21 February

Portrait, Faces Of Maria: My First Photo On Manual

by Jon Katz

It’s only fitting that my first ever Leica photo on the manual setting was of Maria, drinking her tea at lunch. I love it, it speaks of her in several ways.

Today, during my fourth online Leica class, we decided I should go onto manual settings – no more autofocus – so I would get to use the Leica Monochrome more fully, and learn about its settings and features.

It will be more difficult, but I will learn more rapidly how to frame and capture a photo in any kind of light, inside or out. This one came out well.

It’s a new chapter in my relationship with the camera. I’m going to stay on manual for at least a month.

3 Comments

  1. Jon…
    Instant feedback: this is an area where digital has such an advantage over film.

    In film, when I wanted to test my control of settings made by intuition, I would shoot the picture and then wait for its development to obtain feedback on the selection. But by then, I had forgotten which pictures were shot on intuition, and what settings were used.

  2. these manual photos are interesting……..I am not seeing the sharply and crisply defined dark/light as in previous Leica photos……..I have no clue as to the Leica and how it works…….I’m just going on what my eyes *see*. Lovely photos…….and I know you are learning (and so happy you are doing this)…….I am just speaking of my minds eye when i see them…..perceived only from my eye. I feel as if I am learning to *see* as you are learning to photograph!
    Susan M

    1. Thanks, Susan, this is valuable to me and helpful, I appreciate your thoughts as they evolve. I’m not on auto focus anymore, but I like the lightness and the detail is strong, at least I think so. As I try different things, I’ll get different looks. Keep on sharing your reactions, please..

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