My M10 and the Worst Room Ever™

[JoshuaRothman]

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There's one particular room in my house that has the worst imaginable light. The room is long and narrow, with a low ceiling. There are tiny windows at the narrow ends, letting in just enough sun to blow out the highlights if they appear in the frame. The walls are painted pale yellow, and there are a bunch of lamps with LED bulbs at different color temperatures shining through yellow and green shades. Wooden furniture in a range of finishes combines with the yellow walls to cast a yellow-brown glow over everything, including the rug, which is, unfortunately, an odd mixture of gray and green.

In person, the room is somehow just barely habitable. But in photographs, it's astonishingly bad. I've developed a special preset in Lightroom—"Leica M10 Piano Room"—and it helps a little, but there's only so much you can do in post. Unfortunately, for reasons beyond my control, this room is where our Christmas tree is (complete with colored lights adding to the chaos), and it's where the kids open their presents. Many other Important Family Events also happen in this room. So I can't just not take pictures there.

It's no exaggeration to say that this room has inspired several purchases. I bought my first 21mm lens because I suspected that there was a certain angle from which the room would be okay-looking, if enough could be pulled into the frame. (I was right, and now take most pictures in the room from that angle at 21mm.) I also bought an M10 Monochrom in part because I knew that it would help solve my piano-room problem: in black and white, the weird colors and tones of the room become invisible, and the high ISO performance of the camera allows me to shoot in the room's permanent twilight. (Of course, I have to be careful to never point the M10M at the tiny windows, because they'll immediately blow out.) I own an M10 and an M10M, and have at times considered selling them to acquire an M10-R or M11; I've also considered buying an SL2-S for low-light color shooting. But one thing that stops me, aside from the cost of these cameras, is the fear that I'll acquire the new camera only to find that it doesn't do any better than the M10M in the Horrible Room.

Performance in this one room has become a seriously important technical challenge for me. If I buy a new piece of gear and it doesn't work in the room, I'm disappointed. And sometimes I'm surprised when things don't work out. Don't ask me why, but for some reason the photographs I take in this room using my 35mm Steel Rim Reissue just look bad—muddy, smeary, with colors that don't hang together. The room comes across better when I use bitingly sharp aspherical lenses. Maybe the higher contrast helps? Or something with the way the colors are rendered on older lenses doesn't play well with the room's awful yellow-green-brown color profile? Unfortunately, I've sold my 35 FLE. I now take pictures in the room also entirely with the 21 SEM and 28mm Cron ASPH.

I hold out a small amount of hope. Recently, I had a breakthrough: I started using the M10M with a yellow filter, and it improves my pictures in the room somewhat. So it's not all terrible.

I wonder if anyone else has a photographic bête noire—some place or thing that they struggle to photograph. Surely I can't be the only one cursed in this way?

Edited December 18, 2023 by JoshuaRothman

[Olaf_ZG]

That’s why Edison invented light. Flash would be my choice. If there aint light, one needs to create it.

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[JoshuaRothman]

44 minutes ago, Olaf_ZG said:

That’s why Edison invented light. Flash would be my choice. If there aint light, one needs to create it.

Ah, I forgot to mention flash—I've tried that, too! Unfortunately, the problem is not just with the light, but with the actual contents of the room. No matter what I do, all the pictures look like something out of Mary Frey's book "Real Life Dramas." Which isn't the worst thing. (Not the book—the book is excellent!)

[dugby]

How about covering the tiny windows (either something on the outside, or inside) at the rear to see how the removal of the light from there, changes the images.

As a temporary test, if the windows are small, cut some cardboard to fit the windows,

Edited December 18, 2023 by dugby

[KFo]

Ah yes.  We owned a bar here in Barcelona.  The interior was done in grey and black with pink trim around the windows.  The grey was cool, not warm grey.  The lighting was a mix of excessively cool LED strips on the ceiling along side warmer LED bulbs that were lower to provide a bit more mood.   Floor to ceiling windows along the front looked out onto the street.  The walls had a variety of modern abstract paintings from friends and friends of friends of varying quality, size and theme.  Outside across the front we had purple LED lights illuminating the sidewalk in the  style that said "theres a bar here."  

In a corner next to the windows was a monstrous (and awful) 2m x 3m abstract painting consisting of blobs of color, cool in tone.  This corner is where we would have little 2 or 3 piece bands come and play.  Backed by the monstrous painting, with the windows onto the street on the side with purple light pouring in the bands played on.  Lurid  lighting.   Across the street was an Okupa with the expected graffiti.  And the place was small, about 25m^2. A lot going on.

