New to shooting with a Leica Monochrom

[Guest NEIL-D-WILLIAMS]

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I read/heard that it is better to shoot ~1 stop under when shooting with a Leica MM.................does that make sence to MM owners, and if so why??

[Likaleica]

Neil, I've found it best to expose normally but tolook at the histogram and make sure I don't clip the highlights. I tried underexposing a very contrasty scene to preserve the highlights because I had read that you can bring up the shadows and preserve detail. I found that this is true, but at the cost of increased noise in the shadows.

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[Likaleica]

Here's the photo. Challenging light.

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[Chuck Albertson]

I've found it's best to expose normally, i.e. whatever shutter speed set by the AE mode, or as metered in manual. Don't judge exposure by what you see on the LED screen on the back, as it usually looks unduly dark. Use the histogram instead, and don't follow the "expose to the right" doctrine -- if too much gets shoved into the two sectors on the right of the histogram, I've found you'll get blown highlights, and they can't be recovered in files from this camera. RAW/DNG files from the MM should look flat when imported into whatever post-processing program you use, tart them up in post.

[LeicaPassion]

Neil, I've found it best to expose normally but tolook at the histogram and make sure I don't clip the highlights. I tried underexposing a very contrasty scene to preserve the highlights because I had read that you can bring up the shadows and preserve detail. I found that this is true, but at the cost of increased noise in the shadows.

 

+1

[250swb]

Agree with the above comments. The LCD is worse in many ways than the M9 because it doesn't give any colour clues that make the M9 LCD seem more readable against the MM. But at the same time simply underexposing by a stop is missing the wonderful tonal range opportunities available from the MM. So even as a quick glance or a regular overlay on the LCD review image use the histogram and expose for whatever you can get away with to stop the highlights just before they blow. The shadows are very recoverable with the MM, but full exposure is still better than underexposure.

 

Steve

[Tampico]

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+1

 

+1

[Guest obsidian0]

The LCD is worse in many ways than the M9 because it doesn't give any colour clues ...

Not at all is it worse. It's still a color LCD, and displays clipping at the ends in blue and red, if you choose. It doesn't display a 3 color histogram as ... it's a monochrome capture. IIRC, at least at the time of its release, the MM offered the ONLY raw histogram on the market, with the bonus of a rendering of divisions for 10 zones of exposure, gamma adjusted. Edited July 28, 2014 by obsidian0

[skinnfell]

I have been using my monochrom almost daily for about a year and a half now.

 

I have found that the exposure meter is quite trustworthy. No need to underexpose deliberately, (but also no need to "expose to the right!")

 

The real culprit is the (p!ece of sh!t) LCD screen. Good thing it is covered in unbreakable crystal to prevent you from taking out the hammer in a wild rage.

 

You look at the LCD and go "WHOA thats dark". Then chances are you have a perfectly exposed picture. The only thing you should be looking at is the histogram, but it takes training NOT to trust the picture on the LCD....

 

That is too bad because apart from that, the monochrom is as close to the perfect camera I have ever used. Those pictures, man...

 

That said. If there is ever a piece of advice worth trusting in regards to shooting digitally, it is to NOT "CHIMP". This goes for every camera but the Monochrom in particular.

[skinnfell]

Oh, one more thing: there is no need to avoid blinking white highlights at all time. Contrary to what many have reported, the MM does not have much harshness in burnt out areas, at least compared to other cameras. The difference is that with color you can maybe rescue a stop or so of blown highlights, with MM its more like a quarter of a stop.

 

 

if you want, check out

Bored in the fjord : Photo

[elgenper]

Oh, one more thing: there is no need to avoid blinking white highlights at all time...

 

Maybe it should be mentioned that one can select the threshold value for the highlight (and shadow) warning, so it is easy to set a level that makes you comfortable with the safety margin, whatever your metering skills may be. For myself, I´ve set them at 2%/98%, and don´t feel clipping is a problem (I do clip intentionally at times, if the previsualized image needs it).

[250swb]

Not at all is it worse. It's still a color LCD, and displays clipping at the ends in blue and red, if you choose. It doesn't display a 3 color histogram as ... it's a monochrome capture. IIRC, at least at the time of its release, the MM offered the ONLY raw histogram on the market, with the bonus of a rendering of divisions for 10 zones of exposure, gamma adjusted.

 

The image has no colour on the LCD, the blue and red clipping points are artificial overlays to warn against under and over exposure.

 

Steve

[Guest NEIL-D-WILLIAMS]

That said. If there is ever a piece of advice worth trusting in regards to shooting digitally, it is to NOT "CHIMP". This goes for every camera but the Monochrom in particular.

:confused::confused:If you need to work off of the histogram how do you do that without chimping:eek:

[Guest obsidian0]

The image has no colour on the LCD, the blue and red clipping points are artificial overlays to warn against under and over exposure. Steve

 

Um, huh? It's a color LCD panel. The overlay you're talking about is purely software.

[skinnfell]

:confused::confused:If you need to work off of the histogram how do you do that without chimping:eek:

 

Because each scene usually has the same or relatively unchanged light levels throughout the shoot, or even a whole session. Checking the histograms before the shoot is very useful, particularly in difficult lighting situations. But as I have gotten more and more used to the MM, I feel less and less need to do this. Eventually you learn to anticipate which exposure to use under certain situations, for example direct sun, shady direct sun, slight overcast, etc. In many ways this is not too dissimilar from the charming exposure advice that was printed on the inside of film packaging.

 

In my understanding of the slang "Chimping", it refers to looking at every single picture immediately after it is shot. And indeed the camera is as a standard set up to show each shot. Click-look-repeat.

Edited July 30, 2014 by skinnfell