[Leica] HCB versus the M8 part one IMG

[firkin at ncable.net.au (Alastair Firkin)]

So time for some images. You can avoid the rant and just go to:

<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Alastair/album184/album103/facePaintColor.jpg.html>
http://tinyurl.com/2gafsy

or you can continue to read the thought processes of a new M8 user whose
camera is back in action. The M camera became my street camera after I
joined this group. Till then, I?d either avoided street shots, or used a
Rollei TLR (quite successfully as well). As I?ve said before, I had no
idea of how to why to use a rangefinder when I bought my M3 (bought it
because I had a CLE and it was so beautiful and ?born? the same year I
was!!). The techniques I?ve learnt (not mastered) are now being adapted to
the digital M, and there are some ?clashes?.

1. After realizing some of the M?s strengths, I began to practice being
HCB. I used the 50mm summicron with a tab, learning to pre-focus and
learning to guestimate light exposure, checking from time to time with a
meter. Basically, the camera is held as inconspicuously as possible, with
a preset exposure, you move quietly along the street/market etc ?stalking?
images. When a subject appears, you frame the scene in your mind without
raising the camera, setting the tab to the guessed distance. At the
perceived decisive moment, the camera is brought up in one smooth motion
to the eye horizontal or vertical fired and returned. To do this, I have
to practice tab focusing for days before the ?event?: I usually walk
around the house for a week prior to a trip doing it over and over, and to
be honest, it works ---- there is NO faster way to capture an image.

An additional refinement to this is to keep the camera at a hyperfocus
between shots, ready to aim and fire without even using the tab to focus.
With ?auto? exposure, I can even be lazy with the guestimation. The first
image above is the result of this process. I have set up 3 profiles on the
M8, so I can change between likely scenarios quickly. Profile 1 is
daylight shooting in bright light (I do not use the auto WB here, as set
on daylight the camera is no worse off than being loaded with colour
film). Profile 2 is my HCB TriX mimic. ISO is set higher at 320, and the
preview image is b/w jpeg. Profile 3 is my interior/low light set up. I
chose 1250 ISO for this, so that as soon as I went outside again a shutter
speed of 1/8000 would remind me to revert to another profile ;-) with a
colour preview and the monitor on the camera dimmed.

Since I was using the 35 ?lux on the M8 in very dull late evening light, I
set Profile 3, then tested the light at f8, deciding that ISO 640 was
enough. I now set a hyperfocal distance of 5 meters and went on the prowl.
On my first walk down the outdoor market evening, I had seen
?face-painters? and the topic appealed. This is the result of my M
training. I saw these two with the face painting sign. I wanted to see
their faces, people were wandering by and when the painter looked over the
camera was swung up and fired: someone passed in front of me (I was aware
of them) and I don?t think either girl had any idea that I?d made the
image. So where is the ?clash?. I saw this image in b/w as below:

<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Alastair/album184/album103/facePaintBW.jpg.html>
http://tinyurl.com/ywh34f

compared with:
http://tinyurl.com/2gafsy

and to me it captures the beautiful expressions almost perfectly BUT, its
very hard to ignore the wonderful colours of the scene, and despite
anti-Leica WB comments the M8 has done a none too shabby job in recording
the colours as well. I suspect many of us will be seduced by colours we
could never have recorded in film days (I know Nathan agrees with this)
and yet I sort of know that in years to come, I would prefer the b/w
image.

2. The second issue is that in M3-6 days, I would have walked on. I might
have missed the moment or got it. That would only be known back in the
darkroom (though usually with a rangefinder you do know when you have
?nailed-it?). Now I can chimp, though I must add at this moment that the
dimmed screen is pretty dim, AND I can take more images. Yes, I always
could, but digital screams out for it. Electrons don?t cost, the M8 winds
on and is ready for another image quickly etc. One problem with my use of
digital is that I still use it like film. Helen takes images from dozens
of angles etc and chooses later, but for me old habits die hard. So I did
re-focus (they were only 3 meters or so away) and take another image:

<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Alastair/album184/album103/facepaint2.jpg.html>
http://tinyurl.com/22tb3p

This one is sharper, and I was delighted with the shape of the painters
hands, but looking through the viewfinder, I had not really noted the
person behind, who I had blocked out when I had positioned myself without
the camera to my eye, and I find her presence has made the image a bit
more messy. You should also know that both images have had a little crop:
No issue there for me.

3. Finally clash 3. If I take multiple images I tend to like more than one
of them and find it very hard to dispose of any but the real flops. So
far, I find editing the images is taking far more time with digital then
it ever did with film. So I seem to waste more time than I had expected
when I started using a digital camera. I decided last time to take the
raw/jpeg options so that I did not have to edit every raw image back to a
storage jpeg, BUT lightroom does not show me the jpegs, and I don?t think
editing in LR and Bridge is a smart option. I have no answers, only
questions but there is a lot to learn, and I suspect a lot that I need to
IGNORE!!!.
That is more than enough for one e-mail. Comments would be delightful:
especially the negative ones!!!!

Cheers and here?s luck
Alastair