Imsticking’s Leica D-Lux 4 Blog

I post it here and it sticks.
 

Waking Up Chawton Wood

Waking Up Chawton Wood - f/4 at 5.1mm, ISO 80, Shutter speed 1/800 sec

If you follow me on Twitter (and actually read my tweets), you'll more than likely know that I've been spending a fair amount of time in the pool lately. Something else I enjoy is mountain biking, although, the fewer the mountains the better, if you ask me. Not a mountain in sight in this photograph. It's no coincidence, believe me. I cycled out to Chawton Wood on Sunday and after about an hour in the saddle decided it was time to take a few quick shots (with my Leica D-Lux 4) of the wood (but more so, it was time for a rest). 

Back when I was in high school, a time when Bryan Adams broke the record for having the longest number one in history, positioned at the top of the charts for 16 weeks straight (kinda impressive), I remember being captivated by the photography in the CD booklet. Reading through the album liner notes all I could find was Bryan's name. I was shocked. A wildly successful musician, and now this. Great. Clearly Bryan hasn't heard about giving others a chance. In fairness, he's probably spent a lot of time shooting while leading his rock 'n roll nomad lifestyle. Something he used to enjoy. Anyway, this blog isn't about Bryan, I think he's successful enough as it is without me helping his cause. Next thing you know, he'll be expecting a free plug once a week. Not happening buddy, not on this blog. Plus, I've bought most of your albums, I think I'm entitled a little space of my own online, don't you. Cool. Wow that Bryan Adams guy really tries to take over eh? Anyway I hate celebrity. Not celebrities, just the whole idea of being famous. I realise it's a tradeoff few get the opportunity to make, but it's a shitty tradeoff if you ask me. 
 

Waking Up Chawton Wood - f/4 at 5.1mm, ISO 80, Shutter speed 1/800 sec

So anyway, before I even rode out to the wood yesterday I thought I'd process whatever photographs I took, keeping in mind those images in the CD booklet. So that explains the first image. As for the color version above, I just happen to enjoy looking at it in color too. Not a surprise considering I used to bike out to the wood about 4 times a week several years ago. I forget the year, but it's easy to look up, because I as I recall it was a remarkably good summer, and well, how hard is that to spot in England's weather history?

If you're interested in the processing of the black and white, I used Kodak 400T MAX Pro film in Silver Efex Pro and modified the first Coffee tone preset (I think). Download the preset file at the end of the post for a closer look at the details in Silver Efex Pro.

Before I forget, check out Bryan's really awesome work on his photography site BryanAdamsPhotography.com
 

Click here to download:
ChawtonWoodK400TMAXPro.sep (3 KB)


Filed under  //   Leica   monochrome   nature   photography  
July 26 2010
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Half-Life

Half-Life - 5.1mm at f/8, ISO 80, Shutter speed 1/250 sec

I am continuing on with my series of images for submission to the BLACK+WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY Magazine's challenge to explore alternate processing methods, and I'd decided to share an Ambrotype image with you, but really disliked the way it looked. The tone range was really flat and the whole thing just looked muddy. I simply applied the Ambrotype preset in Silver Efex Pro. Never again, will I do that.* Not sure I can get away with entering this image into the challenge, although the final processing step is a cross balance from daylight to tungsten.  
 
This image I like enough to want to share. Some of the minute details escape me regarding the post processing as some of it was done on the train this morning and I finished it off this evening. It's a TIFF conversion from the RAW file taken off my Leica D-Lux 4. Taken on a ridiculously sunny English summer day in April 2010, focusing on a hedge with a rather bizarre cut to it. In fact, this tree in the foreground is actually visible on the far left of a previous photograph taken in the same location on the same day, Beneath an Ashen Sky. 
 
