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M9 and B&W?

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Not bad. Still lacks a bit of that Leica umph! But we seem to be getting closer. Thanks JacK :thumbup:
I'll take the girl you can keep the B&W . Oops i did not say that . Sick 3 espresso over tired humor but I'm in a damn good mood. LOL
 

jonoslack

Active member
Hi Marc
Still trying with my 'problem' file - the difficulty being that their skins are very dark anyway.

Does this look more like the thing?.


This was not done in Silver efex pro.
 

TRSmith

Subscriber Member
I would love to but his site makes clear that he sells only to professionals. Guess us amateurs who care dearly about what we produce just aren't deserving

Woody
That's a new one on me. Maybe I should have read it more carefully. Then again, I'm sure I can be considered a professional at something.
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Here is the above color image run through one of my compound CS manipulations that does utilize Nik Silver FX, but not fully -- it is blended with a CS conversion. Of course so much of how these turn out is dependent on the initial conversion... Personally, I am not going to be purchasing an M9 anytime soon, so will probably not bother perfecting a workflow for it, but wanted to post an exemplar for reference:




And just playing around, here is a new approach, again all from C1:

 
V

Vivek

Guest
A bit more grit but the cat hair (RH side model's arm) details vanish with it.
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
A bit more grit but the cat hair (RH side model's arm) details vanish with it.
I assume you mean the Nix conversion? Yes, that is one issue with it, they add some blur and grain to emulate the differing emulsions and that kills the micro detail to a certain extent. You can dial it back out in control panel dialog to get the fine details back, but then it no longer looks like film. Not that that's bad IMO...
 
V

Vivek

Guest
Yeah, the Nik conversion. I know you are just toying with these.
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Bottom line is the M8 with the slight IR leak was maybe the best monochrome camera we've seen to date. IMO the original file matters a lot and at this point I think the M8 is still the B&W king...

Sorry,
 

Riccis

New member
I would love to but his site makes clear that he sells only to professionals. Guess us amateurs who care dearly about what we produce just aren't deserving

Woody
Woody:

If you want to order the actions from his site, just go ahead and you should be ok... I emailed Jeff a heads up that he may get a few inquiries based on my recommendations here and replied everything was cool.

I look forward to seeing some results posted here...

Cheers,
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Okay, one more. This was as easy as it gets in C1 -- I took the original DNG, applied the B&W yellow filter effect and converted the file as shot, every other setting zeroed to normal default -- IOW I didn't do anything in C1 other than apply the effect. Frankly, I think it's as good as anything I've seen yet...

 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Marc:

IMHO: 1st choice, M8 sans IR cut filter over lens; second choice, M7 with TriX + your X5 :ROTFL:
 

zonevt

New member
I come from a 4x5 zone system black and white background learned in the 1970's - 1980's through Fred Picker. When I converted my work to digital in the mid 90's I started by exposing with the same methods as film using a zone VI converted Pentax 1 degree spot meter. Instead of exposing for the blacks Fred's method was to meter the highest value white and place it on zone Vlll. This exposure method worked well for me and I did the conversions using The Imaging Factory, Covert to B+W Pro and nowC1 and Photoshop RAW. It seems to me that this gives you the flexibility of working with each specific image or set of images to best shift the zone scale as needed without depending on a specific profile. I use the DMR for B+W because I find the CCD sensor provides a good dynamic range and with Leica glass. I would think the M9 should perform well with the CCD sensor given the correct zone system exposure method. Trying to convert image files taken with an internal meter may be close but not optimum for photographers looking for perfection.
 

glenerrolrd

Workshop Member
Okay, one more. This was as easy as it gets in C1 -- I took the original DNG, applied the B&W yellow filter effect and converted the file as shot, every other setting zeroed to normal default -- IOW I didn't do anything in C1 other than apply the effect. Frankly, I think it's as good as anything I've seen yet...

Thats it !:thumbup: The lack of a decent profile seems to be killing the M9 files in LR.
 
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