I've been thinking about this shot for a while. Ever since I did the red Christmas ornament shots a week or so ago, I've been pondering what to do next and thought of photographing a candle out in the woods. I've just been waiting for the right time. The right time being either a fresh coating of snow or a foggy winter day.
The foggy winter day came today, so I packed a candle, lighter, camera, boom stand, flash, gels and grid and headed out to a local forest preserve. It was a pretty straightforward shot once the light was set up - the boom allowed me to place the flash directly above the candle to create a ring of light with a grid attached. A double layer of CTO gels allowed me to shift the color balance to incandescent to simulate twilight while maintaining a warm white light on the candle -- this was shot mid-morning.
The setup for the flash is shown below. After that it was just a matter of laying on my side in the melting snow until I framed up a few shots that I liked. Then home to change out of my wet clothes.
Photographs © 2009 James Jordan.
James, I've been out of town for a couple of weeks helping my son with a booth at the Cowboy Christmas in Las Vegas.
ReplyDeleteAs always I love coming back to your blog to see the most beautiful pictures around.
Thanks for giving some background and a picture of how you do it...It's nice to know you don't just "click" and get these magnificent shots, but a lot of time and thought and effort goes into each one.
You are the master.
Merry Christmas
Wanda
Nice picture, awesome.
ReplyDeleteThanks for share your know how