I don't own a Leica M9 but I am considering it. However, after reviewing all those images taken with M9 on flickr, I can say those are not in the same kind of look and feel as I see here.
That's true. Also it reflects the fact that those members here on the thread seem to have more talents not only on artistic side but also on post-processing side.
Luka, looks like you're having a field day with the 50Lux. The first shot with the birds is nice (what species?). The first 3 shots on that 2nd set, really excellent, The 3rd shot is truly one very nice bench shot, sharp and dreamy at the same time, and the soft lighting, kudos!
Ryan, nice set, can't wait to see more of Savannah with your M9!
Joe, excellent shot! Neat composition, and great rendering
Luka, great series! Love #1 in the first set, of the birds in the foreground, but I really like the lighting and mood in the second set.
Ryan, very nice set. Looking forward to your new M9 shots!!!
I feel the style of photography with the M9's is evolving very quickly, and is open to all. In essence, Leica M series, IMO have thrown down the gauntlet, and were fortunate with the introduction of the M9, otherwise I feel M series would have faded into the back ground and relinquished as a great icon in the past. More importantly, Leica are financial now and can move forward. I would be certain that Canon/Nikon/others would be wondering why an important part of the their market have now moved to M9's.
My take on it is Leica is experiencing with the M9 what Nikon did with the D3 series. From about the end of 2001 with the original Canon 1D and 1Ds until the D3 launched in 2007, Nikon was clearly outclassed by Canon. Lots of Nikon users (at least in the news and sports industries) reluctantly switched. Come the D3 and D700 and the AF-S-ization of more lenses, and there was a good reason for those users to return to familiar ground.
The return to the fold of former Leica users has put Leica back in the black. But I don't think it's any guarantee the good times will continue. With the M9, users are happy just to finally have FF, though the camera otherwise is pretty rough compared to the current high end DSLR user experience. All it will take is one of the big brands to produce a FF camera like the Fuji X100 with interchangeable lenses, at a considerably lower price... and also maintain alt compatibility. It's just that this market is so small and the big guys have greater concerns... so maybe Leica can milk it for a while longer.
My feeling is Canon and Nikon are unconcerned about the relatively small number drifting over (or back) to Leica. The probability is many M users will retain a DSLR kit. I will, Luka has... though I realize Charles and Ryan have decided otherwise.
I say Leica can flog the M9 for another 1-2 years. Beyond that, they will have to prove they can put fast electronics into an M10.
ZM35C:
Similar scene, different foregrounds:
ZM50 Planar:
Congrats Ryan!
Joe, again, nice feel of being the middle of the action.
Luka, particularly like the entire second 'moody' set.
I don't think the technical aspects of those images are far off from what we're seeing in this thread, in terms of post production.
The key is suitable white balance and then playing around with the hue sliders in LR to tame skin tone shifts. Another aspect I have noticed with the M9 relative to my preferences for skin tones, is it can be very easy to come away with highly saturated images, so pulling the overall or color specific saturation sliders back somewhat is necessary. These Cuba images also seem to have a reasonable amount of clarity applied. Not over the top though. But clarity added to skin tone can be tricky... it seems to work well here with dark skin tones, which might be another reason you like these so much, as the dark skin responds well to this type of treatment. For caucasian skin I find a healthy dose of clarity and contrast will quickly blow out highlights and cause shaded areas, such as around the eyes, to go very dark.
Something you can try in Photoshop is to create a duplicate layer over an image, apply the high pass filter to the layer (you'll have to experiment with the input value, which will depend on the image), then change the layer from normal to overlay or soft light. You can also desaturate the filtered layer and it will change the look even more, as will changing the opacity, plus masking areas you don't want to affect. This will get you close to the look of the Leica M catalog shot in Cuba, which were heavily processed to optimize a certain filmic look for CMYK. Using several layers of high pass filtration at various amounts and opacities is fairly effective at implying such a filmic effect. The catch with high pass filtration is it will create halos. For some scenes it isn't obvious, but for anything with a sharp transition to a broad expanse of minor tonal variation, such as mountains against a clear sky, halos will be an issue.
Also evident in the second Cuba blog post is an example of what I don't like with the M9's skin tone rendition when recovering shadow information.
