I wanted to convey the cosiness of a candlelight dinner party but the animated state of everyone made capturing a moment without blur difficult.

Not that blur is a bad thing but not what I thought wanted for this image. Later when working with the image I decided I wanted the guests to be indistinct and really wished I’d captured more ‘blurred’ images. To achieve the indistinctness I wanted I ended up using quite a strong vignette. The strong vignette by the very nature of a candle lit setting seems quite natural and got the look and feel I was after.

Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 388, By Candlelight’ 1/40s f/2.8 ISO2500 160mm