What's so special about Leica Monochrom?
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- Опубліковано 24 лип 2024
- With the newly released Leica M11 Monochrom, it's had me wondering... what would it look like to just go shoot black and white?
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0:00 - Intro
2:15 - Benefits of Monochrom
3:58 - What I Did
4:33 - What Did I Learn?
7:55 - Example
12:13 - Thoughts & Challenge
dave.online
/ daveherring
I think you nailed it. I like Fro, but he misses these points. I went so far as to get the Q2M and I LOVE it! It has really started to make me largely a mono shooter. I otherwise shoot Fuji and find myself even converting my GFX files to mono. I won't reiterate all the points you made, but SEEING subjects in mono now makes a big difference. I'm in NH and now doing studies of old barns which just shine in mono. I'd probably still shoot color for travel (which I don't do enough of), but otherwise, B&W is making me very happy. Well said - thanks!
That’s so cool that you’re shooting old barns. I love NH, what a beautiful state. Thanks for sharing!
Any link to video?
I compose differently for B&W. It's a different mindset from color. If I get everything right my Q2 Monochrom really delivers. I almost never convert color to B&W anymore, preferring to shoot with the Q2M. The intent with color is different and I don't feel that converting works very well for most images. The exception is for architectural and urban landscapes. Those I mostly shoot with a color system because it gives me interesting ways to mess with the B&W conversion. The images from the Q2M, I do very little post processing, they're so nice. Thanks for sharing!
Very cool. I’d love to try a monochrom camera sometime. I do like composing for BW.
Very nicely expressed. Black and white photographs seem to deserve and get much more eye time....
I agree! Love it.
I have set some of my cameras to just show B&W even in live view, that itself is mind blowing. I shoot raw+jpeg. Shooting with monochrome has made me search for light and shadows. Has changed my photography. Even if you do not have a Leica, just changing to Black and white can give you so much different perspective.
Same! I keep anything live-view in BW for this same reason!
Pretty much what I do when working in cg/vfx lighting. Light it up in monochrome to get the best light and shadows. Start adding colors later.
Black and White interprets Color describes. E Erwitt
Thanks for sharing!
I did not put much attention to shooting or compositing purely in black and white until i saw Roma (2018). It sparked a love and curiosity for monochrome.
That’s awesome!
Hi Buddy, the most important benefit of the monochromatic sensor of the M11M is that you can use higher iso values with less noise, compared with a RGB sensor. Thanks for sharing this video 👍🏻👋🏻
For sure, but that extra stop isn’t always necessary, especially if you’re in a continually bright area like California!
Hello Dave! I understand what you talked about. About these feelings from the B&W photos, which are hard to describe and another mindset to shoot in monochrome. I am very amateur and taking photos on my phone, but I decided to share what it is for me. Is like shadows and light are my paint and the sensor of my camera is a canvas. Without colors, you watch on the world in another way. Notice little details, how light is interacting with the world and which object produced this shadow. You hunt not for objects, but for light. You capture the moment in time and this photo is one of a kind, because the art in details and these details are always changing.
And also I noticed that a good monochrome photo will always be good as a color photo. But the color photo, which you thought is good, will not always be a good monochrome photo. So making adjustments of the color photo is better to begin in monochrome, especially adjusting contrast.
Good words! Thanks for sharing!
I bought an M10M 6 months after it came out. Game., indeed, life changing camera. And you end up composing completely differently. Recommended.
Definitely!
Would love to watch that video of Fro trashing on the m11- any link to video?
ua-cam.com/video/xre4qfn6r_Y/v-deo.html
Monochrome sensors also don't retain highlight information as there aren't any color information to recover overexposed or blown out subjects such as sky or lamps.
Black and white photography with monochrome sensors has to be underexposed quite a bit in certain conditions (excluding certain creative or intended shots) to retain all the details from highlights and shadows.
That’s interesting! That’s for sharing!
I find the tonal transitions on a Monochrom camera are better. Also, shooting with a Monochrom camera brings a lot more intention into making B&W photos.
That’s awesome. I’d love to shoot more BW!
3:43 A poor attempt of an explanation. Allow me. The Bayer color filter array does not magically add each color channel for each pixel the underlying sensor actually has. The Bayer filter adds a mosaic, requiring interpolation to fill in the gaps, because each pixel can only capture 1 color channel, not all 3 color channels per pixel. This interpolation comes at the cost of detail resolution and color accuracy.
Sensors without a color filter array, such as Foveon sensors or black & white sensors capture up to three times as much detail resolution for the same number of pixels. There is no camera on the market with a higher detail resolution than the M11 Monochrome today when paired with a matching lens that can actually keep up with the sensor. For the same reason, something with a nominal pixel count of 15MP like the ancient APSC Foveon Merrill cameras still out-resolve most modern full frame cameras with ~40MP for fine details.
