Introducing myself
Introducing myself
I thought it might be worth presenting myself in your discussion. I can't defend the indefensible (the quality of my photography), and the (too) gentle touch of my post processing.
I can however explain the explainable, and perhaps a little more could be said about the situation and circumstances. As for how Leica choose their testers, I can only assume that it's for the usefulness of the camera testing rather than the quality of their photography or their blogging.
I had the camera for nearly two whole days before the trip to China; I'm not making excuses for either of us, but relationships often develop with familiarity. As for the images looking like tourist snaps: well, that's exactly what they are. It's easier to present artistic intent when one concentrates on a particular aspect. My intent was not to make everyone say, 'Wow, what a great photographer,' it was to show as many different aspects of the camera as possible. That also meant posting a lot of images, which is a challenge from a short trip with a new camera.
The light in China was incredibly flat, almost no sunshine and rather poor visibility,big white skies - one is not obliged to subscribe to this flatness, but I had this in the back of my mind when processing the images.
Post processing is a different issue, and in retrospect I accept the criticism. I should probably have had more conviction. I'm actual considering doing a much smaller gallery of my favourites with the intent of everyone saying, 'Ah, maybe he isn't such a bad photographer after all.' Truth to tell there are images that I'm proud of, but perhaps they are rather lost in the rush.
None of these images are out of camera jpgs - these jpgs are actually very good, but I shot everything as DNG+jpg and used the DNG files.
The files themselves were very unfamiliar, much more different than you might imagine. So was the imposed workflow. I usually do conversions from the M9 using Aperture and Silver Efex Pro. In this case the new DNG format meant that I had to use Lightroom instead. This was exacerbated by an unfamiliar route to producing the web files.
One is used to exposing to the right, with some ability to recover details in highlights. This is simply different with the MM files. With no CFA, you will not find details hidden in one of the colour channels, a blown pixel is just that. The quid pro quo is a wealth of detail in shadow areas, and a very extended dynamic range, which, in turn can render images looking a little flat. Perhaps I have treated the extended and rather beautiful mid-tone with too much respect for current tastes.
The roll off from over exposed areas is very gentle and subtle, much nicer than conversions from colour files. This lends an interesting possibility to do high key images, I've dabbled, but not really explored this properly. Certainly it took a day or so to realise that over-exposure was not to be done lightly. Recent firmware changes have also addressed this issue.
I'm trying to be even handed here, but I really fell that this is a different medium. It's not like demosaiced digital files converted to black and white, but it isn't like film either.
It's going to take some time to work out how to fit it into our photographic pshyche - the one thing I'm absolutely certain of is that it does have a place there.
I hope this is of some interest
All the best
Jonathan Slack
