DubilUC
Member
I agree this lens is something special and definitely a cut above the other voigtlander 35mms imo. I very nearly got this lens myself, and still may one day.
If I were to be so bold, may i offer some advice on your outdoor shots based on purely my own experience. Feel free to ignore them if you feel they don't apply. For me these could be rather nice shots, just like your indoor ones are. The problem with them is primarily one of exposure, ie, they are overexposed. I'm going to hazard a guess that you are exposing by the methods you learnt when shooting negative film? Metering for the important midtones and letting the highlights bloom out. In digital, this works well only if the highlights are tame or are a very small part of the image. Due to the linear way digital clips, this doesn't look so good when large parts of the image are blown. Especially doesn't help that you were shooting dark skin in open shade with full sunlight in the background. If you instead try exposing as if you were shooting slide film - meter for the highlight detail you want to keep, letting them go no more than 2 stops over, and simply let the shadows fall where they may. Don't be afraid of letting your subject go a little underexposed if they are in shadow. Although if its more than 2-3 stops under, they might be in too much shade to get a good shot - try and get them into the sun in that case. The good thing with the m9 is it costs you nothing to experiment 🙂 Hope this helps!
If I were to be so bold, may i offer some advice on your outdoor shots based on purely my own experience. Feel free to ignore them if you feel they don't apply. For me these could be rather nice shots, just like your indoor ones are. The problem with them is primarily one of exposure, ie, they are overexposed. I'm going to hazard a guess that you are exposing by the methods you learnt when shooting negative film? Metering for the important midtones and letting the highlights bloom out. In digital, this works well only if the highlights are tame or are a very small part of the image. Due to the linear way digital clips, this doesn't look so good when large parts of the image are blown. Especially doesn't help that you were shooting dark skin in open shade with full sunlight in the background. If you instead try exposing as if you were shooting slide film - meter for the highlight detail you want to keep, letting them go no more than 2 stops over, and simply let the shadows fall where they may. Don't be afraid of letting your subject go a little underexposed if they are in shadow. Although if its more than 2-3 stops under, they might be in too much shade to get a good shot - try and get them into the sun in that case. The good thing with the m9 is it costs you nothing to experiment 🙂 Hope this helps!