Unique style with Leica MM?

[Geoffrey James]

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Ultimately it comes down to making prints. Paper surface makes a huge difference. I bought the MM to do a book about a prison in Canada, mainly for the camera's low light capacity. I ended up using both colour ( m 9) and B/W and in the subsequent show printed on baryta paper. Right now I am working exclusively with the Monochrome on a book about a Slovenian architect and urbanist, and I have been proofing everything on Epson Hot Press Bright. It's very beautiful and completely different. It can't be reproduced exactly on uncoated stock in the book, but I am surprised at the quality of the prints. This is of course another step after pp in Lightroom, and I am not sure that these technical things constitute style, which is something one ends up having, the sum total of an artist's approach to the world.

[skinnfell]

The desire for an unique style is usually something that don't occur to you until you reach a certain level in your photography.

 

At a certain point you no longer strive for technical improvement, but rather for personal improvement. I have given this subject a lot of thought during the last decade or so, and come to the conclusion that my own images are better represented in black and white. I am just not good at color photography. And being a photojournalist for my "dayjob" this does confine me into a certain, but easily recognizable tradition within photography. Basically we are not talking off the beaten path here.

 

put another way: while I strive to ride my bike as best as I can, I make no claims to have invented it, or get bothered that other people ride bikes too. 

 

However you raise a very pertinent question, and that is the point of consistent style. I think that whatever your style is, you should stick to it and focus on improving the content. The style will naturally improve itself through that approach. 

You only need to know one language to write a good novel, as long as you know it well.

 

That said, I agree with you that many monochrom owners do not go far enough in exploiting their cameras potential. Straight-up monochrom files are not very pleasing to look at. It took me about two years of shooting MM to decide how I like my files processed, but once I made up my mind it was relatively easy to design my own "film" in Lightroom. I have a user preset which loads every image on startup, so that I dont even have to see how they look like with "standard" settings. This makes for very quick editing on my part, where I usually only adjust exposure, (and in a few instances contrast) afterwards. Also, a pleasant side effect is that the look is consistent and uniform. 

(Coincidentally, my "secret" look looks a lot like Tri-X but that is another story.)

 

Bottom line is that the Monochrom is the single most satisfying and creatively inspiring camera I have ever worked with. Sure, it has heaps and loads of drawbacks and peculiarities, but the results convince me every time. 

 

Check out my blog if you will. (a jumble of MM, M9 and M8 files)

 

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[BerndReini]

 

 

I have a user preset which loads every image on startup

I have the same for my M9, and figured out how I like to process my photos. I've been working on it with the Monochrom. I have been shooting for a long time, and in black and white as I mentioned I have been shooting mostly Neopan 400. I look at the MM as a new "film stock" that I have to learn for both exposure and post-processing the same way I did with the Neopan (which btw. I overexpose by rating at 250 and slightly over process at high dilution) to give me the results I like.

 

I also think that style can change when you shoot a different project.

 

Bent, I have been to your blog before and thank you for the reminder. It is another nice example of something different from a lot of the flickr pages of endless crushed Monochrom images of "pseudo street photographs" without any intent. And let me just clarify that I wouldn't put anybody that has posted in this thread so far into that group. If you do a flickr search for Leica M Monochrom you'll see what I mean. Pages of boredom to sift through to find some good streams.

Edited April 23, 2015 by BerndReini

[menos I M6]

Bent, your post almost perfectly mirrors with my experience of buying the Mono and seeing it become my mainly used "personal camera" over the years.

 

As you described, I very much for the same reason decided some years ago to focus almost entirely on B&W imaging. I simply struggled for a long time with working out "a language" with color images and at some point gave up in frustration.

It was then when (very luckily I must say) I chanced upon buying a Nikon FM3a and 50/1.8 and had a revelation, shooting Tri-X for a year.

 

This had the impact on me, focussing almost exclusively, seeing images already without a camera in monochrome. Every now and then I make the odd cloud experiment again, but B&W is what I do for my lack of getting to grips with color.

 

When the Mono was officially announced one spring a few years ago, I had used a M8.2 and M9 already for a few years exclusively for B&W. I had a certain look down in post processing (closely related to the look I liked from my pushed Tri-X in D-76 stock).

I ordered it the moment it was officially announced and only got to have it half a year later unfortunately - it was THE PERFECT Leica digital, I always wanted.

Same acuity as the M8.2 - Check.

No superfluous colors to strangle - Check.

Same controls, batteries and general workflow as with my other main camera (M8.2 + 9) - Check.

 

It took me a very long time to get the basics down in how to expose, how to use, how to process the files in Lightroom with the Mono.

I also strayed way from the path, experimenting a lot with a big collection of vintage lenses, I simply re-explored with the Mono as the camera revealed qualities in these lenses I have never seen before!

Due to the absolute need - the Mono taught me valuable lessons in how to use contrast filters (I never did that before).

 

Don't get this wrong though - I completely DESPISE the typical 040 Red filter look of M Mono flickr landscapes with alien clouds, dark skinned caucasian people and highly pushed acuity from the first day I saw this pictures (I mainly use light yellow filters with certain lenses, that lack contrast).

 

It was only after ~2 years of using the Mono that I gradually stopped "playing around" with the camera and lenses and simply use it with a certain "stock processing" in Lightroom - very much in the same fashion I would pick up a Konica Hexar AF with Tri-X, simply shoot daily pictures, process the film and be done.

I have a certain "standard process profile" for each different camera I use and the one of the Mono is quite extensive, changing the curve, to a complete custom shape, and presetting many other settings, which I then only tweak slightly manually on a photo to photo basis.

