Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/02/10
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]2nd colored one for me: the 2nd blue hat makes it a better composition. Thanks for showing, Philippe Op 10-feb-07, om 06:13 heeft Alastair Firkin het volgende geschreven: > 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 > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >