Color with Summar.

[Sanders McNew]

My wife and I took a visitor to ride the
Staten Island Ferry today. For a giggle,
I loaded my II with Fuji Superia 400,
ignored the light meter, and shot through
a Summar 1/30 second at f/2 -- at least
4-5 stops overexposed. Here's what I got:

I may have to explore more with this
color thing.

Sanders

 

[Nando]

Magic...🙂

 

[Hibbs]

WOW...just lovely. The green eyes are mesmerizing.

I will commence looking for a summar.

~hibbs

 

[CK Dexter Haven]

Beautiful shot.
Your wife reminds me of Jennifer Connelly. And, that's a good thing. A very good thing.

Okay, but, what about the rest of the roll? Why do you think it's 4-5 stops overexposed? I wouldn't think you'd get anywhere near this type of IQ if the frame were so seriously overexposed..... Neg film or not.....

 

[Uwe_Nds]

Great shot of your beautiful wife!

Best regards,
Uwe

 

[Bingley]

A really lovely portrait, Sanders, in every respect. The soft colors have a lovely retro look, and if you hadn't mentioned the exposure bit I would have attributed them to the Summar. The right side of her face appears to be illuminated by a window; the left side appears to be angled more to the shadows, and yet it looks well exposed to my eye, so I wonder if the 1/30 at f.2 really was that far off. Whatever. It still looks great. Like Dexter Haven, I wonder about the rest of the roll...

 

[LeicaTom]

Sanders,

Wherever you, Leica and family go it seems you ALWAYS get great pictures 🙂

This tiime in colour, nice to see a Summar being used this way for a change, Great Job!

Tom

PS: I had a "minty" Summar last year out of a 1945 Leica IIIC deal, but I regret to say I sold it without even playing with it.......the Summar is classic Leitz understated, I want to find a 1939 issued one to add to my IIIC K kit 😀

 

[Highway 61]

My wife and I took a visitor to ride the
Staten Island Ferry today. For a giggle,
I loaded my II with Fuji Superia 400,
ignored the light meter, and shot through
a Summar 1/30 second at f/2 -- at least
4-5 stops overexposed.

You can't actually overexpose a color negative film by "4-5 stops". These films don't have a linear response curve.
In other words, that's how the Schwartzschild rule works.

This shot looks correctly exposed to me. The lightly washed-out colors are probably more due to the flare of the Summar than to the exposition.
If it was so much overexposed, there wouldn't be any details in the black shirt tissue. But they're here.

Anyway, the only thing you must never do with a color negative film is to underexpose, so, no big deal with overexposing, even heavily.

Very nice shot BTW, mainly because of the model and soft lighting conditions.

Yet I'm not too sure if I'm a big fan of those visible film sprocket holes.

Maybe that's what Fred K. would call a "signature". 😉

 

[EcoLeica]

Very nice shot! it seems im gunna have to load my leica IIIc with some colour film and give my summar a go!

 

[retnull]

Sanders, really great shot !

Here's one I did with my Summar at f2 with Fuji Superia 400 just like your shot. No tweaks after scanning, I left the contrast low because it seemed to suit this particular image:

 

[tomasis]

wow wonderful shots!!

 

[Sanders McNew]

and yet it looks well exposed to my eye, so I
wonder if the 1/30 at f.2 really was that far off.

I wanted to overexpose it, and did not meter the
roll, but shot it at 1/30 @ f/2. I shot this at the
south end of the ferry where the light was
brightest. After, we walked back to the rear of
the ferry, with only indirect window light, and I
shot a B+W (Foma) roll with an M3 + Summitar,
which I did meter. Using EI 100 for that roll, the
meter prescribed 1/125 @ f/3.5. Here's a link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sandersnyc/2812323205/

Since the Fuji was Superia 400, I count two stops
for the slower shutter, two more for the faster EI,
and another 1-2 stops for the aperture. And that
does not take into consideration the brighter light
where I shot the color film.

This is my first time shooting color film in many
years. I bought what Ritz had on the shelf and let
the one-hour shop process it. To be honest, I was
surprised (and disappointed) that the film proved
so resilient to overexposure -- I was aiming for a
more impressionistic result. Maybe I'll try slide
film the next time out.