 

I do like your blog - the imaging shows a certain style we might be conversing about in this thread - not a style in how one processes a digital image file, rather the style in meaning of "the eye of the photographer" which is A LOT more important in an image as exposure, contrast or film curves.

It is nice to see this "photographers eye" following like a red thread through a series of images and make one think about what interests that person who tripped the shutter …

From your photos, You seem like a good guy to have a few beers with in a bar ;-)

 

The Mono was upon it's introduction so radically different that it provoked a lot of experiments in the extremes - talk about using very fast lenses with strong ND filters in bright day light, talk about deep red filters on all the time, talk about nuclear skin tones, completely washed out from strong yellow and orange filters in portraits, talk about those endless tonal range experimental photo stunts without black and without white, but just grey, much of it… Some people even went through the pains to prove that color images could be taken with the camera!

I think most of this has eliminated itself after a few years of the camera in use and many who did those experiments have learned in the process and the camera itself will prove to become a more "normal" tool in the hands of their users.

 

In plain speak - I think pictorially, the time of the good M Mono photographs is just about to start in terms of what one will be able to find online, as the nonsense stops and more meaningful photographs will be seen. Watch out for users whose Mono looks a bit silvery around the edges - these guys and gals surely have worn off any newness factor and silly experiments and have the Mono down to it's bare "tool-ness genetics", churning out great photos …

[menos I M6]

Here is a link of some of my shots taken with the Mono over the last few years. It's a wild mix and represents what I use the camera most for.

https://www.flickr.com/search/?sort=date-posted-desc&user_id=52593619%40N02&tag_mode=any&safe_search=3&media=photos&view_all=1&view_type=justified&advanced=1&tags=leicammonochromsn4342460

 

A keen eye might detect certain changes in my processing of the Mono files over the years - while in the beginning I rather not cared that much about blocked shadows or blown highlights and just got the shots into the ballpark of what I wanted them to look.

Now I take care during processing that there is no blocked shadows or blown highlights (the odd specular highlight detail the exception). The little flickr JPGs do not do justice to such details though and what is immediately obvious in print can hardly be seen on the web. The Mono files really make this possible as there is such a wide latitude from the sensor.

 

I mostly use the Mono when the light is off, as I like to shoot in low light the most (I am a night kind of guy). Silver Halide film does look better (highlight detail especially) but never ever reaches the fine detail the Mono can resolve or get into the unknown ISO speeds, the Mono is very well usable at (I shoot up to ISO 3200 without hesitation and for a certain look even higher ISO are very, very nice).

 

There has been historically an issue with Mono files at very high ISO speeds (above 3200 generally) where Adobe RAW developers will show strange checkered patterns in the files.

I hope this will be resolved at some point (I can see this curiously also with my film scans from pushed Tri-X or Neopan - which is funny actually, showing how close the Mono and such film stock is in character).

 

This simple software issue made me stick to ISO 3200 mostly, but I am sure this software issue from Adobe developers will be resolved at some point and using the Mono at ISO6400 or even ISO 10000 provides great results - why such need for high ISO you ask? Well there are lenses which mod not open up larger than f8 for example.

Shooting f8 lenses during the night is a hobby of mine ;-) I won't touch a tripod with a 3m stick with the Mono!

[MarkP]

With respect to considering selling your M7,

I think the Monochrom is the best camera I have ever owned. Having said that, it was the Monochrom that drove my interest in going back to film and so I bought an M7.  I really enjoy shooting film with the M7 (or the amazing little Contax T3).

 

I don't consider one medium better than the other, just different, and I use whichever takes my fancy on the day.

 

I particularly like having the M7, Monochrom and M240 as moving from one to the other is ergonomically seamless.

 

The MP was tempting but the opposite direction of the shutter-speed dial (as with the M-A and M4/M4-P) is a deal-breaker for me, as is the absence of aperture-priority auto which is fantastic when used 'responsibly'.

 

I don't see myself without either the Monochrom or M7.

 

 

With respect to a unique style with the Monochrom,

I don't think I've necessarily developed one, or a fixed workflow because of the camera. The versatility and robustness of Monochrom files are such that I can adjust the style to suit the image. I don't think I'm a 'mature' enough photographer to have yet settled on a 'look' or 'style', but I generally don't like the over-processed, high-contrast, razor-sharpened 'style' of many Monochrom images. It's the subtle tonal range and grain-like filmic noise, image detail, and higher ISO capability that I like.

Edited April 23, 2015 by MarkP

[skinnfell]

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BerndReini and Menos: thanks for kind words! 

(I am at vacation while I write this, but will  have lots of new material in a few weeks or so.)

 

After I "standardized" my processing, my shooting became much more effortless and therefore also more fun.

The reason was, that disallowing myself so many options of improving the image afterwards means that I am leaving much more of my photography to serendipity.

 

This, in turn has introduced a sense of magic which I didn't think was possible with digital photography. (But which analog has lots of)

I am not saying this can't be done with other cameras, but to me it is definitely both easier and more pleasing than with any other camera i've tried.

Combined with the crappy LCD, It is actually quite exciting to open up my MM images in LR and see them pop into place.

 

If one ever tires from this approach, it is easy to devise a new preset and load up both old and new DNGs. 

 

All in all this means much more concentrated shooting, which is where we all want to be. 

[Guest NEIL-D-WILLIAMS]

I wonder why no one mentioned filters..........you need to shoot the MM with the yellow/orange filter attached..................it makes a huge difference