Family, Photography and other misc news
There is a lot going on in Lincoln at the moment. More university builds are going up, we have the new transport hub being build and the whole market and Cornhill area is now being redeveloped. I’ll be interested in what they do with the latter. Under the Cornhill they used to be a bar in the cellar, good drinks, good music; it was an odd place that attracted quite a mix of people from students, to rockers, punks and business men in their suits grabbing a decent drink before heading home.
If the rumours are true then this month is when Leica will finally announce the new M rangefinder, and i’ll have a key decision to make.
As I have said before on this blog, I want a new M for full frame, better high ISO performance and live view for situations that require critical focusing.
The new M is likely to be at the top of my list and I expect it to tick all the boxes; the surprise for people is the Type 262, this is for some people a budget and cut down Type 240, it lacks live view, has no movie mode but is smaller, lighter and has a better shutter. Last in my order of preference is the M240 or even the M240-P with the bigger buffer. This again ticks all the boxes but is a heavier camera.
It was a little warmer yesterday so on the commute into Lincoln I decided to go without the heated waistcoat underneath my biker jacket.
Caroline and I both had reasons to be in town but for different purposes and as Caroline had to head home at lunchtime we went on separate motorcycles.
Because of that I had plenty of room in the BMW GS’S top box, so took my Leica M8 (with M8.2 upgrades) with me.
After a very busy morning, and it was after one o’clock before I thought I had better get some fresh air, so I grabbed the camera and did a little street photography.
With its CCD sensor and extra sensitivity to infrared the M8 is the next best Black & White camera next to real film or a Leica Monochrom.
I took the time to take a few snaps before heading off to my favourite coffee shop.
Nikon D800
Nikkor 105mm f/2.8
105mm, 1/40 Sec at f/5.6, ISO1000
Post Processed in Adobe Lightroom CC2015.8
On a Mac Pro, OS-X 10.12.2
The new TL is now available, I still need to check but the external EVF thats available may also be the model that will fit the new Leica M.
I usually work up to Christmas Eve, but this year we finish today.
The blog is likely to be a little slow on the updates from now on but i’ll catch up by the new year.
Tonight we have the work Christmas party, then its no work till after Christmas.
More rumours and details of the new Leica M are starting to appear on line. So far nothing official from Leica but the news is a thinner body, a new control wheel on the top right, which some rumours is ISO, other some type of mode or exposure compensation. They are saying only three buttons on the back, it will have live view but no movie mode.
With the Leica SL its likely that the Leica M will more away from the jack of all trades the M240 attempted and failed to be.
With some images to finish off and a new version of Photoshop, I thought it was a good time to practice my selection editing and testing some of the improved features.
With the black dress and dark shadows this was a difficult selection. I sometimes wonder if instead of trying to get it right in camera it would be better to produce a flatter less contrasting image and do all of the effect in post production.
After installing my Creative Cloud updates on Thursday, today it was time to have a little play.
It was the new reference view that interested me the most.
Trying to edit two photographs to look the same style and lighting can be difficult, even when you sync the develop settings from one image to the next you can often still get differences which are difficult to correct for.
While you can use loupe view for selected images (N shortcut key) or compare two images (C shortcut key) you can just view them, not edit them.
Now in the development mode you can access (if you have the toolbar showing) the reference mode by clicking on icon marked RA. Your selected photo appears on the right and you can drag and drop a photo from the film strip at the bottom to the left hand pane to act as your reference photo. You can then access the developer settings as normal with them only acting on the righthand photo, to make it look like your reference photograph.
While catching up on a few music tutorials on YouTube, look what popped up! A new update from Adobe, I updated the laptop and also my mobile devices. Not had chance to see whats new but I’ll try and find some time tomorrow to dig into the updates and see whats improved. The mobile on the phones like a major improvement.
I am not updating my desktop computer yet as I have some work to do and need to know I can rely on the Lightroom that is currently installed.