Sanders

 

[Mr_Flibble]

Lovely shot Sanders,
Retnull, you've posted that one before, but it's still beautiful.

I took a IIIc, a Summar and a roll of Kodak Color 400 film for a trip around a nature reserve this afternoon. Should have some pictures by tuesday.

Also had a Zeiss Super Ikonta with me and my new Leica III with a 90mm Elmar.

Cheers,

Rick

 

[Highway 61]

To be honest, I was
surprised (and disappointed) that the film proved
so resilient to overexposure -- I was aiming for a
more impressionistic result. Maybe I'll try slide
film the next time out.

I think that I get what you are after - most of your flickr shots have that nice "high-key" look.

That said - this is not what slide film will allow you to do. Overexposed (or shadows exposed) slide film doesn't turn out well. You would have to deal with some very unpleasant color shifts and completely washed-out highlights.

Color negative film will allow you to get some high-key color shots - just use a meter and expose for the deepest shadows.

Given your personal taste, what would give you the best results are RAW digital files from a DSLR but this is another problem...

 

[sweathog]

Sanders, that is a beautiful shot.
I'm looking through your flickr and am really enjoying your work.

 

[NickTrop]

The results of the Summar - often lovely, are also often unpredictable. The results here at f2 have more contrast than my results at f2 with the Summar. Beautiful stuff.

 

[sanmich]

I wanted to overexpose it, and did not meter the
roll, but shot it at 1/30 @ f/2. I shot this at the
south end of the ferry where the light was
brightest. After, we walked back to the rear of
the ferry, with only indirect window light, and I
shot a B+W (Foma) roll with an M3 + Summitar,
which I did meter. Using EI 100 for that roll, the
meter prescribed 1/125 @ f/3.5. Here's a link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sandersnyc/2812323205/

Since the Fuji was Superia 400, I count two stops
for the slower shutter, two more for the faster EI,
and another 1-2 stops for the aperture. And that
does not take into consideration the brighter light
where I shot the color film.

This is my first time shooting color film in many
years. I bought what Ritz had on the shelf and let
the one-hour shop process it. To be honest, I was
surprised (and disappointed) that the film proved
so resilient to overexposure -- I was aiming for a
more impressionistic result. Maybe I'll try slide
film the next time out.

Sanders

Sanders
Really a beautiful portrait.
How would you compare the Summar and the Summitar?
Also, for some reason I am not "authorized" to access your Flickr.

 

[Erik van Straten]

Yet I'm not too sure if I'm a big fan of those visible film sprocket holes.

To avoid the appearance of sprocket holes in the film gate of early Leica-screwmounts, just glue a felt ring into the cassetteopener in the bottomplate that will push up the cassette a bit (2-3mm). Check with some useless film into the filmgate (camera at "Z") if there are still any sprocket holes visible.

Erik.

 

[sanmich]

To avoid the appearance of sprocket holes in the film gate of early Leica-screwmounts, just glue a felt ring into the cassetteopener in the bottomplate that will push up the cassette a bit (2-3mm). Check with some useless film into the filmgate (camera at "Z") if there are still any sprocket holes visible.

Erik.

I ended up doing something a bit different:
The round metal piece on the baseplate on which the film cannister lays is steped. If you open the screw that holds it, and put it upside down, it will push the canister a bit without adding friction.

 

[Sanders McNew]

How would you compare the Summar and the Summitar?

The results of the Summar - often lovely, are also often unpredictable. The results here at f2 have more contrast than my results at f2 with the Summar.

The Summar is a very cool lens. I got lucky. I bought an early
nickel Summar off eBay, that had some milky stain on the front
element. A Leica repair shop here in Manhattan said it could not
be cleaned. Then I sent it to Sherry Krauter. She made it look like
a new lens -- no stain, no haze. That accounts for the contrast.

My initial experience with the Summitar was not happy. But I've
learned to shoot with it and now I like it very much. Optically,
it probably falls somewhere in between a Summar and a
Summicron -- it lacks the Summar's vignetting (which I like
most of the time) but still produces interesting textures away
from the focal plane. Here's a link to another recent Summitar
shot of mine, also of my wife:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sandersnyc/2753582986/

I like the look of the iron fence at the left as it recedes into
the background. I'm not sure I use it enough to keep it,
though -- I seem most often to reach for my Summar.

Sanders