How to Photograph Candles

Candles come in a massive range of shapes, sizes and colours, making them highly varied and interesting subjects for photography. Follow these tips to capture them at their best.

Use a Simple Composition

A simple composition often works best for candles. Image by topher76.

Candles make interesting photography subjects in their own right, and often need no further scenery to make a compelling photo. My favourite composition involves just the candle or candles against a plain backdrop, and with no further lighting other than the flames themselves.

Adding other objects to your scene can help give context to the candle, and tell a bit more of a story. When arranging your objects, arrange them so that they cast long, interesting shadows through your scene. This will add interest and create a sense of depth in your photo.

Turn Off the Lights

It amazes me how many people photograph candles in full daylight. Doing so usually overpowers any light from the candle's flame itself, making it virtually invisible. It also completely destroys the warm, intimate glow you get from your candle, which is one of the things that can really create an interesting atmosphere.

Enhance the Warmth

Use a white-balance preset to give your candle a warm glow. Image by carf.

Candle photos usually look best when they convey a strong sense of warmth and cosiness. Unfortunately, the orange light that they produce can often confuse your camera's automatic white balance, causing it to overcompensate and remove the warm feeling altogether in an attempt to capture what it sees as the 'correct' colours.

Switch your camera's white balance to a setting such as cloudy or daylight. This will give you a warmer and more pleasing photo.

Expose for the Flame

The flame is often the focal point of a candle photo, so it important to capture it properly, without overexposing it and losing all detail. Experiment with exposure times until you can see the different colours in the candle's flame - from the dark centre through the reds and purples at the base of the flame to the bright white peak.

Get Close

Get up close for an engaging photo. Image by wishymom.

For a really powerful and engaging candle photograph, get right up close to the flame. Fill the frame as best you can with the flame and some of the candle body, and expose the shot so that the background comes out completely black, with lots of detail in the flame and the candle itself.

A group of candles can add further interest and help to fill the frame more completely.