This new Monochrome will be for resolution junkies just as much as for lovers of black and white.
I repeatedly state in many videos I don't go into technicals and keep things really simple. Thanks for the comment.
Dave if you have time try to find this lens - light lens lab 35mm 8 element
I’ve seen that reviewed and it looks really special!
I totally get you.
Keep it coming!
The black tones in the Leica monochrom cameras are delicious.
Love monochrom in camera.
I use the Q2 Monochrome, I started with the Q2 in 2019. With the Q2M I carry color filters which I cant use with the Q2. I also don't need to be concerned with ISO. The Q2 maxes out at ISO 6400. Now that the Q3 is out you get two stops more over ISO 6400 which is amazing along with faster AF and a flip screen. I want one !
I monitor in BW on my Q2 and M10R but shoot DNG. I love shooting in BW and would love a monochrome one day!
@@davidherring It is a lot of fun ! I do like both Q's
I use a black and white preview with my mirrorless, even when shooting raw, as it helps my composition. I’m not committed to a black and white conversion for a given image. Had a blast while renting a Q2M. However a monochrom Leica M viewfinder is still in color, so that compositional aid is absent - I’m not going to use the rear screen to compose. For the money I am unwilling to make the compromise of an archaic viewfinder in a Leica M.
Same, monitor everything in BW but shoot in RAW.
There’sa bit more to it than simply removing the CFA… color cameras must demosaic the image. Monochrom sensors do not need to demosaic. It you simply removed the CFA your results would not be the same.
Thanks for sharing!
I shoot jpg b&w A LOT. Fujis do a great job in b&w mode. Just add a bit more contrast in post, and VOILÁ!
I love this! Thanks for sharing!
My Leica M6, loaded with black & white film, is my Leica monochrome.
Same haha
I find I have somewhat ambivalent feelings about black-and-white photos. Part of me loves that added layer of abstraction and the ability to focus on how it highlights the composition, shapes, lighting...whatever it is that it does. 🙃 But part of me feels like it pulls me out of the moment that was recorded, and forces me to be aware of the photographer (whether it's me or whoever took the photo), kind of like how long exposures that (overly) blur out water and/or clouds can draw my attention to the photographer, not the subject. The result: I do some of each -- more color than b&w, but I find situations where b&w seems to be the "correct" answer. 🤷♂
That's awesome. Thanks for sharing!
The beautiful think about photography is understanding the decisions/negotiations made by the photographer. They’re just as much a part of the story as the image itself.
Rolling shutter distortion is a monster with the electronic shutter. Goodbye silent shooting coz you have to use the mecahnical shutter.
I can’t think of a single time in the last 10 years I’ve used silent shooting.
I believe the reason you feel more for the black and white picture of the girl than the colour version is that black and white photos typically focus the viewer on what is happening in a photo. What is someone doing? What is their expression? What things are in the photo and what are their purpose?
I love colour photo as well but it doesn’t put as high demands on narrative content in a picture as a black and white image. Colours in themselves evoke emotions and this can add to an image, but just as often dilute it. So with the picture of the girl I see the joy of movement, I imagine a person in the world in movement (made stronger because the photograph is a frozen instant).
You can make evocative pictures with bw too of course, often abstract motifs that focus on texture and shape (what you said). Think E Weston.
But for me the strength of black and white is more often what is seen in documentary photography. The abstraction black and white focuses in on peoples expressions, what they are doing, postures et c. Winogrand speaks about this at length. I believe there are UA-cam clips of him talking about it (black and white vs colour)
Thanks for sharing! For me, photography is composition, contrast, and color. By removing color, it simplifies things and you see them differently.
So much brouhaha about monochrome cameras these days. Here's the thing - all cameras since the year dot have been able to take monochrome. I started photography in the 1950s when the vast majority of photography was monochrome and have never given up using monochrome for some of my finished images. One learned the fundamental skill of the monochrome photographer - to look at the world in colour and think about how that is going to look as the finished monochrome image that you can't see at the time and aren't going to see for some time (and after a not inconsiderable amount of effort in processing and printing). That concentrated the mind on "thinking in monochrome".
Using a digital camera, either monochrome only or one set to monochrome mode does not really replicate the situation that existed (and still exists for the monochrome film shooter).
Stop obsessing about the hardware - just go out with whatever you have and take photographs with the intention of finishing them as monochrome images.
Thanks for sharing!
Colour photography is descriptive, monochrome is interpretive, QED… ✌️🇦🇺
Well said.
Your a dad, its a normal picture
Nah, because I’m a dad the picture is special 🙃
Cheapest monochrom-film camera.
Of course.