Color of golden hour light

[chauncey]

Now that I've concluded that I love candlelight for indoor studio stuff,
but, as Mike pointed out...there are safety concerns.

That candle light, as does "golden hour sunlight", measures about 2800K. Wouldn't I
accomplish the same thing by simply changing my lighting to 2800K bulbs?

[Mike Buckley]

If you're comparing one candle to one bulb, it's possible that you'll be able to produce the same effect.

Keep in mind that the brightness and size of the two light sources will be different. The difference in brightness is obvious. Less obvious perhaps is the difference in size: when putting two light sources of different size at the same distance from the subject, the quality of the shadows they make will be different.

If the light bulb is both brighter and bigger as I suspect will be the case, you might be able to create the same effect using the candle or bulb by moving the bulb farther away from the subject than the candlelight. Alternatively, perhaps two or three candles would be similar to one bulb in both total brightness and size, in which case you would be able to place them the same distance from the subject to produce the same results. You'll probably need to experiment to determine the actual similarities in the results and how to reliably produce them.

My point is that your post compares only the Kelvin temperature of the two light sources. The brightness and size of the two light sources, which you didn't take into account, are also important.

[Rob Ekins]

Now that I've concluded that I love candlelight for indoor studio stuff,
but, as Mike pointed out...there are safety concerns.

That candle light, as does "golden hour sunlight", measures about 2800K. Wouldn't I
accomplish the same thing by simply changing my lighting to 2800K bulbs?

No.
Lighting an object is a touch more complicated than just colour temp

Have a look at your last two submissions, different lighting same temp (You say) The results are miles apart!

[chauncey]

You're right in that it was different...the seashell shots were more of a merge process.
Two sets were taken, one with the candle positioned on the right and one the left of the shell...
they were then merged to help eliminate the glare from lousy technique.
The miniature house was done using a single candle off to the side.

Mike, the lighting receptacles that I use are of the dimmable variety and should
ease the harsh lighting concerns.

[Mike Buckley]

Mike, the lighting receptacles that I use are of the dimmable variety and should
ease the harsh lighting concerns.

First, harsh lighting is not necessarily to be eased; it is sometimes to be increased. Your decision about that has to do with what you want the image to look like. I think of harsh light as characterized by hard shadows. In that sense, the golden hour produces relatively harsh light.

Second, the ability to dim the light bulb doesn't change the size of the light bulb. Therefore, dimming it doesn't change the relative size of the light bulb and, thus, doesn't change the hardness or softness of the shadows. The only way to change the relative size of a light bulb and, thus, the hardness or softness of the shadows it produces is to change its distance from the subject.

[Manfred M]

Golden hour and candle light are two totally different creatures. A candle or 2800K light bulb will NOT give you "golden hour" light. As others have stated a 2800K bulb is not going to emulate candle light completely, as the light sources are quite different. Candle light due to the combustion process will have variable colour temperatures due to ever changing airflow patterns around the candle. With a tungsten bulb, in its sealed glass envelop, the colour temperature is much more constant, although it is not completely constant either. With the light bulb, the colour temperature will gradually change with time as the tungsten filament boils off and thins out.

With golden hour, you have a combination of red / yellow light as the sun cuts through the relatively thick atmosphere. The light is scattered and reflected off atmospheric water, dust and the air molecules (mostly nitrogen). This secondary reflected light has a very high colour temperature (blue) light, so sunset (and sunrise) are mixed light sources.

Add to that the reflected component of the surroundings and you have wierd and wonderful colours. If you want to emulate golden hour, you will have to gell some lights with the yellos, reds and orange from the sunlight, as well as the blues from the indirect light.

[chauncey]

I cannot argue with not being able to use bulbs of the proper K temperature.

Referencing this...Home sweet home
The candle did give me the light color that I wanted but it quickly became apparent that the candle's
flickering was going to cause shadow problems for that stacking process that was to be used.
The remedy was to allow the flicker to balance/average itself during, in this case, a 13 second
exposure which was necessary to maintain a 100 ISO.
It was, unquestionably, dumb luck that everything seemed to work together.

