Photograph candlelight: This is how you succeed in atmospheric Advent photos

1. The most important settings

2. Recordings with the smartphone

3. Keep your distance

When it gets dark outside, the lights on the Christmas tree or in the candle holders and around light up, then it gets really cozy. The candlelight is the ideal motif for an atmospheric photo, which you can also send as an Advent greeting via WhatsApp, for example. In this photo tip, we will explain to you which settings you should choose on your camera in order to perfectly stage the lights.

The most important settings

You don’t need to pay attention to many settings when photographing candlelight. Current cameras are surprisingly good at autofocus even in low light and still take good pictures even at high ISO values. Nevertheless, you should not overdo it with the ISO value and in the best case go up to a maximum of ISO 800.

You can then play with the depth of field if you wish. If you want the background to be out of focus, choose the largest possible aperture, such as f/1.4 or f/1.8 – depending on what your lens supports. If you want to photograph several candles in a row, choose a small aperture to increase the depth of field.

Of course, you also have a free hand when it comes to exposure. Here you should just try it out and maybe test an over- or underexposure. This can create interesting effects.

You can do this by setting your camera to “M” or “S” mode and then changing the shutter speed. Alternatively, you can also change the light value (called “EV” on your camera). Does your camera have problems with the autofocus? Then it’s best to use manual focus and focus by hand.

hiring idea: Choose a shutter speed of 1/60 second or less and try to work with a low ISO value. Choose the largest possible aperture to achieve a nice background blur. This is how you create particularly atmospheric shots.

Recordings with the smartphone

Unfortunately, you don’t always have the setting options just mentioned with your mobile phone. In the meantime, however, the pre-installed photo apps on smartphones are becoming more and more extensive and offer options for changing exposure, focus and many other parameters manually. However, this is not the case with every mobile phone.

The internal camera app offers you little creative freedom, but there are still opportunities to take great pictures. It is best to download a photo app that offers as many settings as possible.

Here you can then play with exposure and focus to get great results. The “portrait mode” in the current models, in which the camera creates an artificial background blur, is also practical.

Keep your distance

Of course you know it: candles are hot! So be careful not to get too close to the flame with your camera or cell phone to avoid damaging the lens or device.