Shooting a video in candlelight

G

GrandLunar

Active member
I tried to push the boundaries of my Af100 by shooting in only candlelight, at night and without going ISO 800. It was pretty tricky shooting some of the close-ups - ideally not wanting to set a guitar or a human on fire.
A bit of grading to punch of some of the flatness of the footage, but I did lose some details given the fact that it was extremely low light. Any suggestions on punching of some of the darker spots for future shoots?
We also attempted to use a small desk lamp with a bounce card to fill the room a bit more but it was hard to match the stillness of the light with the flickering of the candles

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b75MKypOdA
 
I'd suggest refining a low noise scene file with say the Cine V gamma and Norm 2 matrix and push the ISO to 1600-3200, the AF can be quite clean in low light shooting. Grab yourself a light meter and do a couple of tests with subjects and candles, if you can get a clean reading at say 1600 ISP and an f stop of around 2.8 you would have enough room to iris down and push up to 3200 ISO for deeper DOF or open up and lower the ISO

nice footage by the way ;)
 
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Nice work.

Id say just get your hands on as fast a lenses as you can. Kubrick did Barry Lindon with F0.7 lenses developed by NASA i believe. Correct me if I'm wrong there anyone. 0.7 may not be available but .95 or 1.4 is not to hard to find. And lots n lots of candles. Also don't be afraid to use bounce boards n reflectors.
 
Looks good, might have been nice to show the candle being blown out at the end, and maybe some candles being lit?

I use HDNorm/Norm 2 for low noise.

Yes, lots of bounce (even a mirror out of frame), more candles, and it's hard to beat a Voigtlander f/.95
 
What many people don't know or forget, is the actual candle.

Candles come in different sizes, different styles, different types of wicks, etc.

Yes, fast and clean ISO's and fast lenses help tremendously, but I don't want to work with T1.3/1.4 or even T/2 during most shoots... The stories I tell don't usually demand this look and it's often a liability for multiple reasons.

Many of the older films which shot only by candle light (with much less sensitive stock or sensors) did so by the means of special candles, which burn brighter because they have multiple wicks inside one candle. Not all fire is created equally!

See example here: http://ihdecandles.com/html/multiple_wick_candles.html

Liste.jpg

If you are trying to get enough light out of just one candle, imagine if you had 2x+ the light and the candle looked the same? This would save you a stop and change which you can either use in your ISO or your lens, depending on your light needs.
 
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Thanks for your insights everyone.
Norm2 is key, but I still found a bit of grain but I'm sure it's because I was trying to push the most out of my ISO. I'm actually just being my own nit-pick.
I shot using a Canon 50mm 1.4, and a 28mm 2.8.

I'll see if I can ask NASA for that 0.7 on the next shoot...
 
Mr. O'Hara, do you know of a US source for such candles? I'd love to buy a box and do some experiments! Plus, my wife likes candle light anyway... :laugh:
 
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