LEICA M MONOCHROMATIC IMAGES By Michael Nemlich
LEICA M MONOCHROMATIC IMAGES
By Michael Nemlich
I gain so much from yours as well as others posts, so I would be honored to contribute some in revenge. These days I use the M (240) following M9, M8 and Digilux 3. Since I do a lot of B&W images, before I moved to the 240 I considered the attractive and tempting MM; but my left side brain resisted, for one and only (good) reason, as follows:
According the phrase: “a picture is worth a thousand words”’ let’s talk (4) pictures:
The image “A” is of a scene in Manasseh-Heights. The image is chromatic, as a standard human eye sees it.
If this scene would have been taken with the MM it would be seen as image “B” with very close tones of both fields. No much can be done to distinguish between them.
Nevertheless, converting the original (color “A”) image to monochrome IN PP has the inherent option to influence the grey tones via the color channels; so lightening the oranges and darken the greens yields the image “C” and vice-versa results the image “D”. For me this was the one and only – but crucial – reason to stay with a ‘color’ sensor for B&W photography. Some short experience with the MM encouraged this theorem.
I hope this short essay helps.
All the Best. Nemlich
nemlich.leicaimages.com and www.beshumma.com
