Leica M-EMy new Leica M together with all of my M lenses are currently at the Leica factory to be calibrated. I noticed a backfocus issue when using the camera with several of the lenses, and the advice was to send everything back to the factory for adjustment. The Norwegian Leica importer was kind enough to lend me a Leica M-E with a Summarit 50mm lens until my own gear is back from service. The Leica M-E is derived from the M9 camera. It has fewer options but the sensor system is the same as the M9. I cannot get used to the finish on this camera, though. It feels strange - very different from the M8 and M8.2 I had before I got the new M. The M-E reminds me much of the M8.2. The same shutter sound and feel to the shutter release - which is the reason why I decided to skip the M9. The M-E is by all standards a very decent camera. However, when compared to the new M it is apparent that it represents the previous generation of Leica rangefinder cameras. Last weekend I picked up my new car: a 2014 Porsche Panamera Diesel "face lifted" edition. I took the picture with the M-E and Summarit 50mm while visiting Gaustadblikk on my first drive with the car.
To crop or not to cropOver the years I have practiced the principle to not crop a photo after capture, but instead strive as much as possible to capture a composition that would also be one in the final photo. Most of the photos on this site are not cropped, and this usually works for me. However, some times I capture a photo only to discover later a new composition in the original capture that I think is better than the one I initially envisioned. An example follows below. The whole photo as I originally envisioned and captured it with my Leica M 240 with Summilux 35mm FLE lens:
The cropped photo the way I decided to finalise it after spending quite some time figuring out why I didn't like the original composition:
These are now two radically different photos. The first one is to me a nice landscape photo. The second photo is an abstract / architecture photo. I like them both, but eventually the second photo is the one I decided to print and put on the wall. Let me know what you think! Enother Example follows below:
First studio lightThis summer I have had the opportunity (and finally time!) to start working on better understanding of available light photography, light modification using various kinds of scrims, diffusors and reflectors, and the use of multiple radio controlled electronic flashes. I did also upgrade my primary post processing toolchain to Adobe Lightroom 5, and that I must say has been a great improvement. Needless to say, but I have spent many hours shooting new photos, and re-processing older images using LR5 in order to practice and improve my skills using these tools. Understanding flash photography takes time and is about much more than automatic light control by the camera. The picture below was made using a Leica M-E with Summarit 50mm lens at f8.0 and lit by two Canon speed lights. The subject is my son, Bjarne. Each of the lights were attached to a Westcott Rapidbox softbox, measured individually using a light meter, and triggered remotely by a set of Pocket Wizard radios. The third spot flashlight I intended to give some backlighting to Bjarne's hair did not fire. I would have given some more separation, but with Bjarne's messy hair I guess it was OK after all. For a setup that took less than 10 minutes I guess this is a pretty acceptable result. So, I now have a basic setup and will add a set off backdrop curtains I can use to get better control of the overall background content of the photos. Some time over the next couple of weeks I will post updates on my progress with the backdrops. The Pocket Wizard radios are pretty good. Using a Sekonic L-478DR lightmeter I can remotely measure and control each of the flashlights one at the time. It works like a charm. The only challenge I am facing with this setup is that Pocket Wizard currently do not support full integration with Leica cameras. For this reason I cannot go faster than 1/90s X sync speed. When I work indoors this is not a problem. However, outdoor shooting in bright sunlight does. I'll do an experiment with ND filters on the lenses in order to see if that would give me acceptable setup. If not, I'll stick to available light photography outdoors on bright sunny days and use reflectors and diffusors instead. Regarding post processing. With the enhanced Develop module in LR5 I now try to do as much non-destructive editing natively in the Develop module. In this picture of Bjarne most basic editing post removal (including a lamp in the background!) was done using the Develop module. The final picture was afterwards processed by Portrait Professional 11, Google/NIK Color Efex Pro II, and finally Google/NIK Sharpener Pro III.
M 240 and a long over due web site overhaulMy photography web site has been due for overhaul for quite some time now. Photography has always been a hobby of mine. However, I always found other more important activities to do than to refresh the website. As a result the site was for a long time not updated with recent photos or blog entries. I addition, many photos already present on the site were in need of an update and a refreshing touch. My FB timeline was filling up, but the web site remained unchanged. I guess the main reason for an overhaul is a personal one: an urge to constantly improve techniques and apply new tools. Of course, new subjects, new tools (cameras, lenses, software, etc) and hopefully newly acquired skills and experience in digital post-processing made this urge unbearable over time. Over the last year I have upgraded entire tool chain now using Lightroom 5 as my primary RAW converter. I have added the entire NIK (now Google) photo processing suite, upgraded to Leica M 240 (after a fantastic year only using the Monochrom), developing Flash based galleries, started experimenting with studio flash systems, and available light portrait photography only using reflectors, scrims etc. I've been so busy having fun experimenting and learning that there was almost no time for publishing. So, here it is, an updated site: http://www.arnehelme.com, please enjoy and give feedback if you see something you enjoy! The site will continue to be a work-in-progress project as this overhaul only got me 30% through the site. However, I feel that with this recent overhaul there's much for quality content available. I have also reestablished an incentive and passion for keeping this project going, and that does it for me! This year, the shift to M 240 was a major one for me. The camera feels like a quantum lead forwards for M style photography. The new smooth and low noise shutter alone justifies this shift for me. Of course, there are not only positive things. As we speak my whole M system is on its way back to the factory for recalibration of the rangefinder. Unfortunately, the camera I got is backfousing. While the system is at the factory I have borrowed an M-E. A fine camera, but after having used the M 240 for a while it is very difficult to look back. I usually do black & white photography, but I really like the colours of the M 240. During my recent trip to Italy I had the chance to practice landscape shooting in beautiful surrounding (Montemagno, Tuscany). The following three photos were shote using Leica M 240 with Summilux 35mm FLE:
As I mentioned initially the M 240 that I got is back ocusing. Especially using the lenses such as the 1.4/50mm ASPH, the Summilux 75mm, and the 3.4/135mm it became apparent to me that a recalibration of the system was required. It was a bit tricky to track this down, but statistically I had significantly more shots with a back focus using the new camera than I had with a demo M 240 I used earlier this year. The Electronic Viewfinder came to good use and showed convincingly that the rangefinder was back focusing. The following portrait of my sister was shot after I had identified the back focus issues. I used the EV2 external electronic viewfinder on the M 240 to obtain good focus of the Summilux 75mm at f1.4. There's quite a lot post-processing in this picture, but it is apparent that the focus of the Summilux 75mm is spot on.
