How to create a romantic atmosphere by candlelight?

Taking photos by candlelight gives people a romantic and warm atmosphere and will help you create a very soft and romantic environment. But this kind of low-light shooting will bring some difficulties. We provide you with some skills to take romantic photos by candlelight and get high-quality photos at the same time!

1. Turn off the flash.

In the case of insufficient light, the most logical way is to use a flash, but in this case, it may destroy the unique pattern of candlelight formation. The flash in the picture will be the strongest light source. Therefore, except in special circumstances, it is best to turn off the flash during this shooting.

Step 2: tripod

As mentioned above, it is difficult to shoot by candlelight because of insufficient light, so you will have to expose for a long time. In order to keep the picture clear and avoid camera shake, use a tripod. In order to completely eliminate the camera movement when the shutter button is pressed, it is suggested to raise the mirror in advance and use the remote shutter release button.

3. Number of candles

The illumination of the frame can be increased by increasing the number of burning candles. This will make you more flexible in setting ISO, shutter speed and aperture.

Place candles

If you only use one candle or several candles, but only stand in one place, there will be quite rough shadows on the surface of the model. If you want softer shadows, you'd better put down the candles. At the same time, if there are more candles on one side than on the other, the illumination on the model's face can be adjusted from very soft to hard.

camera lens

If you have a high aperture lens, it is most reasonable to use it when shooting by candlelight. The larger the lens aperture, the more light will enter the camera sensor, so this will enable you to speed up the shutter speed and reduce the ISO value. But please don't forget that the depth of field is quite shallow when the aperture is open, so you need to be more careful when focusing.

6. Hole

In addition, the maximum aperture value will decrease with the increase of focal length. That is, the wider the angle, the larger the aperture value and the narrower the aperture value. So we suggest not to get close to the zoom object, but to shoot with the maximum aperture of the lens instead of zooming.

7. International Organization for Standardization

If you keep opening the aperture, putting candles and increasing the shutter speed, but the lens is still underexposed, then in order to make up for the lack of light, you must increase the ISO value. This may increase the digital noise level in the lens, so in order to get a clearer image, please do not set the ISO value above 400. The higher the ISO, the more obvious the noise.

8. White balance

If you use automatic white balance shooting, the camera is likely to correct warm candlelight to colder candlelight. If the goal is to create a comfortable atmosphere in the picture, you can try setting it. You can try automatic adjustment, such as "indoor" or "incandescent lamp" or manual setting. You can learn how to do this in our article. If shooting in RAW format, there will be more opportunities to correct the white balance in post-processing.

9. Natural reflector

Light walls, ceilings, tablecloths on the table: these can help you take pictures. These are natural reflectors. Although the effect is not very good, it is still helpful in low light photography.

10. Other light sources

If none of the above methods can provide you with the lighting you need, all you need to do is try to add other light sources, such as desk lamps, floor lamps or dim soft lights. In order to prevent the lighted candle from disturbing the atmosphere, the light source can be wrapped in red or orange cloth to get a warmer tone.