[Leica] HCB versus the M8 part one IMG

[wayneserrano at earthlink.net (Wayne Serrano)]

Alastair - Liked your write up and how you're using the M8... also enjoy the 
images as well.

Cheers,

Wayne 

-----Original Message-----
>From: Alastair Firkin <firkin@ncable.net.au>
>Sent: Feb 9, 2007 9:13 PM
>To: Leica Users Group <lug@leica-users.org>
>Subject: [Leica] HCB versus the M8 part one IMG
>
>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
>
>
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