Arne
Hot soup night!Ingenting er vel som et godt lag med gode venner, god mat, med god drikke til. Da jeg ble oppfordret av Kim Saxvik til å bidra til gjennomføring av en "hot soup night" var jeg ikke sen om å takke ja til invitasjonen. Et godt lag i denne sammenhengen er kollegaene Kim Saxvik, David Lewis, Carl Jacob Rustad, samt Stian Danenbarger i fra IT-selskapet Bouvet. God mat er naturligvis suppe, og de må være "hotte" - jeg valgte en grønnsakssuppe til forrett og en kyllingsuppe til hovedrett. God drikke for en slik kveld er selvsagt øl; Kim kjøpte Coronas mens de øvrige dukket opp med et betydelig antall øltyper i fra norske mikrobryggerier som jeg aldri hør har hørt navnet på. So far so good!
En slik kveld er også en god anledning til å praktisere bruk av Leica Monochrom. Bildene i dette inlegget er samtlige tatt med fantastiske Summilux-M 1.4/35mm ASPH. FLE objektivet ved full blenderåpning. ISO verdien varierte mellom 640 og 1600, jeg lar kameraet kontrollere dette automatisk helt opp til ISO 6400. Leica Monochrom har reviatlisert mitt forhold til fotografi - det er en sann glede og privilegie å kunne bruke et slikt fint instrument.
Jeg får en del spørsmål om hvorvidt Monochrom bildene som jeg publiserer er blitt manipulerte i Photoshop, og svaret er at det er de i ganske stort omfang. RAW-format (DNG) filene som Monochrom produserer omfatter en betydelig mengde informasjon som må behandles av fotografen i etterkant for å kunne uttrykke fotografens beste intensjon med innholdet. Selv bruker jeg Adobe Lightroom, Nik Silver Efex II og Nik Sharpener II Pro til dette formålet. Fotografens privilegie er å fortolke den digitale informasjonen i fra kameraet på best mulig måte, og en annen fotograf vil naturligvis kunne gi en helt annen fortolkning av innholdet enn den jeg har gjort her.
Til forrett laget jeg en variant av "Grønn var vår barndoms suppe", en hot brokkoli- og hvitløkssuppe. Brokkolisuppe både smaker godt og har en spennende farge/konsistens. Med en halv habanero i blir det det også en hot soup. Nedenfor er oppskriften gjengitt med referanse til den originale oppskriften: Ingredienser (for 3-4) personer:
Fremgangsmåte: Jeg fulgte fremgangsmåten gitt her, men finhakket en halv habanero sammen med hvitløken.
Til hovedrett laget jeg en Indonesisk peanøttsuppe. Dette er en oppskrift jeg fanget opp mens jeg bodde i Nederland (1992-2005). Som kjent var Indonesia tidligere en av mange Nederlandske kolonier. Av den grunn finnes det i dag i Nederland et stort mangfold av matkulturer, og det var altså slik jeg kom over denne lille perlen. Suppen har jeg servert til venner og bekjente over lengre tid. Det har alltid vært en suksess. Nedenfor er oppskriften på peanøttsuppen gjengitt etter beste evne: Ingredienser (for 3-4 personer):
Fremgangsmåte: Skrell og kutt potenene i terningstore biter. Skjær og hakk den hvite og lysegrønne delen av purreløk og vårløk i små biter. Skjær habanera/chili i små biter (eller eventuelt bruk Habaneraen hel). Ha smør i en stor gryte. Stek potetbitene, purreløk, vårløk og chili på mellomhøy varme i 5-10 minutter til det er blitt gjennommykt og fruktig. Skjær kyllingfieltene i terningstore biter og tilsett disse. Rør jevnlig og stek til kylligbitene ser gjennomstekte ut. Tilsett hønsebuljongen og la det hele koke lett i 5-10 minutter. Tilsett så Ketjap Manis og peanøttsmøret. Sistnevnte er klebrig - så du må røre godt slik at alt peanøttsmøret løses opp i suppen. Smak det hele til med salt og pepper. Suppen skal være sterk og med en tydelig høns/peanøtt smak. Føy eventuelt til litt mer hønsebuljong om suppoen blir for tykk. (Fjern den hele habaneraen). Suppen serveres med hardkokte egg og pitabrød som er blitt varmet i ovnen. Måten jeg pleier å servere på er at jeg tar et egg, deler det i skiver med en eggedeler, vender de 90 grader og deler en gang til slik at egget blir delt i små biter. Disse legger jeg midt på suppetallerkenen slik at jeg kan heller suppen over.
Takk for en hyggelig kveld og mange flotte diskusjoner! |
