Holiday Family Dinners -- low or dim light and metering help

[EddieCheddar]

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Hello all,

I know this may seem like a basic dilemma, but with the holidays upon us, your suggestions may help me and others out.

Let's say you have a Leica M10 with like a 35 Sumilux lens.
You're going to a friend's house and you aren't quite sure what the lighting situation will be.
Most likely the living room will have medium to low light, fireplace, candles, a few lamps on tables by couches.
Family and friends will be standing around chatting.
You want to just casually visit with folks, and take a few "snapshots" -- two or four people, side by side type of shots.
Most everyone is sort of backlit or sidelit by either a lamp, fireplace, or just some dimmed overhead lighting.
You don't want to take up too much time fiddling with settings, taking multiple shots, or moving people too far from where there are into a different lighted area. 
So, what do you normally do?

Do you use "spot metering" via Live View instead of RangeFinder?
Do you use "spot metering" via external VisoFlex EVF instead of RangeFinder?
Do you stick with "centered metering" and tweak something else?

ISO at 3200-ish?
Aperture at 1.4 or 2.0-ish?
Shutter speed at ???

Do any of you have any "go-to" settings or tips that you use in situation like this?
Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

 

 

[Peter Kilmister]

Use a flash ... sometimes it's the only option.

[andyturk]

I place my hand in the light of the lamp/fireplace/etc and let the camera pick an exposure close up. Remember that exposure and use it in manual mode later on.

[JonPB]

Like everything else, to do it well requires lots of practice and many mistakes. Each photographer will arrive at their own style and process. For me, I’d set exposure manually for each room/area based on the brightest highlights I might want to keep, pre-focus as much as possible before lifting the camera (three cheers for focus tabs), and spend as little time as I can with the camera in front of my face. My approach is to hunt interesting lighting, not to photograph everyone present; if capturing everyone is important, a flash is virtually required (using the lowest sufficient strobe power). But, mostly I’d be talking with interesting people I don’t frequently see. (On that note: a camera can be an excellent excuse to not drink when everyone else is doing so. Or a horrible hindrance to drinking enough.) 

[farnz]

My preference is the f/1 Noctilux because I primarily 'see' in 50 mm but I also use a 35/1.4 Summilux pre-asph and I always have -0.7 exposure dialled in to protect the highlights.

In these situations I shoot manually and with the Noctilux: ISO 1000, f/1.0, and 1/250th, 1/125th, or 1/60th to suit by checking a couple of test shots with the histogram but from then on judging the shutter speed by eye: brighter at 1/250th or quite subdued at 1/60th.

With the Summilux ISO 1250, f/1.4, and also 1/250th, 1/125th, or 1/60th to suit as above.

Pete.

[evikne]

I always shoot manually, and with no light metering at all. I try to find subjects and angles that are naturally lit up from a lamp or a window (if there is any light outside). I see no reason to use a very high ISO just to make a dark place look like daylight, because I want my pictures to look natural. I usually use the largest aperture I have available and focus at one subject at a time. If I need to have two things in focus at once, I place myself in an angle where both subjects have the same distance to the camera, instead of just stopping down the aperture.

I start with the longest exposure time I can allow without risk of motion blur, sometimes down to 1/30th sec. An ISO between 800 and 1600 is usually sufficient, depending on the available light. Then I make a test shot, take quick look at at the histogram, and maybe make some adjustments before I proceed taking pictures.

[jaapv]

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If you shoot without flash, use a grey card white-balance setting. (use a white table cloth or anything neutral if needed) Present-day LED light can make WB adjustments devilishly difficult, especially if mixed with Tungsten or Halogen light. With a grey card setting you will have an easy starting point. It will be too cool (blue) but that is easily corrected.

[evikne]

An ExpoDisc is a brilliant tool to get both correct WB and exposure in one move.

[a.noctilux]

Like post #4 from JonPB,

only experiences can "do" what you want.

- take one recipe, experiment then judge by results

- take another recipe, and so on

- in the end, you would find that there is no universal recipe for every situations

 

a -

with flash, the manual "flash WB" can get rid of AWB that may be the trickest to come by

but goodbye natural lighting even with bouncing

 

b -

in autoexposure(no flash), maybe the quickest way but results can be underexposed in most case

 

c-

manual exposure and "pre-setting-before-making-picture" may be the safest route but may demand more practices than other recipes

[mujk]

Maual exposure is usually the best alternative in difficult lighting conditions. If in a hurry, you can also use automatic exposure with exposure lock, by pointing the camera so that there are no bright light sources in the most sensitive part of the metering area (the center of it). I often just point it a bit downwards and lock the exposure, mostly with quite decent results. But, as said, you need to experiment. 

[250swb]

My 'go to' accessory would be my iPhone and leave the Leica at home. It will also avoid endless conversations that start with 'can you still get film for those?'

[otto.f]

On 11/29/2019 at 11:55 PM, andyturk said:

I place my hand in the light of the lamp/fireplace/etc and let the camera pick an exposure close up. Remember that exposure and use it in manual mode later on.

+1. My hand nevers fails 😄 in whatever difficult situation. Push the button halfway till the red point comes up, make your composition, focus and shoot. The rangefinder was meant for flashless available light photography so that’s where the M10 is for. We did this with an M6 not otherwise and now you can even check on the screen whether it’s postprocessable. Working with EVF and spotmetering is all stress, hustle and anxiety. Keep it simple, it’s a party.

Edited December 1, 2019 by otto.f

[MarkP]

I agree Otto. The 'palm card', tilted until the light is similar to that falling on the subject, is remarkable effective. My father taught me this when I was 15.

The other option where you know you won't  have enough light no matter what you do is just to use the fastest aperture you have and the lowest shutter speed you can hold, and accept the consequences. Surprising how well it works.

[otto.f]

Yes especially on the M10 which has enough leeway to push in postprocessing. You’ll be amazed how good a postprocessed image looks that was underexposed at ISO200 or so compared to the image with the ‘right’ exposure at ISO3200

Edited December 2, 2019 by otto.f

[evikne]

1 hour ago, MarkP said:

The other option where you know you won't  have enough light no matter what you do is just to use the fastest aperture you have and the lowest shutter speed you can hold, and accept the consequences. Surprising how well it works.

I do that from time to time. Raising the exposure in post isn't much different from using a higher ISO anyway with modern cameras.