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Joining the monochrome club!


Ktsa5239

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Hi everyone !

I have finally pulled the trigger and got a M10M, my first monochrome camera! I’ve always admired people’s monochrome landscape and street shots but it’s been difficult to justify having a camera at this price that only shoots black and white. But at the end I’ll never know what the hype is about if I don’t try it so this marks the beginning of my monochrome journey! 
Would appreciate any advice on switching from M10 to M10M as my main camera! 
Can’t wait for the batteries to charge up and take my first shot!

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4 hours ago, Ktsa5239 said:

Would appreciate any advice on switching from M10 to M10M as my main camera! 
 

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

For me, the Monochrom experience works best when not also carrying a color-based camera, so that there are no distractions looking for colors; solely concentrating on luminance, tonality and framing.  

Besides that, just mind the highlights, as there is no recovery once blown using color channels in post. Instead, you’ll want to experiment with colored lens filters for more limited effects.

And if you use the higher resolution to enlarge your typical display output (magnification via screen or print), then you’ll also want to be mindful of shutter speed.

It might take time to dial in a different processing/editing workflow compared to your M10 (the tone curve is your friend), I think you’ll be amazed at the flexibility of the M10-M files and their diverse rendering potential.  The M10-M is also the low light/high ISO  king in the current Leica portfolio.

Enjoy.

Jeff

 

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Enjoy your M10-M! It's a lovely camera. 

Moving to a monochrom sensor means treating the camera as loaded with a B&W film. To change the tonal relationships between colored objects, you need to use B&W filters ... Yellow, Orange, Green, Red, and Blue. I compared a few snaps of an Xrite Color Checker that I'd made with my Leica CL and processed with my own personally designed B&W rendering presets in LR with captures of the same Color Checker using the M10-M with no filters, an orange filter, and a deep green filter. The orange filter achieved the color contrasts that most closely matched my #1 personal preference in B&W; the Green filter most closely matched my #2 preference. So I added both orange and green filters in all the different sizes I need for my lenses to my kit, and nearly always use one or the other when I'm out shooting. 

Do a lot of testing. Learn the camera, learn the sensor's characteristics, and the metering characteristics. Experiment, try everything you can think of, and everything new you think of along the way. YOU are the one who makes the beautiful photographs ... the M10-M is just a superlative tool that will let you achieve your vision. :D 

G

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Thank you for the tips! I’ve tried the camera out for the first time tonight at a festival and wow it literally sees in the dark! 
here is one of my favourite shots. Loved the glow around the lights. 

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The textures of the clouds are awesome!

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@Ktsa5239 You mentioned the glow around the lights. It's one of the things that I most miss about film, the halation. Older lenses will give you some of that but I like it enough that with newer lenses I have either a Photoshop action or I use a 1/8 black pro mist (no stronger) and you get lovely glows on lamps or back-lit portraits etc.

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