Analysing my candle experiments

I was looking at the movement and light that a simple candle could produce in order to comprehend how it might be used for lighting up many objects. I was fascinated by Stanley Kubricks film, Barry Lyndon and its techniques to film in pure candlelight. The first candle experiment shows the flickering and movement quite well. The shadow surrounding the candle is visible and is moving quite frequently. The light the candle emits is not exceptionally bright, but it gives a glow, which could be more effective o light something producing more shadow than light.

Comparing to the second candle experiment did, I changed the angle of the camera to a close up shot looking at the subject straight on. I filmed the candle in the same conditions as the first experiment but the results were quite different. The flame did not move as much as before, I wanted to see the movement of the flame from this angle to see how the shadows match, but the movement was barely visible. The flame stayed pretty much in the same place whereas in the first experiment the flame was moving quite frequently.

I can see from these experiments that the lighting would be quite difficult to control even if the conditions are constant. The final result would be very much trial and error as the candle is so independent of its movement and lighting qualities. I do think however that the glow lighting would be quite effective and help to create an atmosphere otherwise not always achieved with artificial lighting. This could relate the lighting experiences at the cinema in the 10s, 20s and 30s.

With the my experiment of the row of candles I wanted t see what kind of effects the flames would have when put in a row. I wasn't really looking at movement of the candles so much. The candles were lined up and lit. A variety of size flames were produced sue to some of the candles being new, some had been it lots before and some only once or twice so the aesthetics of the flames were all different. This meant that the amount of light produced varied, which could be seen on the wall behind the candles. The size of the round glow ranges, some are independent and some link up ith each other. I liked the effect the flames had on the wall behind. It's like something you would see in a cartoon, the glow of the candle being so strong.