I shot many performances there but have only marginal results.  Nothing I'd ever show voluntarily outside of the interested.  From beautiful singers of the Édith Piaf nature to burly banjo players croaking out the blues. 

I used every lens I own (a quantity of  which people outside this forum would not understand).  I used a white card.  I put up a ladder.  I shot from the floor, outside in (the best), from the bar, ...  We adjusted the lighting.  I messed around with Lr until I was crosseyed.

I never used flash although I think that would have been the best option but would have been a bit too revelatory and disturbing to our drink purchasing customers.

Finally B&W was the clear winner.  Even at that compositionally challenged photos remain the high water mark of those days.  I relented and only shot with my iPhone as the results were no worse than those shot with the Leica system.

[hirohhhh]

 

First, the easy part: change the LED bulbs that don't match in color to make them all the same.

Try diffusing the light coming from the window by adding some semi-transparent curtains. If the space allows, add a key light to illuminate the room instead of these tiny LED bulbs. Since the room is narrow with a low ceiling, you can point it at the ceiling so that when the light bounces off, it evenly illuminates and creates pleasing soft light.

If shooting static objects (e.g., no people or not fast-moving kids), bracket your shots. This way, you can use certain parts that are blown out and blend them with ones properly exposed.

Lastly, shoot in black and white. I know you already do, but I don't see the point in even trying color in an environment where color is the enemy. Despite having decent lighting in my house, almost all photos taken inside are in black and white because color doesn't add much.

I can't think of anything else you can do except embrace all the flaws that the room has and use them as a narrative for your "Worst Room Ever" developing story.

Good luck!

 

[PCPix]

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There’s still a few days before Christmas… get new led bulbs, some diffusion on the windows (as mentioned in an earlier post). The blown out window does not need a new (higher dynamic range) camera - it needs brighter lighting inside the room, so either brighter led bulbs, or bounced flash (if ceiling is white?)

And… most importantly: go get a roller and some white paint and be done with yellow walls once and for all 😎

 

[JoshuaRothman]

These are excellent suggestions, and @KFo, your story has made me feel less alone in this Sisyphean struggle! In fact, your description is so good that I feel like I’ve been to the bar. I feel like I’ve been to places just like that in Barcelona. 

Repainting and redecorating is a good idea. Honestly, Leica equipment is so expensive that repainting and installing new lighting would probably be cheaper. But I realize that I forgot to mention a major challenge: many of the furnishings in the room are family heirlooms, and won’t fit in any other room in the house! And of course no one in the family really sympathies with my plight.  

Honestly, it’s like one of those torture rooms in a horror movie. Like it’s been invented just to torment a photographer. SAW: Leica Edition.

Edited December 19, 2023 by JoshuaRothman

[Stuart Richardson]

I would say get halogen if you still can. It is way better than LED still, unless you are buying very fancy LED, and even then it is still tilted in favor of halogen...at least for the color quality. In Europe it is really hard at this point, but perhaps still possible in the US...

I am happy to see you mention Mary Frey. She was one of my MFA teachers, and a brilliant photographer and wonderful person. I would also maybe just try to embrace the vibe she has there. You have a house, you have a life, the life takes place in that house. Not everything needs to be a idyllic setting... I do think the overall key is probable lighting...either adding, removing or adjusting. Another classic remedy to color problems is what you have found: black and white.

Another option is to go in there in the middle of the night and paint it white, leave the paint cans there with some half drunk milk and half eaten cookies and then blame it on Santa.

Edited December 19, 2023 by Stuart Richardson

[Al Brown]

I bought my first Leica because I was pissed off that my underground cellar-cum-fallout-shelter was too dark when the light was switched off. It is long and narrow with low ceiling and completely sealed from the outside world.
The Leica did not help. It was not until I bought 4 Aputure 600 and Nanlite 720 LEDs that the room started to light up.

Edited December 19, 2023 by Al Brown

[LocalHero1953]

I photograph play rehearsals in church halls. A typical church hall has fluorescent strip lights throughout (neither fixed WB nor AWB works), crucifixes in every sight line, Sunday school story posters and pinboards on every wall, and copious red fire extinguishers and red plastic chairs. Last week the rehearsal was 'Lucky Stiff', a musical about dead bodies and gangsters - a bit tricky in that setting. My solutions are:

• Buy an expensive SL prime, shoot at f/2 in the hope the background is out of focus.
• Use Lightroom AI masking to mask the non-human part of the scene, desaturate it and reduce clarity.
• Last resort: convert everything to monochrome.

[UliWer]

Definition of bokeh: too lazy to arrange the background properly.