Practical Photography

Happy Valentines Day! As today is a time for love, romance and candlelight dinners I thought I’d celebrate with some ideas on getting the best pictures using candlelight.

It is very difficult to take photographs in candlelight as your digital camera will try to use the flash, if you have your camera set to auto you will not get the best results. Candlelight can create amazing pictures with a warm glow and interesting flickers of light. You can create a romantic scene and get really warm results but it is difficult.

The first thing you should be aware of is NOT TO USE YOUR FLASH. In low lights a flash will fill the area with light and you will completely lose all of the ambiance that made the scene interesting. In most cases I would advise switching your flash off completely.
Shooting by candlelight obviously means you have very little light to work with, which means to get good results you’ll almost definately be shooting with slower shutter speeds. As is the case with slower shutter speeds you have to keep the camera still to make sure there is no noise or vibrations, I would recommend using a tripod to get the best results. You can also try using a remote shutter to take away the vibrations from hitting the button.
If you’re shooting with a Digital SLR and have more than one lens choose the ‘fastest’ one you own, faster lenses have a larger aperture and let more light into your camera. Make sure you remember thatthat the larger your aperture the smaller your depth of field, so you will have to be more vigilant with your focus.

Using different range lenses can mean you need to try different positions and focal spots, I recommend trying as many different ways and compositions as possible and have plenty of memory cards handy.

Another way to get more light into your camera is to use a slower shutter speed. But the slower the shutter speed you the bigger the chance of capturing movement (this could be of your subject, the flames of candles or the movement of your camera).

If your candles are in the shot, your camera will try to underexpose as this will be seen as a bright spot. Try overexposing by a stop from what your camera recommends. Don’t over expose though as this can cause your  candles to look like burnt out spots in your image.

Try to experiment with the white balance when using candle light. Candles give off a very ‘warm’ light which creates a nice atmosphere. However your depending on your white balance settings your camera may remove this warmth if you have your setting on ‘auto’. By trying different settings you can get various levels of warmth ad decide which you prefer. You can also shoot in RAW so you can get the balance right in editing.

Make sure if your candles are in the frame that use use attractive candles and save your less attractive bargain candles for the ambient glow in the background, or to the side of the frame.

Any candles in the frame will impact the settings your camera wants to us but can also create points of interest in the composition that can lead the eye around the photograph, this can work with the main focus of the subject or against depending on what style you want to go with.

I would recommend not using a flash but as you experiment and get better you can try using flash emphasize the warm natural glow from the candles you cannot do this with a bright flash so you will need to use flash gels like red or orange. These can dim the impact the flash gives off to give a warm light.

The hardest thing about candlelight photography is the amount of light you have to work with. Try to use more candles as this will produce more light to help you with getting the right shutter speed, ISO and aperture settings. If you use less candles or just one there will be harsher more interesting shadows on your subject’s face or flickering in the background. By speading more candles out you will still get the warm glow and atmosphere but a more even light. I personally recommend having more candles to one side than the other as this gives a nice side lighting effect but have some on the other side, unless you want a very harsh difeerence and shadow.

Have fun experimenting with your candle light photography!

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