Some New Tricks

Finally, I have a few days of break during my hectic travel schedule. It was my wife's birthday yesterday. We had our usual dinner at Chijmes. Recently I have been revisiting a very well know photographer who uses Leica gear and his web has so much information not on how the camera performs, but on how to get certain look and picture. His web site is www.overgaard.dk. Yes, he is a Danish photographer, from a nice country which is peaceful and happy.

His review , or accurately usage report on Lecia gears, e.g. Digilux 2 - push the price of used Digilux in ebay to its original selling price almost 10 years ago. His review on Leica M9 (I suppose he never used Leica M8 due to the complexity of Infra filter, 1.3x cropping factor etc) is not only a review, but contains so much information how to take picture with Leica. I list here just a few thoughts. 

Firstly, he said aperture is not to control the amount of light, but the depth of field. You use shutter speed to control the amount of light. He always uses his lens at its maximum aperture. I agree 100% because there is no need to buy f2.0 len when you only use it at f5.6. At f5.6 most lens can perform well, but at its maximum, even leica is still slightly soft with more distortions, but with other lens (with the exception of Zeiss and some old Japanese lens) maximum aperture mean almost useless. Good food for thought.

Secondly, he never uses auto ISO because with f2.0, ISO 800, he can almost capture everything indoor, sometimes at 1/8". When outdoor, he will set ISO to 200. Using 200 vs 160 for Leica M9 is for convenience of conversion in the mind rather have to figure 160/320/640 etc. it is always easier with 200/400/800. With the digital noise of Leica M9 at ISO 800 still very acceptable, there is no need to shoot at ISO 1600 with 1/16"while indoor. How he managed to shoot at such slow speed even when using 50mm len?

The trick is to set the camera to continuous shooting mode, then you can shoot at least 3 pictures in sequence. This not only give you choices of slight change in background and facial expression, it also can get a sharp picture once out of 3 times with a bit of luck, therefore shooting at 1/8" is never an issue. 

So far so good! Lastly, do not us auto white balance. When outdoor, set the white balance to day light under the sun, under shade etc. If the color balance is off, it is very difficult to set it right using software. He always carries a white card in case of complicated color temperate and set the camera to manual white balance. While indoor, always set the white balance to tungsten. 

Here is a result of all the above put together.

White balance, tungsten. Shutter speed, 1/8", aperture f2.0 ( a very old canon leica screw mount len), ISO 800. I shot with continuous mode, 4 were take, one is sharp. So it is the only shot which is worth while to keep. The picture is as good as it can be, I am afraid without the knowledge from Overgaard's web, I could either use flash, or use ISO 1600, auto white balance - the end result could be very yellowish, with a lot of noise, and the facial expression may be a bit stiff. People tends to relax after the first shot, then it is the best time for the shot, but digital camera will need to recycle , store the first shot, ends up missing the second shot. Try for yourself, anyone of my friends who need to shot some portrait in low light. You will be amazed.