Firelight Photography at A Merry Prairie Holiday Festival

Firelight photography gives a nice warm glow to your photos. It’s challenging to get exposure and focus locked in when you’re using a candle or campfire as your sole light source. But it’s worth the effort to learn and practice because it gives the viewer a sense of the ambiance of a place that would be ruined with flash.

This week let’s visit A Merry Prairie Holiday Festival at Conner Prairie in Fishers, Indiana. This was a great opportunity to do some photography in a setting unlike what we encounter every day. The 1836 Prairie Town area is lit almost entirely by camp fires or candles.

For more on what Merry Prairie is all about, check out my other post here to see all it has to offer.

Here are 4 quick tips for firelight photography

The first couple are basic, but it never hurts to revisit fundamentals when approaching a difficult lighting situation.

1. Use high ISO

We’re often told to use the lowest ISO you can get away with (ISO 100, 200, 400), so you have better image quality. But most modern digital cameras take pretty solid photos at higher ISO, so just embrace it. I use 3200 often and even 6400 sometimes.

2. Use your lowest aperture

Prime lenses are ideal because they let in a lot more light than zoom lenses. Photographing at f/1.4 lets in 4x the amount of light as even the most expensive f/2.8 zoom lens.

Shallow depth of field means more accurate focus is needed, which is difficult because most cameras have a hard time autofocusing in low light, but tip #4 will help counter that.

3. Brace yourself

You’re going to run into slow shutter speeds in low light. That means you’ll need to keep the camera steady so your images don’t blur from the subtle movement of your body that occurs even when you’re “still.”

If you’re like me, you don’t like to lug a tripod around, so here’s how I counter that… Put your camera on top of any stable surface you can find to hold it still (tables, chairs, benches, cabinets, etc.). You can also push against doorframes or posts. That gives you extra stability so your photos don’t turn out blurry.

4. Use the LCD screen to focus manually

Unless you have a newer high-end camera, your camera will probably have difficulty with autofocus in low light. Use the live view mode on the LCD screen and focus manually.

You can usually zoom in on the screen to get a closer look at subjects to see if they’re in focus. Because subjects don’t typically move around a lot in low light, it’s not too difficult to use manual focus.

Additionally, most LCD view modes will give you an exposure preview. That means the screen will show you what the photo will actually look like, which is often brighter than what you’re seeing with your eyes or through the optical viewfinder. This makes manually focusing a lot easier.

If you need any more info on any of these tips, let me know in the comments! I can provide more detail there.

Related Posts

For more photos and info about all A Merry Prairie Holiday has to offer, check out this post. To plan your visit check out the event page on Conner Prairie’s website here.

If you’re in the mood for more holiday goodness, take a look here, too!