How do I correct the brightness of the candle flame?

[JBW]

I took this during a power outage and I like it. The problem is how to lower the glare of the flame. My primary pp tools are Gimp and RawTherapee.

[Peeshan]

The flame seems clipped, so I doubt you can do much. Whatever you do the flame will appear as a white "stain", so for example if you try lowering it's brightness it will just turn grey. On the other hand you can go the opposite way and try to brighten the background, but you will lose the atmosphere. I would suggest take another shot, this time exposing for the flame - it's relatively easy to correct an underexposed background later in rawtherapee & gimp.
Here someone else had a candle problem with some advices: candle in a holy place

[Shadowman]

I'm not sure you really need to adjust, the problem seems to be that it's too close to the foreground and dominates the scene. You can minimize the magenta halo somewhat but the flame appears natural to me.

[JBW]

I'm not sure you really need to adjust, the problem seems to be that it's too close to the foreground and dominates the scene. You can minimize the magenta halo somewhat but the flame appears natural to me.

it is natural but it just hurts my eyes. But with the typhoons running past us there will be lots of opportunity to try and try again.

[JBW]

The flame seems clipped, so I doubt you can do much. Whatever you do the flame will appear as a white "stain", so for example if you try lowering it's brightness it will just turn grey. On the other hand you can go the opposite way and try to brighten the background, but you will lose the atmosphere. I would suggest take another shot, this time exposing for the flame - it's relatively easy to correct an underexposed background later in rawtherapee & gimp.
Here someone else had a candle problem with some advices: candle in a holy place

lots of typhoons means lots of brown outs and that means i shall get many more chances.

[Shadowman]

it is natural but it just hurts my eyes. But with the typhoons running past us there will be lots of opportunity to try and try again.

I would suggest HDR but the slightest breeze will have that flame fluttering. By the way, when you set up this shot, did you meter for the intensity of the flame?

[JBW]

I would suggest HDR but the slightest breeze will have that flame fluttering. By the way, when you set up this shot, did you meter for the intensity of the flame?

Meter? The only meters I have are for electricity and water. I have just taken a bunch of shots and the flame looks best when the shot shows an orange candle. Bu then there is almost no background. Blue candle blue and bright flame.

[ajohnw]

You might get some where if you can set your in camera flash to various powers or try setting that for fill in only which is what it probably does in it's ordinary mode - I'd guess that will brighten the background too much but maybe????

John
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[JBW]

You might get some where if you can set your in camera flash to various powers or try setting that for fill in only which is what it probably does in it's ordinary mode - I'd guess that will brighten the background too much but maybe????

John
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maybe, worth a try

[Loose Canon]

Meter? The only meters I have are for electricity and water.

Now that's funny!

Brian, this is a perfect chance for layer/masking.

Shoot for the candle until you get what you like. You won't have to worry about the flame movement if you use just one shot.

Shoot for the background same and never mind the candle/flame.

Load them into layers in your editing software. I'm not sure how Gimp works. Maybe you can copy & paste one shot into the other?

The mask them in together.

[JBW]

Now that's funny!

Brian, this is a perfect chance for layer/masking.

Shoot for the candle until you get what you like. You won't have to worry about the flame movement if you use just one shot.

Shoot for the background same and never mind the candle/flame.

Load them into layers in your editing software. I'm not sure how Gimp works. Maybe you can copy & paste one shot into the other?

The mask them in together.

that sounds like an idea for tonight.

[Loose Canon]

Let us know how you go Brian!

[JBW]

Let us know how you go Brian!

that I shall. However, with the typhoons coming one after the other we could be off line (safe enough but no electricity) so if it takes a day or two...

[Loose Canon]

No worries Brian.

Godspeed and keep your head down Brother.

Stay safe man.

[Black Pearl]

Get two more candles and place them closer to the background subject but just out of frame. This will help balance the overall exposure meaning the highlights are less likely to clip and the shadows won't be as hard.

Meter for the brighter parts and assuming you are using a tripod, RAW and very low ISO bring up the shadows with your editing software.

[Rita]

that sounds like an idea for tonight.

And I can now say that masking works like a charm

[JBW]

Get two more candles and place them closer to the background subject but just out of frame. This will help balance the overall exposure meaning the highlights are less likely to clip and the shadows won't be as hard.

Meter for the brighter parts and assuming you are using a tripod, RAW and very low ISO bring up the shadows with your editing software.

I am using a tripod, ISO 100 but my fujifilm does not offer RAW. Tomorrow (tonight was a disaster) I will try the multiple candle technique.

[lukaswerth]

I took this during a power outage and I like it. The problem is how to lower the glare of the flame. My primary pp tools are Gimp and RawTherapee.

In PS I would probably use a simple trick to get this very exposure closer to how I want to see it: colour the flame manually. This should also be possible in the Gimp; I can only say what I would do in PS: one layer with solid yellow, one with orange (or a more orange yellow), both with black masks (so they don't affect at all the image yet), paint colour manually into the flame by painting with white into the black mask (using the softest brush setting), yellow inside, orange outside, perhaps a bit in the halo, dim this down with the eraser tool by setting it, let's say, first to 50% and then to 25%, pull down the opacity of both layers to taste, blur the masks to taste.

Lukas

[Peeshan]

Get two more candles and place them closer to the background subject but just out of frame. This will help balance the overall exposure meaning the highlights are less likely to clip and the shadows won't be as hard.

Meter for the brighter parts and assuming you are using a tripod, RAW and very low ISO bring up the shadows with your editing software.

That will probably work well, you could also use some aluminium folio to reflect the light back to the background

Since there is no possibility of RAW editing you can also play with white balance to avoid the shift to blue.

[ajohnw]

Going back to the idea of using 2 images and a layer mask you could try taking one image showing the candle flame as you want. Then take another leaving the camera in exactly the same position but with something blocking the flame as far as the camera is concerned. Maybe using a coin or small piece of metal stuck in the candle.

Then with the light blocked shot on top paint in a layer mask to remove whatever is used to block the direct light from the flame. When happy - new from visible and tidy up with the dodge burn tool.

Or rather than new from visible a new layer - soft light - bucket fill with 7f,7f,7f grey and tidy up using the dodge burn tool on that. My mid grey has an 80 in it. Your's might be all 80's. One of the standard pallet greys should have values like these.

On the other hand 2 shots one with an over exposed candle flame and one with it shown correctly might work out. I have a feeling that the over exposed flame will be bigger than the other one though.

The layer masks are simple. Select white full opacity and then paint black on to make it transparent where needed. It should also be possible to use the dodge burn tool on this too. Which ever just make sure you select it by clicking on the layer mask rather than the layer icon.


John
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