Candlelight Techniques

[Grimace]

Hey all, I occassionally get asked to take pictures of a small chapel at night, lit only by candlelight -- maybe 60 people, each with a candle.

Shadows can be quite difficult. Any ideas on how to take photos effectively? I am using a tripod and have some pretty fast lenses. With regard to ISO, do you usually jack it up a bit, or -- as with fireworks photography -- leave it low and allow for a slightly longer shutter time? (Methinks not, but it's worth asking!)

 

[superted666]

How about a very stopped down flash to just add a bit of light to the scene. fire it and combine with long shutter speed and you might get a nice shot

 

[Grimace]

How about a very stopped down flash to just add a bit of light to the scene. fire it and combine with long shutter speed and you might get a nice shot

Flash isn't really an option for this setting unfortunately. Any thoughts on ISO/shutter speed combos?

 

[Mantat]

The 'pro' way to do this would be:
- ISO 200 - 400 (max)
- get a reading of the amount of light on the subject (probably the face) with the desired aperture. This will give you the shutter time for a good exposed face.
- recompose the picture, go in manual mode, set the previous F/stop and the determined shutter speed.
-take the picture

+ I would also use bracketing oen stop up and down

This should give you a good exposure of the face but there are going to be a lot of dark area. In PS, combine the various pics from the the brackets to reduce the light from the candle and increase it from the dark area. (hint: use mask)

---
This being said, using a flash for a fraction of the exposure would be much easier and allows lower exposure time which means less possible movement from the subjects.

Personnaly, I have had good success taking pics with a 50mm 1.8 @ 1/60 with the flash at 1/200 or faster. Pics are sharp and the light isnt overblown.

 

[Mike Teezie]

I'd probably crank up the ISO to 1000-1250, and shoot with my fastest glass.

Remember that it's dark in there, so the photos are going to be dark. Sounds pretty silly to say, but I have to tell myself that sometimes to try to remember I can't pull miracles out of my glass when I shoot dark places.

 

[cookie1105]

ISO 200-400 would be ideal, but if your shutterspeed is not fast enough, even a tripod will not help you get a sharp picture because the subject will be moving. Here is an example of a candlelight picture.

If I remember correctly, I was shooting
f/1.6
1/30s
ISO 1600 + noise ninja in pp. But that was handheld. I wouldn't go over ca.1/2s exposure with a tripod because the subjects will be moving.