Leica M Monochrom: best pics

JSU said:
Mitch--

You offer some excellent observations here and your technique is not dissimilar from my own methods for working with film. It is an implementation of the Zone System, of sorts. In your first two examples, had I been shooting those scenes with Tri-X, I would have rated the film at EI 200 and reduced (pulled) the development time by 10%.

For the 2nd frame (Kandy, girl in bright sunlight) I would also have used a medium yellow filter to better render the sky.

The third image is where I see the limits of the M Monochrom. I find the noise only in the shadows problematic. I don't use software plug-ins such as Silver EFX or Alien Skin but I wonder if an added effect/action might even out the texture across the entire frame.

In this third image, had I been shooting Tri-X I would have rated the film at EI 100 and reduced the development time by 20%.

In many of the sample images from the M Monochrom at elevated ISO ratings, I am seeing the typical associated reduction of dynamic range which in film equates to length of the gray scale. I appreciate the relative lack of noise exhibited by the M Monochrom, particularly compared to the M9 (the characteristics of which I am still learning). However it can be said in general for all digicams that amplifying the native ISO rating results in a loss of dynamic range and a corresponding increase in noise.

I see this well illustrated with your first image rated at the native ISO of 320 and your third image at an amplified rating of EI 2500.

Thank you for sharing these excellent and entertaining images.

--Steve
Click to expand...
Steve, thanks. Your analysis generally is spot on as far as I am concerned, though I'm not sure that I would have used a medium yellow filter unless I really wanted to accentuate the sky quite a bit, which might be too much for this scene. Generally, the M-Monochrome renders a bright, clear sky with some pronunced blue in it very nicely, as in the following picture, hsot without a filter, in which in LR4 the Exposure in lowered –0.90, while the building is dodged by the same amount.




M-Monochrom | Summicron-28 | ISO 320 | 1/2000 sec

Colombo


Also, I agree with your view on the third image: I would have better to shoot it a much less elevated ISO than 2500, which forced me to raise Exposure so much (+1.65) that I came up against the reduced dynamic range of this speed. Indeed, the reason that I shot this picture at ISO 2500 was because I was shoot in a darker part of the street on which the light was relatively even, and ti=urned to this high contrast scene without having a chance to change the ISO. I don't think that anything can be done with Silver Efex to even out the texture of this scene.

Incidentally, there is an interesting review of the M-Monochrom that compares the scpectral sensitivity to Tri-X, here.

—Mitch/Chiang Mai
Lanka Footsteps [M-Monochrom series from Sri Lanka
 
Lovely contributions, Mitch. It's nice to see the MM in your hands. Our styles are quite different, so it'll be nice to see how you tweak the camera to your own vision...
 
Speaking of contributions, here area a couple of the MM and the fantastic Canon 85 mm f/1.8 LTM. This, along with the Canon 100 mm f/2 LTM, and the Leitz Summicron 90 mm f/2 version 2, are my 3 favorite portrait teles for the Monochrom, due to their tonal rendition, clarify but forgiving rendering of detail....

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And 3 from the fantastically tiny Canon 35 mm f/2.8 LTM, which seems to compare quite favorably to the Leitz Summaron 35 mm f/2.8 (similar macrocontrast and microcontrast, different OOF rendition). It pairs well with the 8 element 'cron for unique views at 35 mm...

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