Leica M9 | Gage Caudell

The Leica M9 is not only known for its great color pics, it’s probably better known for its black and white images. I have to admit, the M9 does a phenomenal job of creating black and white pics. It’s hard to describe what it is but the M9 just has that extra touch when creating these type of images. I don’t routinely shoot in black and white while using the camera. I shoot in raw (uncompressed picture format) and then edit it with Niks Software Silver Efex Pro 2. If you like monochrome images, this is the software to purchase. I have owned just the aperture plugin and now own the Photoshop CS5 plugin and prefer having the Photoshop plugin because it just makes a new layer instead of altering the original pic like it does in Aperture.

Soon after purchasing my black M9 (I have not moved on to the M9-P) I traveled to Cleveland for a conference and on my way home I stopped and shot a few pics. This pic, originally in color was edited in Silver Efex Pro 2. Let me know what you think?

High Dynamic Range (HDR) Photography has gained a lot of interest in photography. HDR Photography is where you take multiple exposures of a image and then stack them on top of one another to create one picture. By doing this you create an image that often times is very similar to what our eyes see. Most digital cameras can do this by using the auto bracketing function. For best results you need to use at least 3 exposures. If you are shooting in very bright or low light then you often times need to use 5, 7, or 9 exposures. Unfortunately, you typically need a semi-pro or pro dSLR to do this.

After you take the pictures, you then need software to stack the pictures on one another. The best way I’ve found is using Photomatix or you can use Photoshop CS 5. If you want to see some great HDR pictures you need to check out Trey Ratcliff at Stuck in Customs. He does phenomenal work and has many tutorials.

My wife grew up outside a very small town in Southern Illinois called St. Francisville (well known for the scariest bridge to cross in Southern Illinois/Indiana). In March, we were there for my wife’s baby shower. There is a very old Catholic church that sits down town. I decided to take a 7 exposure HDR pic using my Leica M9. Most of the time when shooting in HDR you want to create a color image, I think in this case monochrome works very well.

I’ve posted other pics from this location on my Flickr and 500px sites. I recently traveled back and grabbed a few pics with my Leica M9. I’ve mentioned previously how much I like the bokeh of Leica lenses. In this picture you can see how well it focuses just a small portion of the foreground and completely blurs the background. There’s an old run down bridge in the background but is obviously difficult to see. The composition allows for some imagination of what is ahead.

One evening I thought I would use my Ikan LED light to shoot some daffodils. I love how well it illuminated the flower pedals. I was using my Leica M9 and the 90mm Summarit-M lens. Obviously, shooting in complete darkness can be challenging especially with a manual focus camera. I had to lay on the ground to get this shot and used a high aperture (f/2.5) to get the shot.

Soon, I hope to post more frequently. Having a 3.5 week old at home is making it difficult (sleep has become much more important).

I posted my first review today, a review of the Leica M9. Kept it short and sweet (there are already plenty of other reviews out there). Click here to read it.

Gage Caudell

Category Archives: Leica M9

The Crossing

Old Xavier Church

Unclear Path

Illuminate

Leica M9 Review

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