Photo5 Candle: Darker Side

This is my entry for the Canon Photo5 competition, with the tea light candle:

I really like this photo. The mischievous side of me enjoys the slightly sacrilegious message. I also like how the image can be looked at on different levels, and interpreted in different ways. Do the horns represent the man’s dark side? Or is the photographer trying to comment on a dark side to religion as a whole? Is this an attack on religion or a warning to the pious. Those who know me probably know what I think, but that’s less important than what you all think!

The idea for this photo was hard to come by, but kind of popped into my head as soon as I started thinking about shadows. The execution, however, was a lot harder. I originally thought I’d fake the light and the shadow with a flash just out of shot, so that I could get a nice sharp, clean image. However, after many failed attempts to get the shadows just right, I decided to just have a look through the viewfinder with the candle only. I was beginning to think the idea wouldn’t work

A few experiments (with long exposures and high ISO – challenging in itself) showed promise, and we eventually got a shot I was reasonably happy with. The main problem was that the shadows of the hands looked like hands, not the horns I wanted. In the end I relented and used photoshop to sliiiightly change the shape of the shadows, and instantly, Danny – my patient model – had horns!

Here’s the un-edited photo, so you can see how little was actually changed:

Details:
Canon 350D
Tamron 24-135mm @24mm
2.0sec at f3.5 ISO1600