[Inexorable]

My wife has a corner in the kitchen for praying, once or twice a day. I tried several times to capture the bliss but my photos never managed to convey what I saw - the serenity. They had too much detail. They seemed to intrude into my wife's privacy.

I tried soft focus. That didn't work either. Finally, I experimented with manual de-focus. That seemed to work!

The photograph below comes closest to showing through the camera what I see through my eyes.

Does it work? Are there any better ways of doing it.

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[Panos_P]

I get what you were trying to capture but it doesn't work for me. I'm not a big fan of defocusing the whole frame because your eyes need something to focus on. If you didn't want to intrude into your wife's privacy you could frame the shot so that only her hand, the candle and the picture was in the frame. That way you could show that she is praying without actually intruding. Give it another try, maybe play with the room lighting( shoot later in the evening so that the light is warmer/darker, or underexpose a bit) and post the result!

[Inexorable]

Thanks! I will try under exposing in low light and post the photo. Sounds like a good idea.

I won't be comfortable with a cut off hand or body part.

I get what you were trying to capture but it doesn't work for me. I'm not a big fan of defocusing the whole frame because your eyes need something to focus on. If you didn't want to intrude into your wife's privacy you could frame the shot so that only her hand, the candle and the picture was in the frame. That way you could show that she is praying without actually intruding. Give it another try, maybe play with the room lighting( shoot later in the evening so that the light is warmer/darker, or underexpose a bit) and post the result!

[Inexorable]

Here is the same intent executed using a different technique as suggested by Panos_P

I am inclined to go with this approach.

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[Panos_P]

That is much nicer, due to the warmth of the colors that are produced by the candle light, adding to the overall emotion you were trying to capture. One thing i would change is that i would probably focus on the picture above the candle, because that's where the viewer's eyes go first. Did you shoot it hand-held?

[Inexorable]

Here is the same intent executed using a different technique as suggested by Panos_P

I am inclined to go with this approach.

I shot it using a sturdy tripod with mirror lock up. I focused on the flame with a very shallow DOF (F/1.4), the intent being to soft focus on the rest of the visible elements in the scene. The blurring of the image is intentional, since the deity being worshiped is irrelevant. You could say it is blend of two approaches. Hopefully, it makes the result more palatable and pleasing.

[Panos_P]

I shot it using a sturdy tripod with mirror lock up. I focused on the flame with a very shallow DOF (F/1.4), the intent being to soft focus on the rest of the visible elements in the scene. The blurring of the image is intentional, since the deity being worshiped is irrelevant. You could say it is blend of two approaches. Hopefully, it makes the result more palatable and pleasing.

I understand what you were going for, but as you can see, the focus is on your wife's shirt. I don't know if this is what you were going for, or because you defocused from the flame, the shirt came in focus.
Anyway, technically speaking i can't see something wrong with your photo except the soft focus, which is not my style. I'm not a pro photographer, just a hobbyist giving you my humble opinion, so i'd love to see someone with many years of experience giving you his thoughts.

Keep shooting

[Inexorable]

I understand what you were going for, but as you can see, the focus is on your wife's shirt. I don't know if this is what you were going for, or because you defocused from the flame, the shirt came in focus.
Anyway, technically speaking i can't see something wrong with your photo except the soft focus, which is not my style. I'm not a pro photographer, just a hobbyist giving you my humble opinion, so i'd love to see someone with many years of experience giving you his thoughts.

Keep shooting

I went over the entire series of photographs to check for focus straying, knowing well enough that it couldn't have because my focus is delinked from shutter release. The flame is indeed in focus. It doesn't appear so because of the halo that surrounds it, but you will notice that if you ignore the halo the outline of the flame is sharp. The focus on the shirt is probably a curved focal plain issue.

You might be a hobbyist, but you have given some very useful inputs, so you are my guru Thank you very much.

BTW there was some PP on the photo: to underexpose the area of the shelf (and remove distractions) and slightly overexpose the outlines of my wife's silhouette (so that she would remain easily identifiable). I also painted with a carefully angled (so as not to cast shadows) and just glowing LED light to prevent the photo getting two noisy because of high ISO.

[DarCam]

I would put the candle higher in the frame. It falls on the vertical third from left to right, but it's placed right at the edge of the picture which takes it away from the horizontal third from bottom to top. In other words, it misses where the eye would naturally want to follow or focus. If that candle is your starting point, then it needs to be higher so that it naturally takes the viewer to other elements of the picture. Right now, its floating within the frame and it isn't adding to the picture.


My suggestion is maybe using the light source, the candle, to silhouette your wife as she prays? Maybe moving the camera behind her and keeping her between the candle and the camera? Or, just moving the camera to shoot perpendicular to the subject? The tiles in the background could add a strong horizontal and vertical element in the background.


Just my thoughts. Hope to see what you come up with next.

[Inexorable]

I would put the candle higher in the frame. It falls on the vertical third from left to right, but it's placed right at the edge of the picture which takes it away from the horizontal third from bottom to top. In other words, it misses where the eye would naturally want to follow or focus. If that candle is your starting point, then it needs to be higher so that it naturally takes the viewer to other elements of the picture. Right now, its floating within the frame and it isn't adding to the picture.


My suggestion is maybe using the light source, the candle, to silhouette your wife as she prays? Maybe moving the camera behind her and keeping her between the candle and the camera? Or, just moving the camera to shoot perpendicular to the subject? The tiles in the background could add a strong horizontal and vertical element in the background.


Just my thoughts. Hope to see what you come up with next.

DarCam

I meant to take a snap shot...something that I could mail to my children who have grown up in the house and are now settled abroad. They know the corner of the kitchen their Mom prays in, right next to the kitchen door, so I cannot stage the shot much beyond darkening the kitchen when my wife is praying! I am operating within some severe constraints. For example, dimensions of the kitchen don't allow me to use a longer lens and take advantage of the reduced DOF.

I know I haven't nailed it with even the second variation. Because of the geometry and constraints, I cannot use your suggestions - shoot perpendicular to the subject, or go down to raise the light to the intersection of the thirds.

Perhaps a long Macro lens will create the right effect by reducing DOF and increasing blurring. An alternative, would be to shoot down standing up on a chair focusing on the lamp. That way the distance between the lamp and my wife's head will be much larger leading to more pronounced out of focus blurring.

Thanks for nudging me to do more. I will post what I come up with. :-)