Today's photo was inspired by a conversation with a friend regarding ritual magic's role in contemporary religious ceremonies. (Yes, it's amazing what deep philosophical thoughts are inspired by a couple of beers and some hot wings.) The conversation prompted a bit of research into the history of candle magic. Not surprisingly, its roots date back over 3000 years, and the practice in various forms transcends cultures on all inhabited continents. What did surprise me was the early Christian prohibition against the use of candles, though. Christian candle usage did not become an accepted practice until the 5th century. The prohibition was to separate Christian worship from a popular worship of Isis in Rome as well as to separate it from common Greek and Egyptian burial ceremonies that used candles and torches to light the way for the departed spirit. Most recently, the use of candles has become very popular in certain Wiccan ceremonies in which the color of the candle and the preparation of the candle takes on added significance. What will surprise almost everyone is that, at least in the western world, virtually everyone has at some point participated in ritual candle magic. That, in fact, is the origin of birthday candles and the concept of making a wish while blowing out the candles. That act encompasses the three concepts involved in ritual magic: concentration (blowing out the candles), visualization (making a wish), and will power (the belief that the wish will come true.)
Setup for today's shot proved a bit more challenging than expected. The background is a brown microfleece blanket. (It's dark enough to appear jet black under the right lighting. The base is a dark rust colored felt pad. I liked the wavy pattern in the front that leaves the blanket exposed at the bottom, so I chose not to crop it out of the image. In my first few shots, the flame was so overexposed as to contain no detail. By adjusting the exposure, I finally got detail in the flame, but almost nothing else was visible. I then used the HDR setting on my camera to take a composite of three separate images with a +-5 stop difference between them. That came close to getting the exposure right. The finishing touch was one of my clamp lights with a 40 watt Phillips bulb. By holding the light directly above the candle and shining it straight down, I was able to get the exposure I wanted with the HDR composite. The candle is a small brown votive candle in a fluted glass candle holder.
Post processing, after the in-camera HDR application, started with a detail medium filter in Topaz Adjust. I adjusted adaptive exposure, regions, contrast, and adaptive saturation. In PSE I adjusted hue and saturation, levels, and applied a deep blue photo filter.
Fascinating how you tackled the challenges of making this shot. It just shows that the camera does not just capture what is there. The finished picture can be manipulated in a myriad of ways. But that is where creativity and art come in. I really like the rich browns.
February 26th, 2013
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