Candle in the wind

Do you recognize this title? Of course, many of you could remember. This is title of a famous song that sung by Elton John. The song lyrics were altered by Elton John and Bernie Taupin to honor Princess Diana with the famous line Goodbye England’s rose. But it was originally written in 1973 to honor of Marilyn Monroe. Time to time, the lyrics and music were flavored by various artists.  This is a story of the original title.

Candle in the wind

Candle with flame is always beautiful. Many photographers have taken beautiful shots and you could find plenty of images in the internet. I wanted to try candle with flame, but I wanted to bring the flame that should reflect the wind. If I say in simple words, I wanted to capture “candle in the wind”.


Therefore, I made a setup. I placed the candle in an open space where I was careful with background that flash should not reach background object. If so, I could turn background as black, and I don’t need to find black screen. By the way, it was night. There was slow wind and it was ok for flame to bend a little. I used flash in order to bring the candle visible, but limited aperture, shutter speed and ISO as given below. I took several shots (as always) until I got nice flame that reflected the wind. In this image, I was concern about rule of thirds and lead room.

I am happy with the result. However, I would say a suggestion if you try same shot. It is better to use a color candle instead of white. Black background and white candle give a black and white image feeling, except the flame. I tried coloring the candle in Photoshop through selective color techniques, and it was quite nice. Green, purple, red colors were returned nice image.

Camera settings:

• Aperture size: f/5.6
• Shutter Speed: 1/60
• ISO: 400
• Focal length: 55mm
• Flash: Yes