I have no clue about the use of gels and how they might be combined to get the desired look.

[Shadowman]

I was thinking of two particular effects associated with golden hour, the particular subject (glass, foliage, human, etc.) and how the light reveals itself (completely covering, flecks of light, reflected), so each subject may need a bit of assistance such as a reflector or modifier.

[Loose Canon]

Changing the hardness or softness of shadows is absolutely not restricted to changing the relative distance. That's why they make diffusers.

[xpatUSA]

I've found this to be a handy reference when discussing lighting, well worth a read:

http://kronometric.org/phot/lighting...20handbook.pdf

Enjoy!

[Shadowman]

I've found this to be a handy reference when discussing lighting, well worth a read:

http://kronometric.org/phot/lighting...20handbook.pdf

Enjoy!

Saved to library, thanks for the link.

[Max von MeiselMaus]

That is a nice problem.

So, you want the warmth of candle light, but without the candles. My initial thought was, if all the camera is capturing is the light of your candles/bulbs, changing your white balance to something cooler will warm the light and make any light look more like candlelight. However, your house pictures has some nice, cool shadows in it that emphasise the warmth of the light. Changing the white balance would just yellow out everything and lose that pleasing contrast. And that is now puzzling me how you managed to get blue shadows. Was there any ambient light in the room?

But, anyway, warm light. I have taken small still lifes with the light of a phone and tablet torch. Many torch apps allow you to change the colour of the torch light to whatever you want. You can't dial in an actual Kelvin value. You would have to do it by eye. But that could be a cheap way to experiment with coloured light.

You are using such long exposures so might not mind the puny light coming off a phone/tablet. Being endlessly curious, I looked it all up. A "standard" candle allegedly puts out about 10 lumens. An iPhone 4 torch (because that is the only one I could find referenced) puts out about the same. So, equivalent. However, I seem to remember you saying you have been using banks of candles. It would be more difficult to set up a bank of phones, and all with their torches set at the same, random value.

Might be worth having a go, though. You could even do some light painting with it, if you are getting exposures of 13 seconds. That would be fun.

Subscribing, as this is the sort of practical problem I like.

[chauncey]

Max, you brought up an intriguing concept...I've often used my flower images, displayed on
my monitor, as backdrops for water droplet imagery.

To carry the concept further, using a monitor/laptop/television/whatever displaying the same
colors, or differing colors for that matter, as light sources...now that is an interesting concept.

Other than the sheer lack of light intensity causing a potential problem...where's the downside?

PS, there was some ambient light present...great eye.

[Max von MeiselMaus]

OK. Firstly, keep the bit of ambient light, because those blue shadows tell us how yellow the candlelight is. They also add some nice, contrasting accent colours in there, which saves it from being simply a colour cast image.

Secondly, anything with an LED screen that could be coloured could be used for this, so a laptop screen would also do. I have no idea if it pumps out more light than a mobile phone torch, but if you are more comfortable using the laptop, it would also work. Just make a huge square of warm yellow in Photoshop and then view it at full screen size (this is also something else I have tried). The only downside is that it would take a bit more work to position (you can hold a phone up wherever you want it. Not so easy with a laptop). You would also not be able to have a go at lightpainting with a laptop, for the same reasons. But I would be interested to see what you come up with if you try this.

[Max von MeiselMaus]

And, thinking more, because it is what I do when I find a toothsome problem, although both the phone and the candle are giving out the same lumens value, you would get more use of it from a phone, as the light is directional. Even if you put a silver reflector behind your candle and bounced as much of it as you could towards your object, you would still be losing some in scatter.

Also, there was talk about the hard quality of the light from a candle being difficult to replicate (not really. Cut a hole in a piece of black card and tape it over the from of a small softbox), A phone screen is a small source, so will produce hard shadows, without having to move it so far away that you lose all light intensity.

I want to have another go at this, now.

[chauncey]

To carry this discussion a bit deeper, as I have a number of light stands with appropriate snoots
and whatnots...why not use bulbs like this...http://www.amazon.com/HERO-LED-Multi...5%3A2470955011