They guy in the taxi has turned a pasty yellow shade. Part of that could be from the greenish tint contributed by the windshield glass, but it's a shadow recovery consequence I have come across in my own images.
Ron, very nice shots! As always, excellent PP... love the colours I am sure the likes of Nikon/Canon will not be overly concerned about a M9's niche market, but it is clear that some development in motion. There has not been any announcement, of FF DSLR's for quite some time.
Carsten, great discussion and excellent ideas to try! I would be fairly certain, most of the pasty yellow would be through the windshield, but if you are using C1 Pro, it is a single step process to adjust the isolated skin hue, to render it more natural in our mind's eye.
Ron - nice series. I like #3 with the simple geometry and the reflections of the sky.
Thanks for the PP suggestions. I talked a bit to the guy and he said he did a lot of his work in LAB space. The good thing about LAB is that you decouple contrast from colors. In RGB when you increase the contrast, you increase the saturation etc I use LAB for sharpening (i.e only the L channel) and on the rare occasion where I want a high contrast, low saturation look. Here's an example:
Straight out of camera/lightroom, no adjustments:
Bumping the contrast (in RGB space):
Bumping the contrast and decreasing the saturation (in RGB space):
Bumping the contrast, L channel only (LAB space):
As you can see you get an increased contrast but the colors stay the same. They don't get an increase in saturation as they would in RGB space and they keep the definition and color separation far better than the desaturated RGB image.
That's the extent of my use of the LAB mode. I have however decided now to actually learn some color correction. I bought a book some moths ago "Professional Photoshop: The Classic Guide to Color Correction", which is supposed to be the CC bible. I have however not opened it. The Cuba images inspired me however to get a subscription to an online library of training courses (http://www.kelbytraining.com) and my intention is to learn a bit about color correction and about Photoshop.
Although I know about the high-pass techniques that you describe (and the simple equivalent USM one), I'm generally absolutely useless in photoshop. Right now the only thing I really use PS for is the sharpen & resize for web. The rest I typically do in Lightroom.
Luka, great example and thank for the info !!! I have already subscribed to kelby training and it is a great source. I use CS5 in its more basic forms, as I find too much PP for a single shot, I get frustrated !!! But this has highlighted again, to learn and experiment in LAB mode and understand more.
Can you guys revert to speaking English? .. just kidding
I don't even have photoshop
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Thanks Charles and Ron
Ron, very nice set of pics and I like the pp on these. #1 & 5 are my favorites. #1 kind of reminds me of the earlier 70s color photographs of Shore et. al., very nicely composed and draws me into the scene.
Also thanks to you, Luka and Charles for sharing some pp insights.
Pretty deep discussions guys - thanks in advance though so much of it flew past me i doubt i will be able follow. I will try though as the results are really something else!
Took some pics for a budding french pop singer/friend of mine - used a Nikon SB900 with the Nikon SC cord. Here are some of the results below. Handholding the flash, i had to pre-focus and move back or forth to focus on the subject as I had no hands left. Very though and lots of missed shots. The Thumbsup grip had to be removed for the use of flash and after 45 mins, my fingers ached. Didn't realise how much i had grown used to it all these while.
Most of the shots were with the 50 lux (now title and possession firmly in my grasp)
See it? The LAB shot has much better color separation. That's what it does. When there is an increase in saturation in RGB all values are just increased. In LAB the equivalent curves operation to increase saturation does it by increasing the separation between colors.
Here is a last example where I've overcooked the effect significantly in both cases: Test C - RGB Test C - LAB
I think this is very powerful in combination with good quality glass that lets the camera record the color separation. It's a pity this can't be done in Lightroom.
KL, wow.. stunning portraits. Great lighting and composition!!! I really like the way you have used the remote flash with the Nikon extension cord, as it give the beautiful depth to the shots. I love the B&W conversion. Just an observation, I am still finding SEP 1 better for some conversions.
Joakim, very nice shots!
Luka, excellent examples. What a difference!!! I am really learning so much from this discussion, and applying it immediately. For printing with pigment based printers, such as the Canon pro 9500II, and Epson 3880, this changes the "look" of prints dramatically, and give a depth and feel that was not possible otherwise. Thanks guys!