Something I found particularly effective before converting to black and white, was to apply a "Contrast Color Range" in PhotoTools Pro. This really brings out the gradient in the sky, that would usually look very flat and that translates into a very dull area in a black and white print. The black and white "Chrome" effect in PhotoTools Pro is also incredible when making the conversion to monochrome. Not only does it boost the darks, but it also gives them more definition, if that's even the correct word. Embarrassingly, I can't remember (or find) the effect I used to pull out more detail in the foreground. It's not a high-pass sharpener, but it does isolate the highs before doing it's work. It's what gave the dirt road it's detail.
 
* - we'll see.


Filed under  //   Leica   monochrome   nature   photography  
May 10 2010
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The Hampshire Tree Album

Treeup - 5.10mm at f/2, ISO 80, Shutter speed 1/320 sec.

I did say I'd post more photographs of that tree. I went back to it today, purely to photograph it a little more and look for something else to capture too. I was reading the latest edition of BLACK+WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY magazine that has a feature on creating your own cyanotype images manually from a digital negative. Right now, life's too short for that malarky, so I've used Silver Efex Pro. The important thing is, I was inspired. I don't know why, but I like the effect it gives the dead wood in the image above. It reminds me of those really really old photographs from a time when we didn't use one's and oh's quite as much as we do today.
 
Both images were shot with my Leica D-Lux 4. In the magazine, there is also a really cool feature article on Prime versus Zoom lens and the reviewer compares some really excellent Zeiss lens to their Canon equivalent, with the Zeiss 21mm f/2.8 T* Distagon impressing the most. The sharpest lens he's ever seen, apparently. 

Treescape - 5.10 at f/2, ISO 80, 1/320 sec.


Filed under  //   canine   cyanotype   Hampshire   Leica   monochrome   nature   photography  
April 23 2010
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Unholy Communion

Unholy Communion - 12.8 at f/2, ISO 80, Shutter speed 1/400 second

First off, I didn't shoot this photograph, my brother did. He's kindly allowed me to process it, and publish it on my blog. The photograph was taken this afternoon, while I was at work.

Every year around this time, the local ducks feel the need to breed and then waddle across the lawn, and sometimes across my lounge floor in search of food. This is one of the ducklings that hatched recently. I caught them having "swimming upstream" lessons on Sunday afternoon as I walked along the stream to the pond near my flat.

This is Ilford FP4 Plus 125 film in Silver Efex Pro with a 43% boost to the Structure and some variation on Split Toner 3.


Filed under  //   Leica   nature   photography  
April 20 2010
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Little Dandelion

Little Dandelion - 5.10mm at f/2, ISO 80, Shutter speed 1/400 second

I'm doing pretty well for a self-confessed disliker of flower photography. We really need to come up with a word for that. I was determined to effect the hell out of this one. Experimentation is a great thing, except when it comes to bad things. Goes without saying. I've seen photographs like this in magazines before. So now I know how it's done. If you find this image on my Flickr account and view it really large, the top of the Dandelion looks really amazing. It's like a whole other world up there. I was even tempted to crop it and zoom in, but I'll leave it as is for now. 
 
I think I'll keep experimenting with this sort of thing, and post my methods when I do. This image comes with the acoustic version of Dandelion by Audioslave, sung by Chris Cornell live at Shepherds Bush Empire on 2nd March 2009. A gig I attended and luckily someone recorded it and you can listen to this live recording on blip. Ahhh, the memories.


Filed under  //   Leica   nature   photography  
April 18 2010
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Below an Ashen Sky

Below an Ashen Sky - 7.4mm at f/3.2, ISO 80, Shutter speed 1/2000 second

It looks like mother nature has decided to give us another wonderful day of warm weather. I'm beginning to think it has something to do with the ash cloud. I forget who it was that suggested the Twitter tag #ashtag for following the real-time updates on Twitter, but it made me smile.

I took this photograph yesterday while walking around some farmland which is right next to a pretty busy main road. No crop circles with the lack of vegetation unfortunately. Actually that might be worth looking into in future. Photographing crop circles. I know what you're thinking: You need a plane for that, but I've seen some from hilltops that were perfectly photogenic. It might make an interesting summer project. Keep it realistic, by going for just one decent photograph. 

