I love my M11 hardware but I'm really struggling with image quality. Any advice?

[IkarusJohn]

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I assume you are good with LR, but I thought I’d share my approach, if it helps.

In develop mode, I start at the top and work down - white balance, exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows etc, making very small adjustments, then I make a gentle S curve with the tone curve.  This generally gets me a good start. I then make minor adjustments with the other settings.  I don’t use profiles or presets.  As Andy ( @adan ) says, it’s worth making fine adjustments with each setting to see where it gets you.   I don’t have an M11,  but when the first Monochrom came out, many were confused with the “flat” files - a little adjustment, and the magic appeared!

Good luck.

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[cbgrey]

On 3/16/2022 at 11:32 AM, Tailwagger said:

Few, if any, cameras produce their best results SooC. A new to you camera demands a grace period where time is  spent understanding how to best shape the raw result into a final one.  In the end this is largely a matter of personal taste given the capabilities of our processing tools are so great at this point that with a little understanding and work one can craft virtually whatever look one wants these days. But in my experience, every new M (and any other camera as well) I've owned has required some altering of my working assumptions on how to expose and process for the best result. 

It is the tenor of our times that some people often exhibit little patience for this process assuming they are already expert enough to avoid it. Any initial disappointment therefore must be the fault of the camera rather than a personal lack of understanding or skill to wield it. The reality is that as the specs and capabilities change, from metering to pixel count, one has to be willing to reboot one's mindset regarding how to get the optimum results, both front and back. There is always a learning curve and, as with most such exercises, there will undoubtedly be moments of frustration along the way.

I certainly sympathize with the desire for simple answers to complicated questions (is the M11 better than the M10, should I buy one, is 60 Mpx a step backward, etc),  but no matter how good the tea, you can't make a satisfactory cup by dunking the bag once, taking a single sip and coming to judgement.  To brew something satisfying requires time to steep. Bravo for having the patience. Not everyone does. Enjoy!

Probably not directed at me but I feel I need to defend myself a little here

I've been doing digital photography (and shooting RAW) for so long that I never expect SooC to be "right". I always expect to be a part of the process. Heck, I started out having a home darkroom pre-digital. 

My frustration was not about the quality of the M11 (I think it's amazing) but with my inability to manage the process to get the results I wanted. Other cameras seemed easier for me. Perhaps I just have some blind spots that make processing some sensor output harder than others. Maybe it's something about a 60MP sensor. Maybe it involves tweaking adjustments I don't normally use or in ways I didn't before. 

Whatever the reason, it was more difficult for me than it had been with other cameras. In the same way I found some photo paper more challenging than others (ahhh, Cibachrome). 

At this point I feel like I understand it better to know what to tweak to get what I want out of it. Thanks to many who have participated in this thread. 

This was always to be more a comment on my difficulties than a critique of the camera. I probably could have made that clearer in the title. 

Edited March 17, 2022 by cbgrey

[cbgrey]

1 hour ago, IkarusJohn said:

I assume you are good with LR, but I thought I’d share my approach, if it helps.

In develop mode, I start at the top and work down - white balance, exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows etc, making very small adjustments, then I make a gentle S curve with the tone curve.  This generally gets me a good start. I then make minor adjustments with the other settings.  I don’t use profiles or presets.  As Andy ( @adan ) says, it’s worth making fine adjustments with each setting to see where it gets you.   I don’t have an M11,  but when the first Monochrom came out, many were confused with the “flat” files - a little adjustment, and the magic appeared!

Good luck.

Excellent advice. Thank you. 

[Tailwagger]

15 minutes ago, cbgrey said:

Probably not directed at me but I feel I need to defend myself a little here  ...

My frustration was not about the quality of the M11 (I think it's amazing) but with my inability to manage the process to get the results I wanted. Other cameras seemed easier for me...

This was always to be more a comment on my difficulties than a critique of the camera. I probably could have made that clearer in the title. 

Not directed at you, just a general observation.  Given the amount of bile spilt here by some on the capabilities of the M11, my intent was simply to take the opportunity to point out to those expecting, as many did, that we all we're going to start banging out never before seen, Pulitzer level images on day one that such expectations were idiotic.  That you're fully experienced with such things only serves to further amplify the point that with every new camera it takes a certain amount of time, no matter how long you've be at this, to figure out how to maximize its use and truly understand its strength and weaknesses.