Photography by candlelight

G

grandadAlan

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Name
Alan
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Hi Team

This old dog would like to learn how to take photographs of people by candlelight. it would be most appreciated if any of you kind souls can give me instruction or advice on this photography technique.

I apologize in advance if I have posted this question in the wrong section, so please feel free to slap my legs and make stand in the naughty corner.
 
Are you suggesting candles as the only light source? That's going to be extremely difficult, and expensive.
You'd need the camera with the highest ISO capability (D3 D700 5DII) and a seriously fast lens (f/1.4 or f/1.2) and you'll still struggle to get anything decent.
 
cyclone said:
Are you suggesting candles as the only light source? That's going to be extremely difficult, and expensive.
You'd need the camera with the highest ISO capability (D3 D700 5DII) and a seriously fast lens (f/1.4 or f/1.2) and you'll still struggle to get anything decent.
Click to expand...

Or a lot of candles

Does it just have to be candlelight or can you use additional lighting - I'm sure with a couple of well placed flashguns could light your subject but still retain the mood
 
That candle is close to her and there is a bit of ambient light about, all I can suggest is to set it up and try it. You'll still need to open up the aperture to its widest setting (lowest f/number) and bump the ISO a lot.
 
I don't think this is as hard as you might think...

As cyclone says - give it a try.

I'd guess to start maybe ISO400, as wide open as you can get in aperture priority mode (AV) and see what shutter speed you end up with. If its too slow (perhaps 1/4), either turn the ISO up (remembering higher ISO = more noise and noise is bad in blacks, which is what you will have a lot of here...) or stick it on a tripod and use a remote release.

Don't forget to make sure you aren't metering on the flame itself, try spot metering on the human subject - if you want to have the flame dead centre then meter/focus, lock it off and recompose.

Hope that helps!
 
You may be able to recreate this effect with subtle use of flash. Bounce an 0ff-camera flash off a wall and maybe through a softbox with the power turned down. If you gel the flash you should get a close match for the colour temp of the candle light.
 
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