Candles Photoshoot 1: In Praise of Shadows

This photoshoot was set up with a tripod. I lit the candle and set the camera up with a long shutter speed. Even with the longest shutter speed I had the flame did not elongate enough to look like those from Hiroshi Sugimoto. I had several attempts at creating different looks of flame: I left the flame to burn straight for an elongated appearance, I tried manipulating the shape by blowing it for a thicker appearance but regardless of what I did the flame was always short and faint. I put some black fabric behind the flame and Set the camera up as close as possible. I tried two different candles too. One slim birthday candle I thought would burn down fast and create a longer flame and one slow burn candle I thought might burn brighter. They both ended up looking similar overall however. Because my shutter speed was so low the images also looked far too over exposed which I didn’t realised until after Id finished the shoot to fix. I also took all of them in landscape instead of portrait because I thought the flames would look thicker. In editing I made them portrait instead which I think looks much better and compliments the flames photographed. I edited the contrast and set them all in black and white however none of them had the crisp outlines that were present in Hiroshi Sugimotos images. Next time I will photograph in portrait, adjust the exposure and try to photograph a match even for it’s speed. I might also take photographs of the wax once I’ve finished.

Outcomes:

I choose these 3 images for different reasons. The first one had a unique shape, the second showed the wick of the candle and the third resembles a person which I think matches the theme of my project. I also liked the difference between how grainy the middle image was and how crisp the bottom one was. I took the bottom one one 15 seconds shutter and the others on 30 seconds shutter which meant that it was crisper compared to the others.

Edits:

For experimenting I figured trying out multiple exposures might work well for this photoshoot since they’re all similar in set up and shape. I layered 7 images on top of each other and lined up the placement of the wick for each. Since they all had the same black background they blended together well and I just had to adjust the candle body. I adjusted the opacity of each layer until I had a shape I liked.

The second refinement turned out like this:

I removed the longer shapes and lined up the neck better. I added some more flares around the shape and made the black background a really dark navy instead. I also only used about 4 layers this time which created a more uniform appearance overall. I think that the dark blue makes the white look more crisp and sharper even with the added effects. I like how these images shows the movement of a flame however I’m unsure how well it will fit into my project. I might try and contrast one of these with the still figure.