You'll probably be thinking, "What? Colours with the Monochrom? Don't tell me this is one of those pitiful attempts to put colours back into a Monochrom image yet again, or something like that...". No worries, with all due respect to any attempt to do art and to try something different and new, for the moment being when I want to shoot something in colour, I'd rather use a camera that shoots... well, colours. Today's post is about something different.
That the Leica M Monochrom (MM from now on) can only shoot black & white images is a well known fact, but today's question is: what kind of B&W does the Leica MM outputs, what about its tonal response? How does its images compare with "regular" colour digital images converted to B&W after the fact? And then, what about using real filters to modify a cameras B&W tonal response vs. using digital colour filters? I decided to investigate this a little further...
That the Leica M Monochrom (MM from now on) can only shoot black & white images is a well known fact, but today's question is: what kind of B&W does the Leica MM outputs, what about its tonal response? How does its images compare with "regular" colour digital images converted to B&W after the fact? And then, what about using real filters to modify a cameras B&W tonal response vs. using digital colour filters? I decided to investigate this a little further...
Let me start saying that, kinda like in the glorious old days of film when different films used to give you different tonal curves, the Leica MM default tonal response is not neutral (no digital camera or film is, actually), which - in the case of B&W images - would mean to be perfectly panchromatic (or equally sensitive to all wavelengths of visible light). Photographers using B&W film used to pore over how different film stocks would respond tonally to colours, choose whichever one best suited their need and vision for the job at hand and use filters on top of that to get what they wanted, such as dark(er) skies, pearly(er) skin tones and so on. Converting digital colour images to B&W in post processing, you can tune the tonal response of your B&W images playing with the amount of different colours in the B&W mix in post. With the Leica MM obviously you cannot do that as you would with a colour image, nor you can change film stock: the only way you can change its default tonal response is through the use of colour filters. There is no right or wrong, better or worse here, there is just you, the photographer, trying to realise your vision with the tools you have at your disposal: to do so, you need to know what your tools can or cannot do. So, what I set off to do was very simple: take a colour image of a Gretag chart, convert it to black & white, apply digital filters and compare the results with shots taken with the Leica MM, both unfiltered and using real colour filters. For the colour shots, using a Leica M9 would have been the best bet since it features exactly the same sensor as the Leica MM, minus the Bayer colour filter of course: but alas I don't have one at hand anymore, so the Nikon D800E had to do.
A couple of technical & methodological notes before we start. All images in this article have been shots in daylight, diffused window light coming from camera right; in order to compare metering between the two cameras I shoot them both in "A" mode with -1/3 exposure compensation. As well, I was interested in seeing whether using colour filters would fool the Leica MM's meter. Lenses used were the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S @ 70mm, f/5.6 on the Nikon D800E and the Voigtlander Heliar 75mm f/1.8 @ f/5.6 on the Leica MM, hence the slight difference in the chart magnification which I didn't compensate for in PP since it is irrelevant for the purpose of this test.
Spot white balance has been done on the Nikon D800E colour image in Capture NX2 clicking on the third grey spot from the left in the lower row; Nikon's "Standard" color profile has ben used. Black and white conversions have been done using the "Black & White" layer in Photoshop. The Leica MM images have been developed in Capture One; PhaseOne's "Film Standard" profile for the Leica MM has been used and obviously no digital filtering has been applied in Photoshop. The same Level settings have been applied in Photoshop to all B&W files, so that eventual differences in camera metering could be preserved.
OK, let's start! For those of you unfamiliar with a Gretag chart, here is a rather uninspiring shot of it, to be used both as a reference to see what colours look like with the Nikon D800E's Standard profile and to know which colour is where before converting the image to B&W:
Let's see now what a straight, untouched B&W conversion of this would look like:
Now, let's see what a Leica MM shot, without adding any filter, would look like:
First of all, you'll immediately notice how the Leica MM outputs a lower contrast file than the Nikon D800E, and how the Leica MM's meter exposes more generously than the Nikon D800E's. As far as the cameras' interpretation of colours, the Leica MM reminds me of Tri-X, probably my all-time favourite film (but I might be biased by my preference here); comparing the two images, it is immediately evident that the Leica MM is more sensitive to Yellow & Cyan and less sensitive to Red than the Nikon D800E: we can see here a very different color palette, or - to put it better - a very different tonal response in B&W between the two cameras.
OK. Let's see now what filtered images would look like. First, I simulated a Yellow/Orange filter for the Nikon D800E's image using Photoshop's "Black & White" layer:
Here you can see a Leica MM image taken with a real, B+W #40 Multi Coated Glass Filter - Yellow/Orange:
The differences between digital and real Yellow/Orange filters are evident. While the effect of both filters are similar in the Blues and Cyans, in the Oranges and Reds the digital filter is behaving very differently, outputting much lighter tones that the B+W #40 glass filter. For instance, you can see how the Yellow in the Nikon D800E is now lighter than the Leica MM's.
Finally, I simulated a Light Red filter for the Nikon D800E's image, again using the B&W layer in Photoshop:
Here's the Leica MM image shoot with a real, B+W #090 Multi Coated Glass Filter - Light Red:
I'll leave it to you to draw your own conclusions.
As a side note, I noticed that adding Orange and Red filters indeed fools the Leica MM's meter, which progressively underexposes the darker the added filter is. This shouldn't theoretically happen since the meter itself is TTL: the camera meters through the lens, and therefore through the filter, off diagonal grey strips painted on the shutter curtain. Since the filter's darkening effects should be already accounted for, it is clear to me that the meter's cell is differently sensitive to different wavelengths, underexposing progressively as the used filters get redder. It would be interesting to experiment with green filters instead and see what happens; if there is enough interest, I might get a green filter and do some tests with it as well.
As a conclusion, we all know that when converting digital colour images to B&W, we basically can push and pull the monochrome tones whichever way we please; simulating colour filters for digital B&W is a very easy and flexible way to get your monochromatic images to look the way you want. More, since you are doing so in post-processing you won't incur in any of the metering problems that using filter might trigger. However, with the Leica MM this is not possible, and you are left either with what Leica in its wisdom thought it would be good B&W tones, or with external, real filters to play with.
As a conclusion, we all know that when converting digital colour images to B&W, we basically can push and pull the monochrome tones whichever way we please; simulating colour filters for digital B&W is a very easy and flexible way to get your monochromatic images to look the way you want. More, since you are doing so in post-processing you won't incur in any of the metering problems that using filter might trigger. However, with the Leica MM this is not possible, and you are left either with what Leica in its wisdom thought it would be good B&W tones, or with external, real filters to play with.
Whether this is good or bad it really depends on what look and feel you are trying to achieve with your monochromatic images. Personally, I found Leica's own interpretation of what a B&W image should look like to be very pleasant to the eye out of the box; I find the Leica MM files to be wonderfully detailed and rich, and I find that Leica's conservative approach to contrast helps in allowing you to decide for yourself how you want your images to look; you can go from a vey ethereal look to a very gritty one on the same file in two clicks. Last, while for a long time film user like me the idea of adding colour filters sounds quite natural, I understand that for other people this might not be the case. However, if you have a Leica M Monochrom I'd definitely suggest you try: it's fun, and the results could be surprising.
Now for the technical stuff: the quick and dirty Leica MM shot at the beginning of this review have been taken with the Nikon COOLPIX P7700; light has been provided by two Nikon SB-700 Speedlight used as remote slaves on manual.
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