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brainiac
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 p.9 #18 · M8/Leica People I'm Thinking About Switching | |
Mike, I know the differences that you mean, and I agree with you that they are inevitably less visible at web resolutions. My experience with a few Leica lenses, both M and R is that rich colour is one of the design goals. The Leica digital cameras also seem to be designed to give rich and subtle colour. The lenses also often seem to be designed to control contrast in some way. Some people love that look, and that's why many who love the Leica 'look' defend it so vehemently.
Personally, I prefer natural contrast and 3D effect to accurate colour. We are less accurate at seeing colour detail, as opposed to luminance, and the success of black and white photography as a genre shows that colour accuracy is not always important, whereas I think light and shade is more often important in a photo. Some black and white images have a tremendous sense of 3D and reality, after all. I think your beautifully taken shots that you kindly shared with us here, even at web size, illustrate a slight lack of 3D effect in some cases, and that, for me is also part of the Leica look. However, while the lenses provide rich colour, the cameras don't seem to keep it very accurate, perhaps because of white balance, or some other issue. For example, in your barn shot the sky seems a little too green, and the colour of the grass just looks wrong to me. In a shot like the beautiful one of the operating theatre, inaccuracy doesn't matter at all, and the richness of the colours work brilliantly. But in the portrait of the old man, the skin colours seem quite unreal.
Rich colour, lots of detail, and lower contrast seem to epitomise the look of the Leica lenses to me. The cameras don't seem to be perfectly accurate with colour, but the pattern of colour shifts often gives a pleasing Kodachrome-like look that is instantly attractive. When I said I didn't see the look, I wasn't being entirely honest. I do see aspects of the trademark Leica look in your beautifully taken pictures, but I am pretty sure I would enjoy them more if the colour was more accurate and if they seemed more 3D and present.
I would add though that I agree that Canon cameras don't always provide accurate colours either. In particular, purplish and greenish skintones often seem too far separated, and I always shoot with a custom profile loaded into my camera which shifts the yellowish and ruddy skintones towards each other.
Only the photographer can decide whether she likes the Leica look, or doesn't, and whether it is worth the cost.
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| Jan 17, 2009 at 05:27 AM |
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