This image was processed with Capture One 5 Pro. What exactly did I do to the original RAW file? I changed the ICC Profile to "Leaf LF2 Product 5". That is all I did to this image. Capture One software sharpening is defaulted to be on, so all of the images I process have at least a mild amount of sharpening to make up for lens deficiencies, and that's a pretty standard change to make, so I don't mention it every single post.


Filed under  //   Hampshire   Leica   nature   photography  
April 18 2010
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Sweet Leaf

Sweet Leaf - 5.10mm at f/2, ISO 80, Shutter speed 1/2000 second

So everyone is taking photographs of flowers right now because it's Spring. I'm not a massive fan of taking photographs of flowers. Too much like still life for my liking, and there are a million photographs of flowers already on Flickr. Plus, mother nature has made sure that they all look pretty much the same. 

I found this Cherry Blossom tree (if that's what it is, I'm no nature buff) and I thought this shot turned out quite well, so I thought I'd share. It's actually using a Leaf camera system color profile. To be honest, if it wasn't for that, I wouldn't have bothered posting it. I love the colors that system delivers, especially in this image. I also love the rays of sunlight across the image. I can spot 3 distinct rays. How many can you see?

This photograph was taken with a Leica D-Lux 4.


Filed under  //   Hampshire   Leica   nature   photography  
April 17 2010
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And The Witch Is Coming To You

Hands All Under The Sea - 5.10mm at f/2, ISO 80, Shutter speed 1/2000 second

What a wonderful day it's been this Saturday. I almost get the impression god thinks it's a work day. I feel like I'm back living in Africa again with such a beautiful blue sky above us in Hampshire. Not a cloud in the sky. I was on my way back from a shopping mall, and just couldn't resist pulling over next to a wonderfully arid farmland to take some photographs of a very large tree left to grow right in the middle of one of the fields. I thought at the very least I'd get some usable black and white images. 
 
These two prints are from the same RAW file, nothing different there. I'm busy trialling Capture One Pro 5, and with it comes extra ICC profiles that you don't get with the non pro version.  These include camera systems such as Leaf  & Phase One. Phase One I think is awesome. I used the P45+ Outdoor Daylight ICC Profile for this image above and selected the High Contrast Film curve too. Beyond that, I pulled it into Photo Tools Pro and performed a very light cross process, OK it was 69%, but that's light when seen with the eye. That was a good starting point for my black and white below.
 
And The Witch Is Coming To You - 5.10mm at f/2, ISO 80, Shutter speed 1/2000 second
 
Once I'd cross processed the image I pulled it into Silver Efex Pro and used, what is starting to become a firm favourite with me, Ilford PAN F Plus 50 film and added some toning to the image using the Coffee 7 preset. There's a bit of a vignette going on there too to add a bit of dramatic atmosphere to the image and I think it does something to balance out the tones too. 
 
I have a lot more photographs from the half an hour I spent walking around and photographing things, so I'm sure this won't be the last time I post photographs of arid farmland and trees.
 
The Witch by The Cult - one of my favourite tunes.


Filed under  //   Hampshire   landscape   Leica   nature   photography  
April 17 2010
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Spring's Divine

Spring's Divine - 5.10mm at f/2, ISO 80, Shutter speed 1/1000 second

It's not often that I've learned about a particular compositional technique and then discovered the perfect opportunity to use it that very same day. So here you have it. I suppose Spring really has arrived, even if sometimes it doesn't actually feel or look like it. 

Shot with my Leica D-Lux 4 in the garden of  St John's Church which is across the road from Waterloo Station. Apart from my usual M8-fication in Capture One, this image is RAW straight from camera.

The title of this post was inspired by the Seal song "Love's Divine" 


Filed under  //   Leica   London   nature   photography  
April 6 2010
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