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Re: [OM] Candles

Subject: Re: [OM] Candles
From: Tris Schuler <tristanjohn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 17:08:54 -0700
Yes, an 80A or 80B is what's called for if you want to "balance" the light to the film emulsion, though in my opinion this would amount to a special effect for all intents and purposes. What's the point of photographing something or someone by natural light such as a flame and then filtering out the orange cast? There might be a point in special cases, but as a rule I think better (more pleasing) results will be achieved without the correction of a filter.

It's even possible to get away without a tripod if you use fast enough film and move in close enough to the subject and use a short focal-length lens--say a 35mm or 50mm @ 1/30th or maybe even 1/60th using ISO 1600. This faster film emulsion has another benefit: with its increased grain a somewhat softer effect is achieved--well, I think of it as "softer" but it's really just the grain coming through and playing with all that nice warm light. Or, you could just put a soft-focus filter of some kind on the lens and do it that way. I haven't tried this next method but it's worth a shot: Tiffin has a good assortment of these kinds of filters, and I wonder if their 812 wouldn't render some interesting candlelight images. Probably would at that.

The last thing: I'd advise you to bracket (in small increments) on both sides up to a stop or even more to be sure you get the result you'll like the best.

Play around with it.

Tris

: I'm planning to take some shots of my wife by candle light... the candles
: will be in the picture and I want it to be "warm and moody" with a little
: bit of background (but not much!) .
:
: What would be the best approach to expose for this? Ideally I'd like all
the
: light to come from the candles but this might cause some unpleasant
shadows.
: I have a brolly that I can use with my T32 and also a flash meter so I can
: provide some fill-in, but don't want this to kill the effect.


Any flash will definitely kill the effect. Try a light blue filter.


hnz
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