getting at :

<light>  |   <space> |   <some detector>

only 3D ?

You need to understand that the light exhibits both wave and particle properties.  These properties exist simultaneously and there is no way tell pick one from the other UNTIL YOU LOOK.  ie: in the space the light acts as a wave (say sound in air) and simply propagates through the entire sphere losing intensity as it goes (read: gets dimmer)  at any point along your sphere you have an energy density (imagine a little square on your sphere's edge.)  this density can be though of in terms of particles per unit area.  This density is the same for any "square" (let's say 1m) on the surface of your sphere at some distance from the source.  That is to say that for any part of the sphere if you stick your face there and look you have the same number of particles hitting any given point.  The light propagates as a wave through the medium, but if you look at any point for particles you will find them based off of that energy density for particles.  If you look at any point for some wave properties (say a double slit experiment) then you see nothing of the particle properties and will find only the wave properties of the light.

Clear as mud ?  Take some quantum physics courses and you'll get more confused.. trust me.