Flame by TJ

This topic provided some interesting challenges, not only did it make me work hard on camera exposure settings, but I also had to get my creative juices working. I knew pretty much straight away that I was going to photograph a candle, but the challenge was how to make it an interesting shot. I came up with the idea of trying replicate a scene from the 19th century when everything would be done by candle light once the daylight hours were over, so I had to gamble on buying a few props and hoping that the idea would work. The candle was an easy thing to source although I was unsure as to just how much light it would give off. I also bought  a flat brass candle holder, although it can't be seen in the final shot. The paper was cream wedding parchment paper, and I just hoped that it would look realistic once it had been printed. For although I also bought an ink quill and ink I knew my handwriting would not be quite up to the task. I chose a script type font and was very pleased with the results. I actually printed off a page from my Beating Bowel Cancer Fundraising Book blog. Getting the right exposure was a real challenge. I tried using the candlelight setting on my camera, adjusting the shutter speed and also using manual settings. It seemed that to get a definitive sharp shot of the burning candle a short exposure worked best, but as you can from the bottom left picture the rest of the photo came out very dim and lifeless. For lighting the room I tried using just the candle light, a torch and the normal room light. In the end I settled for just the lighted candle and a slightly longer exposure as although the flame in the shot might not be as sharp as it could have been, I loved the glow around the flame which adds to the atmosphere of the photo. I did have increase the shadow effect in editing mainly to remove the modern furniture in the background. A challenging topic, but very interesting and enjoyable.