Self portrait by candlelight?

oldgroaner

I experimented with the light of a single candle and got this result

But the candle was burnt out rather badly, so i tried re-photographing it and cloning it over the original image to give this.

Hmm! more work needed I guess, but it was fun to do.
Has anyone else similar images to show? I could hopefully learn from them!

Regards

Tony

Jazmyn76

neat idea and shot, and great expression!

RuiMLopes

Nice image and interesting idea. Next time, I´d suggest to clone out the remote as well...:D

oldgroaner

Well spotted! I missed that!
(I did say it needed more work!)

Regards

Tony

Mr. Quiet

RuiMLopes wrote:

Nice image and interesting idea. Next time, I´d suggest to clone out the remote as well...:D

I was going to sat y the same thing

oldgroaner

Modified as noted, remote removed...



Perhaps someone else has some candlelit self portraits to show?

Regards

Mr. Quiet

I see something that should not be there......many somethings
Don't you like the word "perfection?" NOT!

First I will say welcome to Dgrin!

And now for the real stuff.....On closer inspection, it is very obvious you changed the background of the shot. I don't know how you did it, but you left part of the original background slip in. You can see traces of it along "your" left arm, and where "your" left elbow is resting on the table. Also, if you fallow the edges youreself , you will see the jagged lines that materiel is not supposed to have.

I almost did not see it. What made me look more closely was the unnatural softness of "your" right hand, and other parts of the image.

I did look at some of your flower pics, they are good!

Agnieszka

Oh just beautiful!!! I love it, looks like an (old painting) masterpiece

Sam

Welcome to Dgrin, you will like it here. This is a nice idea and came out very well.

Sam

RBrogen

Wonderful work Tony! I instantly thought of Pinocchio . I will have to try this now

oldgroaner

Mr. Quiet wrote:

Don't you like the word "perfection?" NOT!

First I will say welcome to Dgrin!

And now for the real stuff.....On closer inspection, it is very obvious you changed the background of the shot. I don't know how you did it, but you left part of the original background slip in. You can see traces of it along "your" left arm, and where "your" left elbow is resting on the table. Also, if you fallow the edges youreself , you will see the jagged lines that materiel is not supposed to have.

I almost did not see it. What made me look more closely was the unnatural softness of "your" right hand, and other parts of the image.

I did look at some of your flower pics, they are good!

The shot was taken in our hallway, which is only six inches wider than I am, and the candle lit both the wall on either side and the door you can make out behind me, so I dodged it in (obviously not as well as I would have hoped) to drop it to as near black as I could.
ON my laptop it looked quite good, but it's not a very good screen.
I was trying to recreate Scrooge from a Christmas Carol after a friend had told me I was afraid to spend money on a better camera!
Thanks for the feedback my next one will (I hope) be better!

Regards
Tony

Tim Kamppinen

oldgroaner wrote:

Has anyone else similar images to show? I could hopefully learn from them!

I have this image:



That's a candle she's looking at.

I also have this one:



I think you might get better results if you expose for the candle and don't try to combine exposures. Obviously the flame itself will be blown out, but if you get the wax portion under control I think you'll get a more natural glow on your face and shirt, and the walls will stay fairly dark. Then you can always dodge the face a bit if you'd like to brighten it up. But IMO you wouldn't want it to be exposed as if you were standing in full daylight. The lightsource is a candle, and in real life when you see something lit by a candle it's dark and shadowy, not bright.

I'd be interested to see what your candle-exposure image looked like (the whole thing).

RBrogen

Nice work there Tim...I like the looks of those.

oldgroaner

RBrogen wrote:

I'd be interested to see what your candle-exposure image looked like (the whole thing).

If I can ever find the original RAW file I'll post it, in the meantime here is another low light shot, a pal had challenged me to make a picture using a burning match, so I did this, imagining an art thief about to steal the Mona Lisa




Just a straight shot and lots of fun to do.
No copyright problem here, it's one of my paintings (the idea was stolen by an Italian time traveller)

To my surprise I have found the original RAW, it was exposed by "Guesstimation!" and as you noted it was overexposed, but it had the expressin I wanted, hence it was used...


Regards
Tony

Tim Kamppinen

Actually, I meant the other exposure, the one you used for the candle in the composite. Sorry for the confusion...