Leica at club

[teemu.laine]

Got my Leica M6 back from repair last friday and decided to take it out with me to a club for a test ride. It´s amazing how well man can focus with a leica rangefinder in very dark spaces. Only problem I faced was that people were moving a bit too fast so there´s a bit motion blur in some pictures.

However picture quality stands out compared to my Nikkor lenses, at the moment i can´t even think I would take my D70 with me to some parties if my Leica is availabl. e! I´m in love :dance:

http://www.kameralaukku.com/articles/leica/album2/index_lb.html

All shots T-Max 400 developed in XTOL (1+2) @ 20C. Mostly shot with 35mm pre-asph ´cron and few 15mm CV heliar. Last pic was shot with 90mm Elmarit.

 

[RML]

Motion blur adds life to club shots, IMO. I wouldn't worry about it at all. 🙂

 

[Biggles]

I like these two the best:

 

[jaapv]

However picture quality stands out compared to my Nikkor lenses, at the moment i can´t even think I would take my D70 with me to some parties if my Leica is availabl. e! I´m in love

Welcome! another convert sees the light! (or rather the lack of it) 😉

 

[merciful]

Good stuff there, particularly the two girls.
<p>
That's one bright place if you can shoot at EI400.

 

[Skinny McGee]

Looks great!!!!

 

[tajart]

looking good!

 

[ywenz]

WOW you shot those with 400 film and the 15mm heliar!?!?!?!

I need to give that a try... I've always persumed it's too slow for dark interiors.

I was only able to manage this with iso 800 film and 15mm Heliar.. way too slow 🙁

 

[sleepyhead]

Very pretty eyes on the woman with the Nikon SLR in the last shot (90mm elmarit)...

 

[JoeFriday]

the shot with the girls looking at the camera is excellent!

 

[teemu.laine]

Good stuff there, particularly the two girls.
<p>
That's one bright place if you can shoot at EI400.

I wouldn´t say so, shutter speeds were between 1/4s and 1/15s, mostly 1/8s @ f2. Next time i´ll try shootinx t-max or tri-x @ ISO 3200. 😛

 

[Fred]

Recon you've done a grand job with this shoot, please post many more.

 

[furcafe]

That's not too dark. Dark is when you're stuck w/using 1/15th sec. @ f/1.4 & ISO 1600:

Nice shots, BTW. If you haven't done so, you should try Fuji Neopan 1600.

I wouldn´t say so, shutter speeds were between 1/4s and 1/15s, mostly 1/8s @ f2. Next time i´ll try shootinx t-max or tri-x @ ISO 3200. 😛

 

[ywenz]

When shooting in a bar setting, how are you guys metering? I find that it's very easy to under expose if I meter the lights in the club, but if I meter the dark areas, I'm always over exposing. Should I just pick a setting somewhere in the middle?

 

[Biggles]

I pick a piece of wall or furniture that looks about as bright as a gray card, take a reading off that, and then I just wing it.

 

[teemu.laine]

When shooting in a bar setting, how are you guys metering? I find that it's very easy to under expose if I meter the lights in the club, but if I meter the dark areas, I'm always over exposing. Should I just pick a setting somewhere in the middle?

In dark interiors I always measure from highlights and after that I compensate 1/2 - 1/1 stop over so I get some detail to shadow area. M6´s "semi-spot" metering helps of course, with an SLR and center weighted it´s a bit more difficult.

furcafe: I´ve heard some good things of neopan, but I´ve never tried it. Maybe I should test it when I run into a store which has it.

 

[furcafe]

Shooting in most bars, restaurants, & clubs is like shooting in any other high-contrast environment, e.g., theatre & concert stages, as they often have very "theatrical" lighting (that's 1 reason why I like shooting in them). Like Biggles, I try to find something in the scene that equates to medium gray (that's what the meter in the camera is set to "look" for, anyway), w/some tweaking depending on what shadow detail I want, how I want the overall scene to appear, etc. You also need to remember that you have more leeway in the highlights w/negs & more in the shadows w/slides (though this old axiom is less true if you're going to be scanning, in my experience, as scanners seem to have more of a problem w/dense negs/slides than enlargers).

When shooting in a bar setting, how are you guys metering? I find that it's very easy to under expose if I meter the lights in the club, but if I meter the dark areas, I'm always over exposing. Should I just pick a setting somewhere in the middle?

 

[teemu.laine]

Tonight another run at the same club! Now with CV 40mm f1.4

 

[ywenz]

What film and what shutter setting? Were you shooting wide open? I would expect the extra speed on the 1.4 to make a huge difference, but I see the people are blurry...

 

[teemu.laine]

Same film, same set. Shutter speed 1/15 or 1/30 , f2 and ISO 400. I´ll post some new pics tomorrow after i develop my rolls (it´s 9:30PM here in Finland so I´m just leaving to the club).