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Fun with the Leica M Monochrom

simonclivehughes

Active member
Lovely images Ashwin, I miss Seattle, but live there still, vicariously, through yours and Matt's images.

While I'll never own the MM, seeing these images spurs me on to perfecting my B&W PP with my NEX 7s and CV lenses. I'm extremely pleased with what I'm getting, although I'm sure the MM has the advantage.

Ciao for now,
 

ashwinrao1

Active member
THanks so much, Simon! If you are ever down in this neck of the woods, we should meet up! It just got rainy and grey in Seattle....perfect MM weather ;)
 

jlm

Workshop Member
i'm seeing a lot more contrast in these images (a good thing, imo) compared to Jono's first china shots. what has changed? is the post processing zeroing in?
 

Woody Campbell

Workshop Member
i'm seeing a lot more contrast in these images (a good thing, imo) compared to Jono's first china shots. what has changed? is the post processing zeroing in?
In my case yes on the post processing. It's taken a while to develop a feel for it . Most images need local adjustments (to bring low values in bounds, or add emphasis). Shooting at ISO 320 there is a lot of flexibility to bring up shadows.

Also the 28mm elmarit asph is known for its contrast.
 

D&A

Well-known member
28mm again.

Wow Woody, the Red Rooster Drive-In brings back lots of memories :) That and the Red Apple Rest.

I love how looking at the shape of those two cars parked in front look similary sized and how their identical angled shaped sides match perfectly the angled shaped of the sides of the building and they are perfectly centered with regards to the building. Did you ask the owners of those cars to park them perfectly so you could get the shot? LOL! Great composition, especially if it was intentional....and that gentleman on the right walking towards the building adds to great effect.

I assume all your post processing of these leatest posted images is sans Silver EFX? Thanks!

Dave (D&A)
 

ramosa

Member
Sheesh, Woody, those last 2 are amazing, particularly the top of the 2...you are making a strong argument for the Rigid/DR Cron to be a go-to lens on the MM.
Complete agreement. Beautiful image, with the strong atmosphere. Please stop, though, as it'll be hard to get my spouse's go-ahead on a camera that shoots only B&W ;)
 

ramosa

Member
Oh, my friends, I must be strong ... And stay away frm this stream. It's not film. Of course not, but it's the best digital b&w that I've ever seen ...
 

Woody Campbell

Workshop Member
Wow Woody, the Red Rooster Drive-In brings back lots of memories :) That and the Red Apple Rest.

I love how looking at the shape of those two cars parked in front look similary sized and how their identical angled shaped sides match perfectly the angled shaped of the sides of the building and they are perfectly centered with regards to the building. Did you ask the owners of those cars to park them perfectly so you could get the shot? LOL! Great composition, especially if it was intentional....and that gentleman on the right walking towards the building adds to great effect.

I assume all your post processing of these leatest posted images is sans Silver EFX? Thanks!

Dave (D&A)
On processing I found that a couple of the film looks in Silver EFX Pro were quite good. I shot Tmax film with and without filters and compared it to Tmax processed MM and found the Silver EFX was in the ballpark - really not bad. (Tmax is what I had in the drawer - I actually prefer Ilford Delta 100.)

So I experimented with Silver EFX Delta 100 settings and found that I could get something close to it in LR by using a curve with some toe and fairly exaggerated shoulder, and adding some grain (20% or so using the default settings). I increase the grain a bit as my ISO goes up. Ironically adding a little grain increases the appearance of accutance.

I use the exposure slider to find the right mid tones. I avoid the shadows and whites sliders because they really kill the film look.

Finally I use local adjustments to unblock shadows and save high values (which the aggressive shoulder on the curve tends to burn out). I've found that applying shadow adjustment in layers of +30 or so each works best.

Note that the process is very similar to making a print in a wet darkroom.

In the Red Rooster I used local adjustments on the parked cars and the white cone.

In processing in general I use 50/.7/50 as import sharpening; 12 as my typical clarity setting (depends on the lens - 0 in the case of the 28mm elmarit!) and a slight warming bias on split toning. I use a very small amount of post crop vignetting (6 or less) as "edge darkening" - another wet darkroom technique. A lot of posters on this forum abuse this setting. I use the LR default lens corrections when shooting at base ISO and good light - they cause problems with marginal exposures. I use the perspective controls aggressively and shoot assuming that I'll do so - this is often the most time consuming aspect of post. The other adjustments are quite quick.

Thats it on post for now. This is very much an evolutionary work in process - I learn something every day. The MM for me has been very much worth the investment of time.
 
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