Help! portrait by candle ?

[FrankS]

John, if you are going to mask it, there is no point to using an umbrella. Light only has 3 qualities: intensity, colour, and size of the source. (Okay, there's also the spread of the beam if you block some of it.) If you want to make it look like the candle is illuminating their faces, then the tungsten light source has to be small like the candle. A bare bulb flash, or an ordinary household lightbulb just outside the image frame and placed close to the candle so that its light comes form the same direction as the candle light would, if it (the candle) were the only source of light, is what I'd do.

 

[jlw]

Wait a second... tungsten lights? Concealed electronic flash? Isn't this RFF, the home of documentary realism?

I think we may have been over-sciencing this. I just went out to the dining room, lit two regular dinner-table candles, and measured the light from about 18 inches away with my Gossen Digisix. With the meter set to 400, I got LV 7-1/3... plenty of light for an atmospheric family portrait.

Of course, I didn't have an atmospheric family handy, so I had to resort to self-portraiture (hands strategically placed to protect you from having to look at my homely mug.) See? Plenty of light, without extreme measures: I set the R-D 1 to a mere ISO 800 and used a 50mm f/1.2 Canon lens at f/1.4, with a shutter speed of 1/30. The hardest part about the whole thing was finding my wind-up self-timer so I could trip the shutter.

So I'd say if they want a candlelit portrait, just light a few candles and shoot a portrait! It'll almost certainly have more charm than an artifical re-creation, even if its technical quality isn't as high.

 

[Frank Granovski]

I would use HP5+ pushed 1 stop (800 asa), a tripod with a trigger release cable; and expose the face (not the candle). If you're just getting a basic reading from the camera from the face, you'll still get underexposure unless you stick the camera right into the face. I usually get a quick reading and then back off a stop when taking the shot. Make sure the face gets hit with the candle light so the face has to be positioned correctly.

 

[FrankS]

jlw, you are completely right! I think it's a guy-thing to conquer a problem by throwing technology at it, instead of finding the simple solution. It is so good to have a variety of viewpoints here at RFF!

My initial concern was for lighting 3 faces with a single candle, but if they are placed close together, it shouldn't be a problem.

 

[jlw]

Wifey sits on hubby's lap, holding baby. This gets all three faces close together and provides a warm family bonding experience. There's probably even room to fit in Slobbers the Wonder Dog.

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

The baby was fat and slow the last time I saw her, maybe I really can use a slow shutter and tripod...

Do your friends read this forum?

 

[sf]

There are many solutions that I can think of. I've done candle light portraits before (with my D70, though). With three people, you could use just one BIG candle, if they were all huddled close to it, and you were shooting with something very fast (800 or higher), and were using a fast lens (like a 90mm at F2 or so). But you could also, which may make for a better image, light with something very tungsteny, use a non-tungsten balanced film, and that will give off the same warm orange glow of a candle. Gotta be careful not to get too much tungsten warmth though.

You could also, and this would be interesting, have them around a low watt bulb, then shoot a candle, and just switch out the bulb for the candle with an image editing program. That might work best of all.

 

[Erl]

With so much uncertainty, I would be definitely shooting a dummy run, maybe with a friend or your own family. Get your method/technique off pat BEFORE you front the client. The worst thing you can do is face the assignment with no idea of what you are doing or how it will work. You need confidence, that you can show in front of the client, otherwise they will have none in you. at the real shoot, you need to concentrate most of your energy in relaxing and directing the subjects. You technical skills need to be 'second nature', working in the background. Not being invented on the spot.

Practice, then practice again, before the event. Then approach it with confidence.

Good luck,
Erl

 

[Toby]

Barry Lydon a film by Stanley Kubrick was lit extensively by candlelight -maybe use it for inspiration if you can get a copy?

 

[robert blu]

I'm sorry not to have any special suggestion for this interesting project, but I have read so many various ideas that now I desire to try some of them and see the different results !

 

[djon]

Thanks, lots of ideas.

I may still use a RANGEFINDER: a Century Graphic (6X9 on 120) with 80 2.8. I'd rather a longer lens, but they're not rangefinder coupled. Don't know if I can find 800iso color neg locally, need to research asap.

As to macho angst Vs freaking freely, three answers:

1) Short answer: That's BS
2) Alternate short answer: Fun's fun.
3) Long answer: A real woman/man weighs/analyses/ideas/methods in order to put them behind him/her... If one cannot do that, one isn't fully in the game, is not a jazz player.

I plan this to look quite tungsten: all warm, NOT mixed flash/candle. Theres always Photoshop.

Sitting next to my keypad are a pair of medium sized (3V)Maglite flashlights ("torches"). At arm's length/1600ei/one of them just gave me incident f4 @ 1/2 @ 1600, so maybe two of them taped together and diffused would give me a half stop of warm fill to boost the candles....

In the end I can simply use candles... I'm pretty sure that if mom and dad each hold one, and baby simply smokes her cigarette, all jammed together head to head, we'll have plenty of light. But as I mentioned and as someone else insisted, I'll have this completely resolved, right down to actual exposure and distance, before the shot.

Might be some interesting catch lights in this.

We're proving here that there actually are photographers among rangefinder users 😉