High Contrast Shooting

The weather last week here in the UK has been hot and with bright sun little cloud cover and high contrast, with more forecast to come.  Not something we are usually used to here in the UK, at least for more then a few days.

Modern lens are designed for high sharpness and high contrast.

But when shooting some subjects, either into the light, or at high noon, modern lens and high contrast scenes just do not mix.

Here in this woodland scene, the strong light was defused somewhat by the mist and its all been well handled by the Leica 50mm Summilux lens despite shooting into the sun.

Here close to noon in late May the bright sunlight was nearly too much. I wanted a black and white look but the contrast was difficult to handle, so I used the brushes in Lightroom to tone down some areas of the shot and brighten others.  Even so its far to contrasty and sharp to  be mistaken for a vintage image.

Here with its mix of modern architecture and bright colours, the high contrast seems to work.

Another image I have given the black and white treatment too. Again taken near noon during a walk with Timmy the Greyhound along the Fossdyke Canal. The high contrast of the scene has not really worked.

The last two images actual suite the high contrast. In particular inside of the church. In Adobe Lightroom and the original RAW file there was enough detail to remove the lost detail in the shadow but I decided to leave it with the high contrast and let the dark become lost.

Leica M10 underexposed

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